Kayah Swanson, Kayah.Swanson@SierraClub.org
Zoe Woodcraft, zwoodcraft@earthjustice.org
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Today, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision that upgrades NEM, the state’s rooftop solar program, to better incorporate household electrification as the state looks to its clean energy future. The Net Energy Metering (NEM) program was established in 1996 to allow customers who generate their own energy to serve their energy needs directly onsite and to receive a financial credit on their electric bills for any surplus energy fed back to their utility.
When the CPUC released their initial proposal for NEM 3, it penalized new solar customers in California with a grid participation fee, and didn’t account for the state’s enthusiastic moves towards household electrification and the need to incentivize energy storage, among other features that threatened to cast a chill on California’s clean energy future. But CPUC went back to the drawing board, and the new structure in NEM 3 is an improved blueprint for California’s clean energy future — though further analysis and improvements are needed.
“The draft decision is a considerably improved blueprint from the original proposal, but we see room for improvement to ensure the healthy growth of clean energy adoption in the state. When California’s solar program began in the mid 1990’s, EVs, household battery storage, and electric heat pumps weren’t yet in sight. California needs to plan for a climate future where rooftop solar, household energy storage, and electrification are woven together,” said Matt Vespa, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice. “This plan drops the punitive grid participation fee and encourages new households adopting solar to use electricity when renewable energy is most plentiful in our grid — a substantial improvement, with room for more change to incentivize existing solar customers to electrify appliances in their homes.”
“We’ve made forward strides with the removal of the Grid Participation Charge, but this proposed decision requires further analysis,” said Katie Ramsey, Senior Attorney for the Sierra Club. “For example, the decision’s proposed glidepath—or gradual decrease in value—would immediately and significantly decrease rooftop solar’s export value, and further decreases would happen automatically over time rather than based on new installments. This poses a risk of decreasing incentives to install rooftop solar faster than the industry can adapt. We will continue to evaluate the details in order to determine how this will impact rooftop solar customers, the industry, and California’s work towards our climate and equity targets.”
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The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.