Journal ·
Pasadena Water and Power: What a Home Buyer Takes On With the House
A house inside Pasadena city limits buys its electricity and its water from Pasadena Water and Power, a city department rather than an investor-owned utility. That changes four things a buyer would otherwise take for granted. Rates are set by the City Council in a municipal ordinance, not by the state utilities commission. The electric bill carries a city utility tax and an undergrounding surtax that add about 12 percent to every electric bill, and a second tax above 1,000 kWh. Outdoor watering has been limited to two days a week in summer and one in winter since September 2021. And a rooftop solar system is paid under the city's own rule, Pasadena Municipal Code 13.04.177, not under the state commission's net billing tariff, which binds only the investor-owned utilities. The numbers below come from PWP's rate card dated September 28, 2026, unless another source is named.
Which utility serves the house: PWP, or a neighbor's
PWP's own description on its Who We Are page draws the line: it "provides electricity to more than 65,000 customers within Pasadena" and delivers water "to almost 38,000 households and businesses in Pasadena and adjacent communities in the San Gabriel Valley." The water system page names them: a service area "of 26 square miles in Pasadena, Altadena and San Gabriel," fed by 14 reservoirs and about 500 miles of pipe.
So the electric map and the water map are different shapes. A house in Pasadena gets both from PWP. A house over the line in unincorporated Altadena or in San Gabriel may get PWP water while its electricity comes from a different utility entirely. The listing will not say this; the seller's bills will.
How the water bill is built, tier by tier
Water has two parts. The fixed charge depends on meter size: for a ¾-inch or ⅝-inch meter it is $47.15 a month, or $94.30 on a bi-monthly bill. It is owed whether or not a drop is used, so a vacant house under renovation still pays it.
The variable charge is priced per hundred cubic feet, a unit PWP's rate card calls an HCF, equal to 748 gallons. For a single-family home the monthly blocks on the rate card with water rates effective July 1, 2026 are $2.74458 for the first 7 HCF, $7.23544 from 7 to 29 HCF, and $7.86867 above 29. The second tier costs more than two and a half times the first, and the line between them sits at 7 units a month, so the seller's summer bills show which side of it the house lives on.
Sewer rides on the same bill and the same meter: a fixed $7.24 plus $0.76 per HCF, and for residential accounts the volumetric part is "capped at 13 HCF monthly." The utility users tax described below applies to the water service charge as well as the electric one.
Where the electric bill jumps: the 350 and 750 kWh lines
PWP's residential rate R-1 has a fixed side and three charges per kilowatt-hour. Fixed, on the winter card effective October 1, 2026: a $12.60 customer charge plus a $7.50 grid access fee, so $20.10 before any energy is used. Per kWh, every unit carries an energy charge of 9.380 cents and a transmission charge of 1.609 cents.
The distribution charge is where the structure bites, because it is tiered by monthly use: 4.170 cents for the first 350 kWh, 16.682 cents for the next 400, and 30.027 cents for everything above 750 kWh in the month. Add the flat charges and the marginal kilowatt-hour above 750 costs about 41 cents before taxes, against about 15 cents for the first 350. A house with central air and an electric vehicle charger lives in that top block for months at a time.
Two city documents disagree. The 2026 Electric Rate Adjustment page describes a 7 percent system-average increase with examples built on an $11.00 customer charge and a $6.50 grid access charge, and its per-kWh lines do not match the card either; the rate card dated September 28, 2026 prints $12.60 and $7.50. The card is the document PWP labels as effective, so this article uses it. PWP's rates page adds that it calculates the Power Cost Adjustment "each month" under Municipal Code 13.04.173, with changes landing on the following month's first day, so the energy line moves on its own.
