Fresno restaurant hit with $21K PG&E bill

FRESNO, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – With the extreme heat many, are concerned about the cost of keeping cool.

Manny Perales, owner of Yosemite Falls Cafe, says he was hit with a $21,000 PG&E bill just last month.

“I have an accounting specialist that’s assigned to Yosemite Falls and I was reviewing the bill and asked her how can it go from $0.14 per kilowatt to 50 some-odd dollars per kilowatt?” he said. “She goes, ‘No, no, no. You’re reading that wrong it’s got to be $0.53 during peak,’ and I said, ‘No, can you pull up the bill, please,’ and she was blown away”.

To save money Perales has had to take measures to conserve electricity.

Just this week he decided to close his dining area for several days a week.

Perales isn’t the only one feeling the pinch of energy costs.

At the start of the year, PG&E’s rates went up 12.8% for its 16 million customers in the state after the California Public Utilities Commission approved the rate increase request in 2023.

Jeff Smith with PG&E says the utility company can’t comment on individual clients’ bills but says they are always working with small businesses to manage costs.

“A solution is to look at the balanced payment program. And what that does is balance your payment all across all 12 months. So you don’t have those spikes in the summer months when energy usage here in the Central Valley tends to spike” said Smith.

For now, Perales says he will find a way to pay that $21,000 tab without drastically increasing his prices.

“What am I supposed to do charge $35 for a hamburger or a sandwich just to make up? You just can’t do that,” said Perales.

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