SoCalGas Annual Consolidated Rate Update Filing

SoCalGas recently filed Advice Letter 6548-G (available here), its Annual Regulatory Account Balance Update, which projects the company’s revenue requirement and natural gas transportation rates, effective January 1, 2026.

Note that this is SoCalGas’s initial consolidated update – a final, more comprehensive version will be filed in late December.

For the time being, SoCalGas projects a net $30.5 million decrease in its 2026 transportation revenue requirement relative to current levels. Major drivers include large decreases in the Core Fixed Cost Account, the Greenhouse Gas Balancing Account (GHGBA), the Residential Uncollectible Balancing Account, and the elimination of Morongo Right of Way Memorandum Account amortization.

SoCalGas anticipates that core customers will see a $161.1 million decrease, while noncore customers will see a $34.8 million increase, primarily due to a higher Noncore Fixed Cost Account undercollection.

Massive BTS Increase

Rates for backbone transportation service will likely see a major increase ($208.2 million) because SoCalGas is no longer amortizing a large prior overcollection in the Backbone Transmission Balancing Account.

For now, this increase is projected at a whopping 51.2%, although previous SoCalGas filings have suggested it will not quite reach that level. The company’s final consolidated advice-letter filing in December will provide greater clarity.

Additional key components include a $4 million increase in company-use and unaccounted-for gas costs due to a higher 2026 gas price forecast ($5.11/MMBtu) and a GHG revenue requirement of $453 million, offset by a projected $140.4 million GHGBA overcollection.

SoCalGas also proposes to refund $231 million in climate credit allowance proceeds in April 2026. Post-Test-Year adjustments from SoCalGas’s 2024 General Rate Case set the base margin at $3.9 billion and forecasted Pipeline Safety Enhancement Plan revenue requirements for 2026 are slightly lower than 2025 levels.

Below are illustrative rates that SoCalGas provided. Parties have until November 4 to protest this filing.