Utility regulators in California on Thursday changed how most residents will pay for energy by adding a new fixed monthly charge and lowering the rates that apply to energy use. Officials said the shift would reduce monthly bills for millions of residents and support the use of electric vehicles and appliances that run on electricity, rather than fossil fuels.

The decision by the California Public Utilities Commission will apply to the rates charged by investor-owned utilities, which provide power to about 70 percent of the state. Starting next year, most customers of those companies will be required to pay a $24.15 monthly charge. Low-income customers will pay $6 to $12 a month.

Regulators said the revenue from the fixed charge would be paired with a roughly 20 percent reduction in rates assessed by how many kilowatts of energy were used per hour by a home or business. (The average American home uses around 1,000 kilowatt-hours in a month.) California’s residential electric rates, which averaged 31.2 cents per kilowatt-hour in February, are the highest in the country after Hawaii, where rates were about 44 cents, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. The national average in February was 16.1 cents.

Some energy experts have argued that California’s high rates for energy use are very likely discouraging some people from buying electric vehicles, heat pumps and induction stoves to replace cars and appliances that run on gasoline and natural gas.

“This new billing structure puts us further on the path toward a decarbonized future, while enhancing affordability for low-income customers and those most impacted from climate change-driven heat events,” said Alice Reynolds, president of the utilities commission.

Utility companies across the country have long pushed for fixed charges to help cover the cost of maintaining and improving grid equipment like power lines and substations. Those improvements have become more critical in recent years as storms and heat waves tax the grid, and people and businesses use more electricity to power electric vehicles, heat pumps and data centers.

Other states already use fixed charges to help cover the cost of utility equipment. But regulators in some places have moved to reduce those charges because they can discourage people from using energy more efficiently. It could also prevent property owners from adding solar panels to their roofs because doing so will not save them as much money since a part of their bill doesn’t change regardless of how much energy they use or produce.

“It is universally recognized, based on decades of experience and study, that the fixed charge will increase costs for Californians who use the least energy and reward those who use the most,” said Edson Perez, the California policy lead for Advanced Energy United, a group whose members include power producers, solar panel installers and businesses that use electricity. “It will mean less solar energy and fewer home batteries. And it will mean fewer of the smart, flexible devices, from thermostats to E.V. chargers, that can help the grid when we need it most.”

Apple doesn’t make mistakes often and seldom apologizes, but on Thursday, its head of advertising said the company had erred in making a new iPad commercial that showed an industrial compressor flattening tools for art, music and creativity.

“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” said Tor Myhren, the company’s vice president of marketing communications, in a statement provided to the publication AdAge. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

Mr. Myhren said Apple would no longer run the ad on TV.

The company had faced a barrage of criticism from designers, actors and artists who saw the ad as a metaphor for how Big Tech has cashed in on their work by crushing or co-opting the artistic tools that humanity has used for centuries.

They found the crushing of a trumpet, piano, paints and a sculpture particularly unnerving at a time when artists fear that generative artificial intelligence, which can write poetry and create movies, might take away their jobs.

Apple had intended the ad to send the opposite message, that its ultrathin iPad Pro could power an array of creative activities that previously required individual tools.

Apple introduced the iPad commercial, called “Crush,” on Tuesday after revealing an update to its tablet lineup. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a post on X that it was a thin, advanced and powerful device. “Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create,” he wrote.

The reversal joins a series of rare apologies by Apple over the past 15 years, including one in 2012 from Mr. Cook for the shortcomings of its new Maps app. The app’s problems included incorrect directions and the wrong location for certain landmarks.

Mr. Cook’s apology for Maps broke with Apple’s previous policy of resisting pressure after mistakes. In 2010, Apple was criticized for releasing an iPhone that would drop calls. Steve Jobs, the company’s co-founder and Mr. Cook’s predecessor, went on the offensive, saying at a news conference that the problem was not the phone but the way some customers were holding it.

The company, which had spent decades encouraging filmmakers, musicians and artists to use its devices, heard an immediate outcry from that group.