Dive Brief:
- Decisions on rate structure and net energy metering confronting California regulators could shape the biggest U.S. solar market and determine the industry’s future, according to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) spokesperson David Eisenhauer.
- PG&E has 115,000 residential solar customers, 6,000 non-residential customers, 1,000 megawatts of rooftop solar, 4,500 megawatts of utility-scale solar, and its stream-lined, five-day interconnection process is bringing on 2,500 rooftop solar systems per month.
- PG&E expects CPUC decisions this year on the structure of a “successor tariff” for net energy metering (NEM) and on time of use (TOU) rate tiers for residential customers. The utility is now considering filing responses with the commission.
Dive Insight:
Eisenhauer said 40% of PG&E residential solar customers and nearly all its non-residential solar customers have both TOU rates and NEM. The CPUC decisions will likely determine how much that figure grows.
An Institute for Local Self-Reliance analysis concluded that combining TOU rates with NEM can increase the return to a solar system owner by as much as 250% because solar is most typically most productive at peak demand periods when the TOU rates are highest.
Solar advocates have proposed a TOU plan that calls for TOU rates ranging from $0.114 per kilowatt-hour for off-peak winter hours to $0.466 at high demand margins. It protects non-solar-owning customers by allowing them to select a simpler two- or three-tier block rate billing schedule. It also protects all ratepayers from any fixed bill charge.
PG&E is also working through the value of solar tariff idea.