The taxes and surcharges that sit under the rate
None of these appear in the rate tiers, and together they are the reason a Pasadena bill reads higher than the kWh math suggests.
| Line on the bill | Rate | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Utility Users Tax | 7.67% | Electric and water service charges |
| S.L.A.T.S. (streetlights and traffic signals tax) | 7.43% | Electric charges; first 1,000 kWh per month exempt |
| Underground Surtax | 4.34% on the first $1,000, then 3.70%, 2.47% and 1.21% in higher brackets | Electric charge only |
| Public Benefit Charge | $0.00685 per kWh | All kWh |
| State Environmental Surcharge | $0.00030 per kWh | All kWh |
| Green Power Premium (optional) | $1.80 per 100 kWh block, or 1.8 cents per kWh for "All Green" | Customers who opt in |
How many days a week can the yard be watered?
Two in summer, one in winter, and that has been the rule for five years. PWP's watering schedule page states that "Pasadena has been in a Level 2 Water Supply Shortage Plan effective Sep 2021." Under Level 2, from April 1 through October 31 even-numbered addresses water on Mondays and Thursdays and odd-numbered addresses on Tuesdays and Fridays. The city's chart of the four shortage levels shows one day a week in winter at Level 2, and a duty to repair leaks and breaks within 48 hours of notification, against 72 hours at Level 1 and 36 at Level 3.
Underneath the shortage plan sit permanent prohibitions that do not switch off: no outdoor watering between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. except by hand, with a shut-off nozzle, or briefly to adjust a sprinkler, no watering within 48 hours after significant rain, and no runoff onto the sidewalk or the neighbor's lot. The ordinance, in place since 2009, is Chapter 13.10 of the Municipal Code. Drip zones where no emitter exceeds 2 gallons an hour, edible plants and tree health are exempt.
What happens to a solar system when the house changes hands
PWP is a publicly owned utility, so the net billing tariff the state commission imposed on the investor-owned utilities on April 15, 2023, the tariff commonly called NEM 3.0, does not reach it. Its program is set by the City Council under Municipal Code 13.04.177, and the net surplus compensation page explains the two options. On annual net metering the customer is billed once a year, and any surplus is credited "at a rate equal to PWP's average Energy Charge rate during that year, plus 2.5¢ per kWh" for the renewable energy credits. On monthly or bi-monthly net metering the surplus earns the energy charge plus 2.5 cents plus "an additional 6.6¢ per kWh."
Two details change a purchase. First, compensation is a bill credit, but the page allows a cash-out "when the value exceeds $50 or when you close your electric account," so a seller who closes the account with a credit on it can take the cash instead of leaving it behind. Second, the page does not say whether an enrollment carries over to a new account holder, so a buyer should confirm with PWP Solar at (626) 744-4495 before the contingency period ends. The Burbank version of the same problem, with different cutoff dates, is in selling a house with solar in Burbank.
How to put the utilities in your name at closing
Service is requested through an online Start Service Request or by phone, and the start service page gives the timing: "Processing this application takes two (2) business days," connections happen Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a requested date depends on availability. The standard connection fee is $26.94; same-day service raises it to $80.84. A valid Social Security number is required for the primary applicant, and every applicant must be 18 or older and pass ID verification. For an escrow that closes on a Friday, that means filing the request by the Tuesday before, and the connection date is still subject to availability.
What this means for a buyer, and for a seller
For a buyer, the two numbers to pull from the seller's bills are the highest monthly kWh in the past year and the highest water HCF, because the tier lines at 750 kWh and 7 HCF say more about the running cost than the square footage does.
For a seller preparing to sell, a solar system with an annual net metering credit is an asset with a cash-out date. A home valuation that ignores a 30-cent top-block distribution rate overstates what the next owner can afford to run. The same questions for the two other city utilities in Alla's area are in Burbank Water and Power versus LADWP and Glendale Water and Power for buyers.
This article summarizes Pasadena Water and Power's rate card dated September 28, 2026 (water rates effective July 1, 2026, electric winter rates effective October 1, 2026), PWP program pages as published on October 17, 2026, and Pasadena Municipal Code Title 13. Rates are set by Council ordinance and the Power Cost Adjustment changes monthly; confirm current figures with PWP Customer Service. This is not legal or financial advice. Call Alla at (818) 699-5367 or use the enquiry form.
More on this community in the Pasadena area guide.