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Patricia Poppe
Patricia Poppe PCG
Chief Executive Officer & Director, PG&E Corp
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KENOTE BY Patti Poppe CEO PG&E

📅 Sep 27, 2026 Accelerating the Transition 24 MIN 10 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Patricia Poppe's keynote session focuses on PG&E's pivotal role in the clean energy transition, emphasizing a “triple bottom line” ...

What Patricia Poppe said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Patricia Poppe opened PG&E's keynote at Accelerating the Transition, framing the utility's mission around a 'triple bottom line' serving people, planet, and California's prosperity, which she said is guided by 'leading with love.' She claimed PG&E has reduced rates five times in two years while improving reliability by 19% and cutting vulnerable customers' bills 23%. Poppe argued the investor-owned utility model lowers costs through improved credit metrics and increased grid utilization, noting California household energy spending is 2.6% of spend versus a 3% national average. She positioned AI data center growth, with over 10 gigawatts of applications, as a funding source for grid rebuilding, stating each gigawatt cuts all customers' bills 1%. Poppe promoted undergrounding power lines, citing lower maintenance costs, and progress on a continuous monitoring system. She endorsed Diablo Canyon's extension, highlighting its 2.2 gigawatts and urging the state legislature to decide on extending operations past 2030.

Key takeaways

  1. PG&E has cut rates five times in two years, improved reliability by 19%, and reduced most vulnerable customers' bills by 23%.
  2. Over 10 gigawatts of data center demand applications could cut all customers' bills 10% if priced right.
  3. Each gigawatt of new demand on PG&E's grid lowers all customers' bills by 1%.
  4. Diablo Canyon, at 2.2 gigawatts, must be extended beyond 2030 by state legislature decision.
  5. Undergrounding 10,000 miles of power lines is more affordable because infrastructure is amortized over 55 years versus annual vegetation management.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
5 rate reductions in two years commitment 3:42
19% reliability improvement metric 3:42
23% reduction in bills for most vulnerable customers metric 7:08
2.6% household spend on energy in California metric 7:57
45% current grid utilization metric 7:57
10 gigawatts applications for new AI data center demand metric 11:07
1% bill reduction per gigawatt of new demand metric 11:07
2.2 gigawatts Diablo Canyon's capacity metric 15:39
10,000 miles power lines to be buried commitment 18:48
$14 billion infrastructure investment equivalent to $2 billion in expense metric 18:48

Chapters

  1. 0:00Triple bottom line mission
  2. 7:08Rate reductions and reliability
  3. 7:57Investor-owned utility model
  4. 11:07Data center demand opportunity
  5. 13:24Hydro and renewable capacity
  6. 15:39Diablo Canyon extension
  7. 18:48Undergrounding power lines
  8. 21:13Grid modernization and sensors
John 0:00 ↗
But my pleasure now is to introduce Patty Poppe. She's the chief executive officer of PG&E Corporation and serves on the boards for PG&E Corporation and its utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Prior to joining PG&E, Patty spent five years as president and CEO of CMS Energy and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Energy, thereby earning the distinction of being the first woman to serve as CEO of two Fortune 500 companies. Excuse me. Now, I believe she is one of only two women with that distinction. While at Consumers Energy, Consumers Energy went from being lowest in customer satisfaction to being number one. And she developed a reputation for supporting renewable energy development and a culture of safety. Patty Poppe took over at PG&E in 2021 at a troubled time for the utility. The company had just emerged from bankruptcy and it had had four previous CEOs in the space of about a year. Patty moved quickly to align the company's goals with California's clean energy mandates, aiming for net zero carbon energy generating systems by 2045. Patty is, well, under her leadership, PG&E is now proud to deliver some of the nation's cleanest electric power. In 2024, PG&E supplied 98% greenhouse gas-free electricity to its residential and business customers. In addition, in keeping with her focus on safety, one of her first priorities at PG&E in 2021 was the creation of a wildfire mitigation plan. She then launched a massive initiative to underground 10,000 miles of power lines in high-risk areas to permanently reduce wildfire risk. She also implemented AI-enabled cameras and enhanced power line safety settings that automatically shut off power when objects hit lines, reducing ignitions by 64% or 65% in 2024 alone. As a result, in 2025, PG&E was recognized by the Stanford Woods Institute of the Environment as one of the top utilities in the nation for wildfire safety. She also aligned the company with California's clean energy mandates, aiming for a net zero energy system by 2040. PG&E is the main corporate sponsor of our event and it is my pleasure now to welcome Patty Poppe to the conference for a keynote presentation. Thank you very much.

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Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Poppe, P. (2026, September 27). KENOTE BY Patti Poppe CEO PG&E [Interview transcript]. Accelerating the Transition. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2939583/

MLA

Patricia Poppe. "KENOTE BY Patti Poppe CEO PG&E." Accelerating the Transition, 27 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2939583/.

BibTeX 
@misc{poppe2026_2939583,
  author       = {Patricia Poppe},
  title        = {KENOTE BY Patti Poppe CEO PG\&E},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Accelerating the Transition. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {sep},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2939583/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}