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The utilities see this future and want to kill it in the crib. The key to that is making it uneconomical for many to choose solar. The interesting fight is that CA requires new homes to have solar. The utilities would like to the CPUC to declare that the solar power from your roof is NOT yours...

That is still to be determined. There are many proposals and “studies” to consider. I think it’s clear that exports will not be paid for at retail rates. New buyers will get less back than they pay for power in the same time period. Battery storage will be important going forward. You will be...

A Motion to Reconsider has been filed. It only got 27 votes. 27 against, 25 not voting. Maybe it’s dead meat.

Now it’s on to NEM 3.0.

These “studies” intermix the legitimate subsidy argument, from not paying grid fees on actual grid imports, with an argument that it’s basically unfair to invest in solar and get a decent payback. I agree that solar owners should pay for grid electricity they use under the same rate schedule...

Yes, it’s additive. The purpose of it is clearly stated. The more you avoid their grid power with solar, the less you are paying for their grid. They assume that solar customers are avoiding about 50% of their grid power needs, so they average the “lost” grid fees over all the solar panels the...

Read the fine print in their proposal. If too many start using storage and pulling less power after hours, they will demand a higher Grid Benefits Charge. You won’t stop paying them.

You forgot the Grid Benefits Charge. See Table 12. PG&E wants $10.93 per kW of system size per month. For your system that could be a 7kW system, so pay them an extra $76.51 per month. It’s all in the document. They want a grid fee for your self-consumed power.

I’ve read those reports and the IOU proposal. The fairness argument is way overplayed. The retail rate compensation is too generous to solar owners, but those reports lard that up with bogus accounting. They assume we should pay grid fees for power that stays behind the meter. That’s crazy. We...

It’s essentially a solar panel TAX that goes to support the investors in the utility. The amount of the charge will be adjusted to make sure they get the money the want.

They propose to assess you a Grid Benefits Charge based on the size of your solar system. They consider that a proxy for your usage.

Maybe a Solar Bill of Rights ballot proposition would be useful to cut this nonsense short. The right to self-consume your solar energy shall not be infringed or taxed.

You are correct. Read the IOU proposal. They assume that a solar owner should pay grid charges for ALL electricity consumed onsite, regardless of source. The new proposed Grid Benefits Charge is designed to “recover” the grid charges currently being avoided when solar owners use their own...

One way or the other NEM will be replaced and degraded for new buyers. It would be best to support a new simplified system for new buyers that treats solar owners the same as non-solar customers using the same amount of grid power in the same rate periods. That would make their cost shift...

Yes. And they have recruited utility unions and so-called advocates for the “poor” to demonize rooftop solar. It will be hard to get a rational policy in this environment because the utilities have never priced their product to include fixed costs. They rolled everything into their rates. SCE...

Yes, the NEM 2.0 tariff needs to change. The utilities are not proposing changes that will integrate rooftop solar. They consider it a nuisance and competition. The proper way to reform NEM is to establish a single billing standard for all customers, solar and non-solar. The price schedules for...