observation
Peak Six Made My PG&E Gas Bill Worse
A door-to-door gas supplier pitch turned into eight months of fixed charges on my PG&E bill.
A Peak Six salesperson knocked on my door and asked me to switch my gas supply. The pitch sounded simple: Peak Six would supply the gas, PG&E would still deliver it, and I’d get cheaper gas.
That’s not what happened.
The Evidence
The expensive part wasn’t a leak or higher usage. It was this line on my PG&E bill:
PEAK SIX POWER AND GAS LLC Gas Procurement Charges: $43.00That line appeared on eight bills. I grouped them into before, during, and after Peak Six. This is anonymized — I removed account numbers, addresses, bill PDFs, and service-account details.
| Period | Bills | Supplier shown on bill | Therms used | Total gas cost | Supplier fixed charges | Effective cost per therm | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before Peak Six | 5 | PG&E | 59 | $156.93 | $0.00 | $2.66 | Normal PG&E gas, excluding the climate-credit month. |
| During Peak Six | 8 | Peak Six + PG&E delivery | 85 | $533.78 | $344.00 | $6.28 | Every bill had a $43 Peak Six gas procurement charge. |
| After Peak Six | 3 | PG&E | 34 | $82.27 | $0.00 | $2.42 | Peak Six disappeared, and the effective cost dropped. |
Eight bills at $43 each is $344 in fixed supplier charges — not PG&E delivery, not meter reading, not pipeline maintenance. On top of that, PG&E still charged for everything it continued to provide.
The house used 85 therms during those eight months. That works out to $4.05 per therm just for the Peak Six fixed charge, before the rest of the bill.
The Monthly Breakdown
| Bill month | Gas period | Therms | Peak Six charge | Fixed charge per therm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2025 | Jul 2-Jul 31 | 8 | $43.00 | $5.38 |
| Aug 2025 | Aug 1-Aug 29 | 9 | $43.00 | $4.78 |
| Sep 2025 | Aug 30-Sep 30 | 10 | $43.00 | $4.30 |
| Oct 2025 | Oct 1-Oct 30 | 10 | $43.00 | $4.30 |
| Nov 2025 | Oct 31-Dec 2 | 10 | $43.00 | $4.30 |
| Dec 2025 | Dec 3-Dec 31 | 9 | $43.00 | $4.78 |
| Jan 2026 | Jan 1-Feb 2 | 16 | $43.00 | $2.69 |
| Feb 2026 | Feb 3-Mar 4 | 13 | $43.00 | $3.31 |
January was the best month: 16 therms, and the fixed charge alone was still $2.69 per therm before the rest of the bill. The house didn’t use much gas, and the plan added a fixed charge that made every therm expensive regardless.
What PG&E Probably Would Have Cost
I can’t know the exact PG&E-only bill without rerunning each month at PG&E’s gas procurement rate for that period. But after Peak Six ended, normal PG&E gas cost me $2.42 per therm.
At that rate, 85 therms would have cost about $205.67. I paid $533.78 — roughly $328 extra. Using my adjusted pre-Peak Six rate of $2.66 per therm puts the estimate at about $308 extra. Either way, I wasted about $308–$328 by using Peak Six, and almost all of it came from the fixed monthly charge.
Why The Pitch Can Be Confusing
PG&E calls this Core Gas Aggregation. It lets customers buy gas from a third-party supplier (called a Core Transport Agent). PG&E still delivers the gas, reads the meter, handles maintenance, and manages emergency response — the third-party only replaces the gas procurement portion of the bill.
The sales pitch sounds like “we replace PG&E for gas.” The actual bill works more like “we replace one line item on your PG&E bill, and PG&E still charges you for everything else.” For a low-gas house, that distinction is expensive.
When Peak Six Might Work
Peak Six only makes sense if the fixed monthly charge is cheaper than the PG&E gas procurement cost it replaces. My charge was $43 per month.
| PG&E gas procurement cost | Monthly usage needed to break even |
|---|---|
| $0.75/therm | 58 therms |
| $1.00/therm | 43 therms |
| $1.50/therm | 29 therms |
| $2.00/therm | 22 therms |
My Peak Six months averaged 10.6 therms. At 10 therms, a $43 fixed charge is already $4.30 per therm before anything else on the bill.
Peak Six might make sense for a bigger house with gas heating, gas water heating, gas cooking, bad insulation, or heavy year-round usage. It might also work for someone who wants a predictable bill and doesn’t mind a higher average cost. Neither described this house.
The electric side has a different version of the same lesson: in my San Francisco solar numbers, the tariff details matter more than the sales pitch.
What The Problem Was
Peak Six didn’t secretly take over the whole PG&E bill. The problem was that the pitch made the supplier switch sound like a cheaper gas plan, while the bill showed something else. Peak Six replaced the gas procurement portion, PG&E still charged for delivery and service, and the fixed monthly charge was too high for my actual usage. That’s the whole story.
What I’d Check Next Time
Before signing anything like this, I’d ask one question:
Will I still pay PG&E delivery charges, and what exact monthly charge will your company add?Then I’d check the breakeven against my actual usage. For this house, Peak Six was the wrong product.