Pacific Power Asks California for a 57 Percent Rate Increase to Pay for Wildfire Work

The application asks for an overall rate of return of 7.96 percent and a return on equity of 10.5 percent, on a 50/50 capital structure.

How the company would soften the landing

The filing's mitigation design starts with time: deferred balances would be recovered over six years under a six-year amortization. Those balances are about $93.8 million for wildfire-mitigation work and about $11.1 million for wildfire insurance premiums, and the amortizations add about $19.8 million a year.

A two-step price change separates the base change from the Washington transfer adjustment, which adds about $1.4 million only when the transfer closes, expected by April 1, 2027. Customers would also receive a credit of about $1.6 million, California's share of the sale's goodwill value.

Separately, a 14 percent decrease takes effect on January 1, 2027, trimming bills by about $31 a month per the Journal. That offset does not reduce the 57 percent figure itself. About one-third of the company's California customers receive low-income discounts, the Journal reported, and the company's CARE program gives eligible customers a discount of 25 percent or more.

A second, separate request for past fire costs

A separate application, filed in February 2026 under docket A.26-02-021, asks to recover wildfire liabilities and legal expenses for the Slater Fire in 2020 and the McKinney Fire in 2022.

The commission's customer notice puts that wildfire expense request at $34.5 million a year, an 18.8 percent increase overall. A residential customer using 850 kilowatt-hours a month would pay about $39.17 more per month in 2027, the notice says.

The notice says the costs would be financed with recovery bonds over 15 years beginning in 2027.

The utility's equipment has allegedly been tied to both fires, and PacifiCorp disputes responsibility for the blazes. The Journal reported about $637 million in liability claims and legal expenses from the two fires, with $340.5 million sought from customers. The Journal reported the Slater Fire burned more than 150,000 acres and killed two people, and the McKinney Fire burned 60,000 acres and killed four.

As background, PacifiCorp agreed in February 2026 to pay $575 million to settle federal claims over six wildfires, including Slater and McKinney, while continuing to deny liability, the Justice Department said.

The two requests must not be added together into a single bill figure. They are separate applications, with separate bill figures stated on separate bases, and regulators will consider both proposals in 2027, the Journal reported.

How unusual the ask is, and what happened last time

The Journal characterized the 57 percent request as one of the largest-ever such requests by an investor-owned U.S. utility, after a 24.4 percent increase took effect in 2024. Through September 2026, utilities had requested more than $23 billion in rate increases this year, the Journal reported, citing PowerLines data, after $31 billion in 2025. In the past two years, some of the highest requests ranged from 12 percent to the high-20 percent range.

Utah offers the nearest precedent inside the same company. Rocky Mountain Power, another PacifiCorp unit, proposed 29 percent there, the Journal reported, then lowered its request and received about 4 percent by settlement.

“We recognize the magnitude of this request, and protecting communities is the right thing to do. Doing nothing is not an option,” he told the Journal, calling the requests “the beginning of a process.”

The Journal also reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom's bid to reduce utilities' wildfire-liability exposure recently failed in the legislature. Warren Buffett warned in 2024, “We will not knowingly throw good money after bad.”

What remains unknown

No response from consumer advocates or state officials appears in the sources checked for this article. Whether any group will oppose the request, and on what terms, is not yet known.

What the commission will approve is unknown, and so is the final bill effect for any household. Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to the Journal's request for comment, and PacifiCorp is unlisted, so no share price reaction exists to report.

What the 2027 proceedings will decide

What to watch: the commission's handling of both applications during 2027, and whether the separate 14 percent decrease takes effect on January 1, 2027 as described.

Watch also for the first advocate response and any change to the requested 10.5 percent return. The Utah gap, 29 percent asked and about 4 percent received, is the precedent for this case.