San Jose Water Company (SJW), a subsidiary of SJW Group

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

San Jose Water Company (SJW), a subsidiary of SJW Group operates as a private investor-owned utility serving Greater San Jose metropolitan area, including portions of San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Campbell, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, and contiguous Santa Clara County territory. Customers should use the provider’s current account-specific bill and official customer-service instructions as the final authority for deadlines, balances, and service requests.

The published water-rate framework is described as Increasing conservation tiers plus a meter-size service charge under CPUC-approved Schedule 1 General Meter Service. For 2026 residential customers with a 5/8- or 3/4-inch meter, the CPUC rate materials show approximately $73.23 per month service charge and quantity rates of $4.3617/CCF for 0–6 CCF per month, $6.5100/CCF for over 6 through 12 CCF, and $12.4341/CCF above 12 CCF. A 5% San Jose utility-users tax applies to applicable City accounts, and the bill also includes CPUC-authorized surcharges such as CAP, Safe Drinking Water, reimbursement, M-WRAM, and time-limited Valley Water pass-through charges. Effective July 1, 2026, SJW states that a 3/4-inch customer using 10 CCF per month sees about $4.86 per month of additional wholesale/pass-through and smart-meter-related impact compared with the prior period.. Bills are generated most residential and business customers are billed bi-monthly under the company’s common general meter service schedule, although tariff service charges are expressed per month and some account configurations can differ. sjw’s bill describes a billing-period date range and current/previous meter readings; customers should follow the due date printed on the individual statement., and a typical residential cost reference is Approximately $115–$145 per month for a typical 5/8- or 3/4-inch residential account using about 5,000–7,000 gallons (roughly 6.7–9.4 CCF) before CAP assistance, depending on the billing period, applicable taxes, surcharges, and the July 2026 pass-through. The 2026 tariff components are a roughly $73.23 monthly service charge plus first- and second-tier quantity charges; the company’s published July 2026 comparison says a 3/4-inch customer at 10 CCF receives an additional $4.86 monthly impact from the new pass-through period. SJW is a water retailer; sewer charges are generally billed by a separate municipal or local sanitary agency.. These descriptions are useful planning benchmarks; actual charges can change with meter size, usage, sewer averaging, local taxes, drought stages, or account-specific fees.

Wastewater and sewer calculation

San Jose Water Company’s PWS and customer bills cover retail drinking-water service, not a universal SJW wastewater charge. Sewer and wastewater billing is handled by the customer’s local city or sanitary district, so there is no single SJW winter-average, flat-percentage, or water-intake sewer formula to apply across the entire PWS service territory. Customers should identify the separate sewer agency on their municipal bill or property account; SJW quantity charges themselves are based on metered CCF water consumption.

Meter and infrastructure notes

SJW is installing smart meters across its service territory from 2024 through 2027. Once installed, customers can view daily usage, monitor consumption, set unusual-use or potential-leak alerts, and use SJWaterHUB tools to understand bills. Until the rollout reaches a property, the system remains mixed smart/legacy metering with field or remote reads; SJW’s high-bill process uses meter readings and may arrange a Field Service investigation. Residential accounts are generally billed bi-monthly, and the bill records current and previous readings for the billing period.