PG&E’s ‘Green Bond’ Transaction to Save Customers $300 Million While Helping to Strengthen Electric Grid, Protect California Forests
November 30 2022 - 2:42PM
Business Wire
Company’s Second Green Bond Issuance Brings
Significant Customer Savings When Compared to Traditional Utility
Financing
As a significant milestone in its work to provide affordable,
safe and reliable energy to its customers, Pacific Gas and Electric
Company (the Utility), through its subsidiary PG&E Recovery
Funding, LLC, recently finalized a $983.4 million green bond
issuance to finance electric work that will have significant
environmental benefits while also keeping its customers and
hometowns safe.
PG&E Recovery Funding issued the bonds to finance a variety
of wildfire safety investments that the Utility has made in its
electric system. The bonds were recently designated as green bonds
following an analysis by S&P Global Ratings. Green bonds are a
designation for capital project financings with environmental
benefits. This is the Utility’s second green bond offering, with
the first coming in November 2021.
In conducting its analysis of the bond issuance, S&P Global
Ratings noted that the Utility’s ongoing safety work would have
environmental benefits by hardening the electric system and
preventing the ignition and spread of wildfires, therefore
preserving the health of California’s forests, and maintaining the
existing state of natural ecosystems.
“PG&E is committed to delivering on the triple bottom line
of serving people, the planet and California’s prosperity. This
means continuing our long history of environmental stewardship
while also working to keep energy affordable for our customers.
These green bonds allow us to save money for customers while
completing critical safety work that has long-term environmental
benefit for the hometowns we serve,” said Chris Foster, PG&E
Corporation’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer.
In addition to the environmental benefits, financing critical
wildfire safety work through the recovery bonds authorized by
California Assembly Bill 1054 will result in significant customer
savings due to the lower cost of securitization when compared to
traditional utility financing. The most recent transaction is
estimated to result in approximately $300 million of customer
savings on a net present value basis relative to traditional rate
base financing.
The investments financed by these green bonds include electric
system improvements and hardening efforts found within Pacific Gas
and Electric Company’s Community Wildfire Safety Program. These
investments have been authorized by the California Public Utilities
Commission through the utility’s 2020 General Rate Case, as well as
its Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric
utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square
miles in Northern and Central California. For more information,
visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are
not historical facts, including statements about the beliefs,
expectations, estimates, future plans and strategies of PG&E
Corporation and the Utility (together, “PG&E”), including but
not limited to the issuance of green bonds and their environmental,
financial and operational impacts. These statements are based on
current expectations and assumptions, which management believes are
reasonable, and on information currently available to management,
but are necessarily subject to various risks and uncertainties. In
addition to the risk that these assumptions prove to be inaccurate,
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those contemplated by the forward-looking statements include
factors disclosed in PG&E Corporation and the Utility's joint
annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020,
their most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter
ended September 30, 2021, and other reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on PG&E
Corporation's website at pgecorp.com and on the SEC website at
www.sec.gov. PG&E Corporation and the Utility undertake no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether due to new information, future events or
otherwise, except to the extent required by law.
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