Volume I. Part I - California Public Utilities Commission

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PG&E anticipates adding approximately 85,000 new electric customers per
year over the next several years. Of these new customers, approximately 75,000 will
be new residential customers, with the remainder being new small and medium
commercial customers. The strongest expected growth in the residential sector
continues to be centered in the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Foothills regions. This
presents a real challenge for PG&E procurement planning since these areas have high
summer temperatures and the air conditioning saturation rates in these areas tend to be
very high. The 2004 Residential Appliance Survey conducted by the CEC and the
IOUs indicates that 8 out of 10 new homes are equipped with central air conditioning.
This is roughly double the air conditioning saturation rate of existing homes in the
PG&E service territory. 58
PG&E’s non-residential customers represent a wide range of business types
and end-uses. No one business type or end-use dominates non-residential electric
consumption in the PG&E service territory. Going forward, PG&E’s expectation is
that the trend in the northern California economy away from its traditional
manufacturing and agricultural base and towards a services based economy will
continue. This will result in continuing growth in electric consumption in the small
and medium commercial market segments and stagnant to declining growth in the
industrial and agricultural market segments.
For the past two decades, PG&E has experienced peak load growth, on
average, of approximately 2% per year. Looking forward, PG&E expects that,
consistent with EAP II, peak load growth will be somewhat lower than its historic
mean due to increasing emphasis on customer energy efficiency through both utility-
sponsored programs and statewide building and construction standards, as well as
incentives to promote market acceptance of small scale self-generation technologies
such as the California Solar Initiative.
2. PG&E’s Transmission System
PG&E’s electric transmission system consists of approximately 18,500 miles
of transmission line and cable with nominal voltages of 500 kilovolts (“kV”), 230 kV,
115 kV, 70 kV and 60 kV. The 500 kV and 230 kV lines are often referred to as the
58 California Statewide Appliance Saturation Study – Final Report – Executive Summary,
Publication Number 400-04-009, June 2004, page 23.
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