December 13th, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released a Proposed Decision on the next version of Net-Energy Metering. The Association has been represented by the Ag Energy Consumers Association (AECA), who has been participating as a party to the proceeding. While the decision is not final and there is still a possibility changes could be made, we thought it important to communicate some of the key changes to the program. It is important to note that this is only a Proposed Decision and residential customers groups are not happy. Intense lobbying will continue until the final vote. Here are the highlights according to AECA:
- Annual True Ups are Maintained: The Joint IOUs proposed to switch to a monthly true up, which would have been drastic for agricultural operations. (This is huge!)
- NEM Aggregation (NEMA) Maintained: The CPUC correctly identified that NEMA is important for agricultural operations.
- Export Compensation Rate: the export compensation rate at averaged monthly values for each hour, differentiated between weekday and weekend.
- Differences between residential and non-residential
- Residential NEM customers receive “Market Transition Credit”
- Residential also has to pay a “Grid Participation Charge” which non-residential does not.
- Grandfathering: Non-residential NEM 2.0 customers will be grandfathered on the 2.0 program for 20 years.
- Storage: PD offers all existing NEM 2.0 tariff customers an incentive for storage if they voluntarily switch to the successor tariff within four years from the time the storage rebate becomes available. If an existing NEM 2.0 tariff customer voluntarily switches to the successor tariff during the first year of implementation, they will receive a $0.20/Wh storage rebate, which will be available for a total of four years but decrease by 25 percent a year over the subsequent four years. Customers will be eligible for the storage rebate provided in the year they transition to the successor tariff.
How long to sign up for NEM 2.0? The NEM 2.0 tariff will close 120 days after the Final Decision. Final Decision is expected sometime in January.