California household electricity costs have been climbing in the last decade and are the second highest in the country; today, more than half of Californians say that the rising cost of natural gas and electric utility bills is a major problem for them. In fact, the state’s three investor-owned electric utility providers (IOUs) report that in April 2025, 1.9 million households had overdue electricity bills, and as many as 50,000 had service disconnected as a result. How much of a cost burden are electricity bills, and what strategies are available to help low-income households afford this basic need?

California households report being charged about 1.8% of annual income for electricity, at the median. For those with incomes under 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL)—or $74,000 for a family of four in 2025—this bill is typically about 4.4% of annual income (2023 estimate). Households earning more typically pay 1.5% of income. In a pilot program designed to reduce service disconnections, the state has experimented with setting 4% of income as a maximum share to bill low-income customers for electricity.

In other words, about half of low-income families currently have electricity costs that exceed this threshold.

Rising household electricity costs in California over the past decade have largely outpaced rising incomes for low- and middle-income families. Just before the pandemic, income was beginning to catch up with costs for low-income households, but the high cost burden of electricity bills jumped between 2019 and 2021—for everyone.

Geography also plays an important role, highlighted in the California Public Utilities Commission’s efforts to monitor the affordability of utility bills. Electricity is least affordable to households in hotter zones—specifically in parts of the Inland Empire, San Joaquin Valley, and the state’s northern region.

California’s social safety net includes mechanisms for making electricity more affordable for low-income households, such as covering debt on past-due bills and helping customers use less electricity. Key to these efforts are discounts through the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) and the Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) programs. CARE alone enrolls around 3 million households served by the IOUs; these providers estimate that nearly all eligible customers are enrolled.

The state also uses the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant to give around 151,000 households access to one-time funds that offset heating and cooling costs—but many more are income-eligible.

At the local level, the IOUs run assistance programs, such as one-time funds for very low-income households; some community-based organizations (for example, LA’s Chinatown Service Center) also provide one-time funds.

The highest levels of assistance from all sources could help a low-income household fully cover the annual cost of a mid-sized electricity bill, while the lowest level of assistance would reduce costs by 45%. In reality, most see less assistance than the low level, since only a fraction of eligible households receive LIHEAP and many households have larger bills.

Households that receive assistance make up a substantial proportion of those whose service has been disconnected.

Ensuring that families can afford basic utilities requires a balance between setting rates and charges and making subsidies available. While surcharges on higher-income ratepayers fund the most widespread assistance programs, other programs are vulnerable to changes in state and federal budgets. The number of households that can access LIHEAP, for example, depends on the size and continued funding of the block grant.

Going forward, state policymakers will face challenging decisions related to electricity costs, at a time when a constrained state budget may narrow the options available to support low-income families in meeting their basic utility needs.