California pays 30 to 35¢ for grid power and 4 to 8¢ for the solar you export. That gap is the whole story: on the big three utilities, batteries went from upgrade to prerequisite, while LADWP customers still enjoy the retail-rate deal the rest of the state lost. EcoGen America maps which rules govern your meter before anyone designs your system.
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California pays 30 to 35 cents for grid power and 4 to 8 cents for the solar you export. That gap is the whole story of the Net Billing Tariff.
On PG&E, SCE and SDG&E, a battery went from upgrade to prerequisite: shifting your own solar into the evening hours is what the economics now reward, and solar-plus-battery paybacks run 7 to 10 years.
LADWP customers still enjoy the retail-rate deal the rest of the state lost, which makes your utility the first question, not the panel brand.
EcoGen America maps which rules govern your meter before anyone designs your system, and checks quotes for the battery sizing the tariff actually rewards.
Net Billing prices what you buy and what you sell on different planets. We design for evening self-use on the big three and flag where retail-rate rules still apply.
Built-in checks for battery sizing against evening load, ACC Plus adder assumptions, and payback claims built on pre-2023 net metering math.
We track CPUC Net Billing decisions, the big-three rate filings, and the municipal utilities like LADWP that kept retail crediting.
Your data is only shared with the licensed California installers you choose.
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The Net Billing Tariff prices what you buy and what you sell on different planets. Everything about a smart California system design follows from this one table.
Utility | What You Pay for Grid Power | What Your Exports Earn | The Design Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
PG&E | 30 to 35¢/kWh | ~4 to 8¢, hourly, plus the ACC Plus adder on early years | Battery, sized to evening usage |
SCE | 30 to 35¢/kWh | ~4 to 8¢, hourly, plus ACC Plus | Battery, sized to evening usage |
SDG&E | Among the state’s highest | ~4 to 8¢, hourly, no ACC Plus adder | Battery, and the tightest math of the three |
LADWP | LA municipal rates | Full retail-rate credit, still | Solar alone still works here |
SMUD | Sacramento municipal rates | Own program, outside CPUC rules | Check SMUD’s current terms first |
The corollary most quotes skip: on the big three, a solar-only system exports its best afternoon production at the worst price. If a proposal has no battery and no self-consumption story, it was designed for 2022.
CPUC utility or municipal? The answer changes everything downstream, from export rates to whether a battery is essential or optional.
On PG&E, SCE and SDG&E, design battery-first: store the afternoon, spend it in the evening, export only what is left.
Your export rate locks to your interconnection date for nine years, and NEM 2.0 households risk their 20-year legacy terms by expanding carelessly. Timing is part of the design.
Free 15-minute call. We identify your tariff, your adder eligibility and your actual payback.
The 2023 export cut applied to CPUC-regulated utilities. Californians on municipal power live under different rules, and some of them are better.
California solar is not dead; it is bifurcated. Know which side of the line your meter sits on before comparing any two quotes. The full program map is in our California incentives guide.
California Contract Checks
Post-2023 California rewards buyers who interrogate the design, not the brochure. Four questions do most of the work.
NBT on an IOU, retail NEM at LADWP, SMUD's own program, or a NEM 2.0 legacy: the savings model is meaningless until the tariff is named.
On the big three, no battery needs explaining. With one, the size should map to your evening load, not to the biggest unit on the truck.
The federal residential credit is gone, most residential SGIP categories are closed, and lease providers claiming the commercial credit are not obligated to pass the full value through.
California leases dominate post-25D, and escalators plus transfer terms decide whether they age well. The contract, not the pitch, is the product.
Four questions, any quote, any utility. California installers worth hiring answer them without friction.
Vetted for CSLB licensing, storage design competence, warranties and complaint history.
The highest rates in the continental U.S. keep most California roofs viable. These are the exceptions, and they are bigger than the sales industry admits.
What still cannot hurt you: your property taxes. California’s 100% exclusion means a solar system adds no assessed value, statewide. Run your own scenario in our worth-it breakdown.
See how it stacks against real California pricing, battery math included.
15 minutes with an independent advisor. We name your tariff, test the battery sizing and price the whole thing properly.
Talk to a California AdvisorNo obligation. 100% free service.
Yes, but the design changed. Retail power at 30 to 35¢ is the highest in the continental U.S., so offsetting your own usage still pays powerfully; exporting does not.
On PG&E, SCE and SDG&E that means battery-first design and a 7-to-10-year payback on the pair. On LADWP, solar alone still works the old way.
Roughly 4 to 8¢/kWh, priced hourly through the CPUC’s Avoided Cost Calculator, with an adder boosting early years for PG&E and SCE customers but not SDG&E.
Whatever rate applies at your interconnection locks to your system for nine years, which makes your connection date part of the economics.
Carefully. Your legacy terms, roughly 30-to-35¢ credits for 20 years from interconnection, survive only as long as you avoid changes that trigger a new interconnection agreement.
Batteries can usually be added without losing the lock; system expansions are where people get burned. Get tariff-literate advice before signing anything.
Yes. LADWP is municipal, outside CPUC jurisdiction, and still credits exports at the retail rate, which is why LA is now the best rooftop-solar deal among major California cities.
SMUD in Sacramento is similarly independent but runs different terms; check directly.
No. The state’s 100% property tax exclusion means the added value of a residential solar system is not assessed, anywhere in California.
That exclusion and the federal lease-side commercial credit are the last broad incentives standing after the 2026 changes.
Company picks vetted town by town, with the local installers that actually base crews nearby:
The tariff terms, utility rates and figures on this page come from the records below. Sources accessed August 5, 2026.
Dean Mahmoud is the CEO of EcoGen America. He has connected tens of thousands of homeowners with residential solar installers across all 50 states since 2021, and works directly with installation companies on solar pricing, financing, and what homeowners actually pay for rooftop solar.
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