Utilities do not generally get tax breaks, or direct funding. What they do is endure regulated rates and low profit margins in return for a low risk business (e.g. getting a legal monopoly). Forcing them to bear massive, unlimited risk, while having their rates regulated to ensure modest profits totally breaks the model.
At the end of the day, we depend on private capital to build our electric grid. It’s not public money building power lines and transmission stations. There is a business case for investing in a utility, where you might eke out 5-10% profits, but are guaranteed that your business won’t be obsolete tomorrow or be in the hook for huge liabilities. That can be an alternative to investing in say something like Facebook where you’ve got 25% profit margins but a business that could be obsolete in face of the next new thing. Low profits and massive risk of your shares becoming worthless makes it very unattractive to investing in that infrastructure.
The "private capital" you're talking about is largely on top of the massive funds from government sources. In most countries it was entirely built out by central governments.
Re: taxes - please look at your line items and notices the various "fees" you're charged.
I think the problem here is that you believe that utilities should be generating massive profits. Given they're backed by the state - PG&E literally got laws made to retroactively reduce their liability - then any profit that they make or distribute is tax payer money.
Let's put this super simply:
Let's say the company makes $X a profit, and distributes $Y to shareholder and executive remuneration (annually).
After N years they have made N$X, given out N$Y to owners, etc, their bank balance is Z=N($X-$Y) (obviously exact amounts change year to year, but we're being simple here). If Z is less than 0 then they've been running at a loss for N years, and we'd have no problem saying they should go bankrupt - they would have long since lost the ability to get loans, etc.
Now, let's say this is a public utility, then their annual profit is made up of:
1. Revenue in the form of below market resources costs (e.g. they don't pay market rates for land)
2. Revenue from state granted fees
3. Other tax related subsidies
So lets put these altogether and say $X = (actual profit) + $T (T=tax payer).
So after N years, they've received N$T funds. So if their bank balance is below $T, and $Y is greater than zero, they have been running at a loss, and they've been paying out the owners with tax payer money. Eg. they are taking tax money that is intended to support the utility and divesting it.
This is what PG&E did.
They took fees, and they took tax payer money. Then they "reduced" their expenses by reducing maintenance. That gave them a "profit" they divested to private interests. Now, when the costs of their failure to maintain infrastructure came due they couldn't afford it. Which means they're now taking even more tax payer money. Even if the company is taken apart, that money doesn't cover the costs they have inflicted.
I believe may be confusing investor-owned utilities like PG&E with government-owned public utilities. PG&E does not receive taxpayer money. They are a private company such that their entire revenue stream is dictated by a government commission [1]. The commision-fixed pricing benefits the consumer because we pay less than what electricity is "actually worth". The drawback is that PG&E cannot afford to mitigate risks such as forest fires. Presumably, if the "true price" of electricity included the costs required to prevent forest fires, it would be significantly higher.
At the end of the day, we depend on private capital to build our electric grid. It’s not public money building power lines and transmission stations. There is a business case for investing in a utility, where you might eke out 5-10% profits, but are guaranteed that your business won’t be obsolete tomorrow or be in the hook for huge liabilities. That can be an alternative to investing in say something like Facebook where you’ve got 25% profit margins but a business that could be obsolete in face of the next new thing. Low profits and massive risk of your shares becoming worthless makes it very unattractive to investing in that infrastructure.