Solar Billing Plan

Supporting California's Clean Energy Goals

Harness the power of the sun, reduce your carbon footprint and save on your energy bill.

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Solar Billing

Valued Customers on the Solar Billing Plan

NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0 customers, when your 20-year legacy period ends, your account will transition to the Solar Billing Plan. You will be notified by email and in My Account before your account transitions.

Virtual Net Energy Metering and NEM Aggregation customers who submit an interconnection application after February 14, 2024, your account will transition to the Solar Billing Plan in early 2025.

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What is Solar Billing

What is the Solar Billing Plan?

In December 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to modernize the rooftop solar program to better balance the needs of the grid, the environment and customers.

The Solar Billing Plan helps promote grid reliability during the early evening, when the sun is down and energy use is high, in part by incentivizing solar paired with battery storage. Battery storage can extend the use of renewable energy to peak evening hours, helping to decrease the need to generate electricity from fossil fuels. This reduces overall grid costs, which improves energy affordability for all Californians.

Learn more about the CPUC decision.

Modernized Solar Pricing: Importing and Exporting Electricity

The Solar Billing Plan is based on the time-of-use (TOU) pricing structure, where the price of electricity used (imported) and sent back (exported) to the grid varies depending on the time of day. The TOU structure is intended to support California’s clean energy transition by sending price signals to customers when the demand on the grid is higher or lower.

You will receive bill credits for any surplus energy your solar system delivers back (exports) to the power grid. The energy export credit received is based on the value of kilowatt-hours sent to the electric grid at each hour of the day.

View Export Pricing.

Export and Import Electricty Graphic

Solar Pricing Plan for Residential Customers

Residential customers on the Solar Billing Plan have a Time-of-Use (EVTOU5) plan. Commercial customers will remain on their existing pricing plan.

The EVTOU5 plan has three time periods: on-peak, off-peak and super off peak. You can save on this plan if you use energy outside of the on-peak hours of 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and by adding battery storage to your system to use stored energy during on-peak hours. This plan includes a $16 basic monthly service fee. 

If your electricity is purchased by a Community Choice Aggregator (CCA), please contact your CCA for more information on import and export pricing.

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Solar Assistance Plans
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Assistance Programs for Solar Customers

Disadvantaged Communities – Single-Family Solar Homes (DAC-SASH)

The DAC-SASH program, managed by Grid Alternatives, helps income-qualified homeowners in Disadvantaged Communities (DAC) receive no-cost rooftop solar installations. Visit GRID Alternatives to see if you qualify or wish to apply. For more details on solar programs for disadvantaged communities visit the CPUC's website.

Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP)

Considering battery storage? Take advantage of the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). SGIP is a CPUC program that offers rebates for installing energy storage in your home. Energy storage can help absorb excess solar energy generated by your rooftop solar in the middle of the day, so you can use that energy during the peak hours of 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. when electricity is the most expensive. Additionally, energy storage can help keep your home powered during an outage. For more information and how to apply for financial incentives for energy storage, visit SGIPSD.org.

San Diego Solar Equity Program (SDSEP)

The San Diego Solar Equity Program offers monetary assistance to income-qualifying, single-family homeowners in the City of San Diego to offset the cost of solar panel installation. To be eligible for the solar incentive, a customer must meet all of the eligibility requirements. To learn more about the program and eligibility, visit SD Solar Equity.

Virtual Solar Billing Plan (VSBP)

 Timing of Implementation: If your interconnection application was submitted after February 14, 2024, your account will temporarily take service on Virtual Net Energy Metering (VNEM). Your account is expected to transition to the Virtual Solar Billing Plan (VSBP) after SDG&E updates its systems and processes for the new plan in early 2025.

Virtual Solar Billing Plan (VSBP) involves several customers sharing a single renewable energy system. This option is most applicable to properties with multiple tenants, like apartment complexes and office buildings.

For example: If you are a tenant in a four-unit apartment building, and your landlord installs a solar energy system with VSBP, you would be allocated a percentage of that system’s output. Let’s say your allocation is 5%. If that system generates more energy than your building needs, you will get the same percentage of generation credits (5%). The building’s usage would all be calculated through a single meter, but you’d still receive an individual bill.

Solar Billing Plan Aggregation

 Timing of Implementation: If your interconnection application was submitted after February 14, 2024, your account will temporarily take service on NEM Aggregation. Your account is expected to transition to the Virtual Solar Billing Plan (VSBP) after SDG&E updates its systems and processes for the new plan in early 2025.

Solar Billing Plan Aggregation is designed for customers with renewable systems on multi-metered properties. It allows you to “aggregate” your energy production and consumption into one account, so you can offset your non-renewable energy use with your renewable energy surplus.

A good example is a small farm: If the farmhouse is equipped with solar panels that generate surplus energy, that surplus can be used to offset the energy costs incurred by a water pump used for irrigation on another area of the property.

Solar Billing Plan FAQs

Your account is transitioning to the Solar Billing Plan because, either:

  1. Your solar system has reached the end of its 20-year NEM legacy period. Note: If you recently moved into a property that has solar, the NEM legacy period began when the solar panels were initially installed and interconnected. OR
  2. Your interconnection application was after April 15, 2023, and your solar system was on an interim NEM 2.0 plan until December 2023.

Yes. The Solar Billing Plan monthly bill will reflect charges for electricity used (imported) and apply credits for electricity delivered back (exported) to the grid. The bill will also include a $16 basic monthly service fee as part of the TOU plan. All SDG&E customers, whether solar or non-solar, pay small charges for public purpose programs (non-bypassable charges). In months when there are excess export credits, the credits will roll over to following months until used or until the annual “true-up.” Export credits cannot be applied to non-bypassable charges.

Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), purchase or generate electricity on behalf of customers. If your electricity is purchased by a CCA and you also generate your own solar energy and store it in a storage system, your CCA sets the price for the energy exported from your solar system, as well as the cost for energy imported to your home. Please refer to your CCA for more information about import and export pricing.

You will receive bill credits for the surplus energy your system exports back into the grid. The credit is based on the electricity’s value in each hour of the day and also varies by season. If you install battery storage with your solar system, you may be able to program it to automatically use stored energy from your system during peak time periods instead of using energy from the grid. If your electricity is purchased by a CCA, please refer to your CCA for more information about import and export pricing.

View Export Pricing.

Yes, you can still have Medical Baseline on the Solar Billing Plan. Solar Billing Plan customers are on the EVTOU5 pricing plan which includes a basic service fee and overall lower pricing per kWh. Your Medical Baseline discount may not be as significant because of this lower pricing.

As a Solar Billing Plan customer, you can oversize your generation system by no more than 50% with two requirements: 

  1. The measurement of oversizing will be in comparison to the past 12 months of usage unless you do not yet have 12 months of usage or attest to having more recently increased usage.
  2. You must attest to an expected increase in usage corresponding with the system size within 12 months of interconnection. 

Net surplus generation will be compensated at the current net surplus compensation rates.