In this explainer

Nine years, not twenty. That is how long California now guarantees a new rooftop solar customer's billing rules, under the net billing tariff that replaced net metering.

General information, not professional financial, tax, legal, or insurance advice. The Dreamy Leads Research is an editorial and data team, not a licensed advisor.

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Chapters

  1. 0:00 New California solar customers keep their billing rules for 9 years, not 20.
  2. 0:12 I. The export credit
  3. 0:40 II. NEM 2.0 vs net billing
  4. 1:09 III. Rate plans and the bonus
  5. 1:35 IV. What self-use avoids
  6. 1:54 V. The evening hours
  7. 2:14 VI. The federal credit

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Full transcript

I. The export credit

Since April fifteenth, twenty twenty-three, new solar customers of PG&E, SCE and SDG&E go on net billing, under a December twenty twenty-two CPUC decision. Under net metering, exported power earned the retail rate. Now it earns the grid value of that power, which the CPUC says is usually lower, though it can rise above retail on late summer evenings.

II. NEM 2.0 vs net billing

The CPUC's comparison shows the rest. Net billing bills monthly instead of yearly, with credits rolling to an annual true-up. It guarantees the tariff for nine years, against twenty for net metering. Systems can be sized to annual load plus up to fifty percent, if the need is attested. The interconnection fee, ninety-four to one hundred forty-five dollars, is unchanged.

III. Rate plans and the bonus

Net billing also requires an electrification time-of-use rate: E-Elec at PG&E, T-O-U-D-Prime at SCE, and E-V-T-O-U-five at SDG&E. PG&E and SCE households that apply before the end of twenty twenty-seven get slightly higher export credits for nine years. SDG&E is excluded; the CPUC says its higher rates already mean more bill savings.

IV. What self-use avoids

Self-use matters because grid power here is expensive. California's average residential rate is about thirty-four cents a kilowatt-hour, per federal Energy Information Administration data for July twenty twenty-six, against about eighteen nationally.

V. The evening hours

That is where batteries come in. The CPUC says nearly seventy percent of net billing customers had paired one with their solar by the end of twenty twenty-four. Stored power can cover the evening, when SCE prices peak on summer weekdays from four to nine p.m.

VI. The federal credit

One more twenty twenty-six change. The IRS says its thirty percent residential clean energy credit is not available for property placed in service after December thirty-first, twenty twenty-five. The full tracker is free at Dreamy Leads Research. What California city are you in, and which time-of-use rate plan is your solar on? Tell us in the comments.

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