Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) reported full-year 2025 core earnings of $1.50 per share, which CEO Patti Poppe said landed at the midpoint of the company’s guidance range and represented 10% growth from 2024. Poppe said 2025 marked the company’s fourth consecutive year of double-digit core EPS growth, driven by what management described as disciplined execution under its “simple, affordable model” focused on safety, reliability, and customer affordability.
Guidance raised for 2026; long-term growth reaffirmed
Poppe said the company is “raising and tightening” its 2026 core EPS guidance range by increasing the low end by $0.02. The updated range is now $1.64 to $1.66, which implies 10% EPS growth at the midpoint. Poppe also reaffirmed PG&E’s longer-term growth outlook of 9%+ annually from 2027 through 2030, noting that the company will continue its practice of basing future growth on actual earnings.
Safety, reliability, and wildfire mitigation updates
On operational performance, Poppe highlighted what she described as best-ever safety metrics in 2025, including a 43% reduction in serious injuries and fatalities versus 2024 and a 30% improvement in the serious preventable motor vehicle incident rate. On reliability, she said system-wide performance measured by SAIDI improved by 19% year-over-year.
In wildfire mitigation, management said ignitions were down 43% in 2025, contributing to a third consecutive year without a major fire caused by PG&E equipment. Poppe said the company expects to further expand continuous monitoring capabilities in 2026, including using SmartMeters to anticipate failures.
Poppe also announced the launch of Emberpoint, a venture between Lockheed Martin and PG&E Corporation. She said Emberpoint is intended to integrate next-generation wildfire solutions, combining PG&E’s wildfire mitigation experience with Lockheed Martin’s prediction and detection capabilities and “military-grade equipment and tools.” Poppe said the goal is “speed to safety” and noted Emberpoint could provide a pathway to return some savings to customers over time. Separately, she noted PG&E is a main sponsor of XPRIZE Wildfire, where five finalists in an autonomous response track are expected to demonstrate systems this summer designed to detect and suppress high-risk fires in a test zone within minutes.
On infrastructure hardening, Poppe said the California Public Utilities Commission voted in December on revised guidelines for utility undergrounding plans, which she described as a key step toward filing PG&E’s 10-year plan with the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety (OEIS), likely in the third quarter. She said CPUC guidelines provide a path for the company to file for approximately 5,000 additional miles of undergrounding over 10 years starting in 2028, adding to 1,900 miles expected to be completed by the end of 2027. Combined with overhead hardening, Poppe said PG&E’s system hardening plans through 2037 would total nearly 11,000 miles, covering more than three-quarters of high fire threat district miles based on current modeling.
Affordability focus: rate reductions and updated bill trajectory target
Poppe repeatedly emphasized affordability, pointing to a January 1 reduction in bundled residential electric rates—described as PG&E’s fourth electric rate decrease in two years—along with lower gas rates. She said, combined with prior decreases, bundled residential electric rates are now 11% lower than January 2024, translating to about $20 less per month for a typical customer.
Looking further out, Poppe said that if the pending 2027 general rate case (GRC) were approved as filed, combined gas and electric bills would be flat to down compared to 2025. She also said the company is updating its “simple, affordable model” to reflect a new target future customer bill trajectory of 0% to 3%, supported by two “amplified” enablers: non-fuel operations and maintenance savings and electric load growth.
Chief Financial Officer Carolyn Burke said non-fuel O&M was reduced by 2.5% in 2025, marking the fourth consecutive year the company exceeded its target. She said the updated model now reflects an O&M savings target of 2% to 4% (up from a prior 2% target), and she emphasized the savings target is after absorbing inflation and other cost pressures.
Data centers and load growth; capital plan and financing framework
Management said rate-reducing load growth—particularly from data centers—represents an additional opportunity to improve affordability. Poppe said projects in the final engineering stage now total nearly 3.6 gigawatts, up 2 gigawatts from the prior quarter. She cited a ribbon cutting at the Equinix Great Oaks South Data Center in San Jose as an example of the company’s efforts to deliver timely power to large users under a joint implementation agreement with the city.
Poppe said PG&E sees potential savings of “1% or more” on average monthly electric bills for each gigawatt of large load, contingent on “getting the pricing right,” and reiterated that demonstrating savings for core bundled customers is “non-negotiable.” In response to analyst questions, management said its expectations for load growth now include 1.8 gigawatts online by 2030, up from a prior expectation of about 1.5 gigawatts. Poppe also noted continued electric vehicle demand, citing 18% EV penetration in the final quarter of the year even after incentives went away.
Burke said there was no change to the company’s $73 billion five-year capital plan, and management continued to reference at least $5 billion of capital opportunities outside the plan, much of it described as FERC-jurisdictional and tied to enabling load growth. In discussing options for that incremental capital, Burke said the “least likely” path would be increasing the plan at the current valuation discount, while a more likely approach would be “making the plan better” by prioritizing capital associated with new load that could improve customer bills.
On financing, Burke presented a five-year plan that she said requires no new common equity through 2030 and prioritizes maintaining investment-grade ratings, including sustaining FFO to debt in the “mid-teens.” Burke said the company doubled its annual share dividend to $0.20 for 2026 and expects consistent increases in the next two years, targeting a 20% dividend payout by 2028 and holding that level through 2030. She also cited expected 2026 utility debt issuance of up to $4.6 billion and noted parent-level debt would remain below 10% through 2030, potentially including instruments such as junior subordinated notes.
Burke added that Fitch upgraded PG&E to investment grade in the fall and said Moody’s and S&P had indicated financial metrics are meeting investment-grade criteria, with those agencies focused on progress related to wildfire policy reform.
Wildfire policy reform and cost recovery proceedings
Wildfire liability reform remained a central topic in analyst questions. Poppe said the California Earthquake Authority stakeholder process for SB 254 Phase 2 is progressing and “tracking towards” a report and recommendations to the governor and legislature by April 1, while emphasizing that the report would be the beginning of a legislative process rather than the end. She said the company is encouraged the process is proceeding as outlined and stressed the need for a construct where investors can “quantify and price the risk.”
Poppe told analysts the company supports taking the time to “get it right” during the legislative session, saying the key is achieving the correct outcome this year. She also said the company is “ringing that bell in every corner of California” about what management views as the importance of attracting low-cost capital under an investor-owned utility model. When asked about capital allocation priorities if progress on SB 254 were to stall, Poppe said all aspects of the plan would be “on the table,” but did not rank specific levers.
On regulatory proceedings, Poppe discussed the Kincade and Dixie cost recovery case, which she described as the first catastrophic wildfire proceeding involving a presumption of prudency. She said PG&E is seeking review of costs paid by the Wildfire Fund associated with the fires, describing more than $1 billion in claims and referencing $674 million in costs, along with recovery of WEMA costs of about $1.6 billion and CEMA costs of about $314 million. Poppe said the company held a valid safety certificate for both events and believes it has made a strong case supported by the facts.
In closing remarks, Poppe reiterated themes from the prepared presentation, saying safety, reliability, customer satisfaction, earnings, and rates all moved in the right direction in 2025.
About Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG)
Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE: PCG) is an investor-owned utility holding company whose principal operating subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, provides electricity and natural gas service in northern and central California. The company’s core activities include the generation, procurement, transmission and distribution of electric power, as well as the transmission and distribution of natural gas. PG&E serves a broad mix of residential, commercial, and industrial customers across urban and rural communities within its California service territory.
PG&E’s operations encompass utility infrastructure planning and construction, grid operations, customer service and energy procurement.
