(OIL PRICE) – Consumers in California have seen their electricity bills surge in recent years and double over the past decade as utilities are investing more in wildfire prevention and transmission lines to accommodate growing renewable energy output.
As these utilities invest billions of U.S. dollars to make the grid more resilient, they pass the higher spending on to consumers. So Califrnia now has the second-highest average electricity bill in the United States, second only to Hawaii.
California is looking to rapidly shift away from fossil fuels and make its grid more resilient, but these efforts show the other side of the greening of the grid—power generation costs may be plunging, but transmission and distribution costs are rising, leading to higher spending from utilities.
