OAKLAND, CA — Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced Tuesday that its Power Saver Rewards program, which it described as having "a significant impact" on California's energy grid, will be permanently discontinued on December 31, 2025, marking what executives called "a resounding victory for common sense."
The program, which paid customers small amounts of money to reduce electricity usage during peak demand periods, reportedly worked so well that PG&E decided the logical next step was to kill it entirely.
"The energy saved by our customers over the past three years has been truly remarkable," said Jennifer Hastings, PG&E's Director of Programs We're Definitely Canceling. "Which is exactly why we can't let this continue. Our shareholders didn't invest in a power company so people could use less electricity."
The program was administered by Olivine, Inc. with ClimateResponse®, which was contracted by PG&E, which is overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission, which is funded by California utility customers, who were saving money through a program they were technically paying for themselves. The elegant simplicity of this arrangement was apparently too efficient to maintain.
"When people work together, small changes can have a big impact," the termination email cheerfully noted, before explaining that this particular togetherness would need to stop immediately so everyone could work separately again.
PG&E graciously encouraged former Power Saver Rewards participants to explore other energy-saving options, such as the Automated Response Technology program, which will presumably also be shut down in 2028 after achieving tremendous success, or simply learning to sit in the dark during heat waves like previous generations.
"We're not saying goodbye to demand response programs," Hastings clarified. "We're just saying goodbye to this one specific program that was working. It's completely different."
Industry analysts noted that PG&E's decision to end a functional program follows the company's longstanding tradition of bold innovation, such as that time they successfully burned down Paradise, California, and that other time they caused rolling blackouts across the state, and that additional time they exploded a neighborhood in San Bruno.
"The three-year pilot really gave us valuable data," said program coordinator Marcus Chen, referring to the Emergency Load Reduction Program authorized through Decision 23-12-005. "Mainly, we learned that customers will participate in programs that benefit them. Horrifying stuff. We had to pull the plug before people started expecting energy companies to operate in their interest."
The termination email, which featured links in seven languages and a legal disclaimer three times longer than the actual message, thanked customers for their participation with the kind of warm, corporate gratitude typically reserved for notifying someone their gym is closing but their membership payments will continue.
At press time, PG&E announced plans to launch an exciting new program in 2026 that will charge customers a small fee for the privilege of reducing their electricity usage during peak demand periods, calling it "the future of customer choice."