Jan. 6, 2026 — Olympia, Wash. — The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved rate increases for Puget Sound Energy (PSE) customers effective January 1, 2026, resulting in roughly a 12% hike for electric rates and 7% for natural gas rates across PSE’s service territory, including Redmond and Eastside communities in King County.
The changes, announced in a UTC news release on December 31, 2025, following decisions on December 23, will add about $17 per month to bills for the average residential electric customer using 800 kWh, and $6.50 for natural gas customers using 64 therms per month who were connected before July 25, 2021.
PSE serves 1.2 million electric customers and nearly 900,000 natural gas customers in 10 Central and Western Washington counties.
The rate adjustments recover costs associated with Climate Commitment Act (CCA) compliance, including purchases of emission allowances; shifts to clean energy under the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA); investments in reliability and safety; and low-income bill assistance programs. PSE’s energy unit costs rose 59% between 2025 and 2026.
Detailed electric impacts from UTC dockets include a $28.04 monthly increase (20.27%) from power costs in UE-250747, offset by reductions like $10.08 (7.28%) from no-cost allowances in UE-250901 and $3.04 (2.2%) from removing Colstrip costs in UE-250733, netting $16.84 (12.18%). For gas, docket UG-250843 adds $5.24 (5.31%) for CCA costs.
Commission staff reviewed and confirmed PSE’s requests were justified, and after hearing from commenters including customers, the commission approved them.
Local outlets, including the Redmond Reporter, Kent Reporter, and Valley Record, carried syndicated coverage by Steve Hunter published January 2, 2026, highlighting impacts on King County residents.
The UTC also confirmed the changes on Facebook.
Online reactions included complaints about the hikes:
Full docket details are available through the UTC website.
