California utility PG&E announced a $73-billion capital expenditure plan covering the next five years, with investments targeting infrastructure upgrades to support growing demand for electricity in its territory, particularly from data centers.
The strategy was discussed by company executives in a Sept. 29 call with investors. The investment also includes the utility’s participation in the state’s expanded wildfire fund. PG&E serves about 5.3-million electricity customers, along with 4.6-million customers for natural gas, in 47 of California’s 58 counties.
“This is the year we show customers that rates are going down, and this is a year to focus on serving our large load customers and enabling rate-reducing load growth,” said Patricia Poppe, the utility’s chief executive. “I’m happy to report that while many have been focused on the California legislative process, my PG&E coworkers have been busy executing, making these plans a reality and leveraging our performance playbook to deliver consistent outcomes for customers and investors.”
PG&E earlier this year said its grid modernization efforts would include developing and deploying distribution planning tools such as advanced distribution management systems, and distributed energy resource management systems, to enable better grid management. The utility in a plan filed in March for the 2026-2028 period said it wants to build about 700 miles of underground power lines, and complete 500 miles of additional wildfire safety system upgrades, between this year and next.