PG&E and the other utilities largely ignored a lot of grid maintenance prior to ~2000. As a result, not much was spent on maintenance and prices were pretty stable. The past ~20 years, stuff started breaking and they have had to put a lot more money into maintaining the grid. This cost gets pushed onto customers in the form of higher rates. Plus, energy demand has largely flattened, so the maintenance costs cannot be offset by selling more power.
Electric cars should solve the "flattening demand" problem, but that will require expanding the grid to cover a lot more parking lots, particularly for apartment/condo residents.
