California Solar Export Credits: What Extra Electricity Is Worth

Quick answer: California does not have one statewide export rate

As of October 26, 2026, the value of exported rooftop-solar electricity depends on the serving utility, generation provider, tariff vintage and the interval when energy reaches the grid. For PG&E, SCE and SDG&E customers on Net Billing—called the Solar Billing Plan by the utilities—Energy Export Credits vary by time instead of matching the retail import price.

Audit the account before using any rate table: identify the utility, any community choice aggregator, the interconnection application date, permission-to-operate date and current tariff. LADWP and other municipal utilities use their own adopted rules rather than the CPUC investor-owned-utility Solar Billing Plan.

Route the account before calculating a credit

First determine whether the electric account is served by PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, LADWP or another utility. Then check whether a community choice aggregator supplies generation while the investor-owned utility still provides delivery and billing.

Do not assume a home in Los Angeles County is on SCE, CPA or LADWP based only on its ZIP code. The current bill is the controlling starting document because neighboring addresses can have different providers and tariffs.

Confirm legacy NEM or Net Billing from the interconnection record

The CPUC says the Net Billing Tariff applies to PG&E, SCE and SDG&E customers who submitted an interconnection application on or after April 15, 2023. Earlier qualifying systems may remain on a legacy NEM tariff, subject to the account's eligibility and transition history.

Record the application date, permission-to-operate date, tariff name and any later account or ownership changes. Those facts are the tariff vintage; a proposal that says only 'NEM 3.0' is not enough to reproduce a bill.

Use the interval formula, not a statewide average

For an interval-based audit, start with hourly exported kWh and multiply each interval by the applicable export-credit component or components. SDG&E's published method describes the full Energy Export Credit as the sum of corresponding delivery and generation components for each hour and weekday or weekend category.

Then total the interval credits for the billing period and compare them with the detailed export-data table and bill. Keep units explicit: exported kWh × dollars per kWh = credit dollars. A monthly average may summarize the result, but it cannot reproduce which hours earned it.

Month, hour and day type can all change the schedule

Published schedules can distinguish month, hour, weekday, weekend and holiday treatment. The relevant schedule is the one effective for that utility, provider, tariff vintage and billing period—not a screenshot copied from another homeowner.

When exporting interval data, preserve timestamps and confirm how the utility labels the time zone and daylight-saving transitions. A one-hour shift can map exported energy to a different published value.

Import prices and export credits answer different questions

The retail rate paid when the home imports electricity is not automatically the credit applied when the home exports. Under Net Billing, the homeowner should model self-consumption, grid imports and grid exports separately.

Using solar in the home can avoid an import at the applicable retail rate, while exporting that same kWh earns the interval export credit. This distinction is why a solar proposal should show hourly load and production assumptions rather than netting annual kWh at one price.

Separate delivery and generation on CCA accounts

A community choice aggregator can handle the generation portion while SCE, PG&E or SDG&E handles delivery and the consolidated bill. Clean Power Alliance, for example, says it applies generation charges and credits while SCE applies delivery charges and credits for its Solar Billing Plan customers.

A CCA account can also have transition-specific rules. Read both providers' tariff pages and the actual bill instead of substituting the investor-owned utility's generation value for the CCA value.

Check any export compensation adder and its clock

The CPUC says eligible residential PG&E and SCE customers who apply to interconnect Net Billing facilities before the end of 2027 receive an export compensation adder for nine years. It also lists exclusions, including SDG&E customers and certain systems required by building code.

Confirm eligibility, the amount and the start date in the utility record. Do not treat an adder as permanent, available to every customer or transferable without checking the governing tariff.

Do not confuse monthly credits with net surplus compensation

Utilities can carry unused Energy Export Credits forward and reconcile them at an annual True-Up. That accounting is not the same as a promise that every displayed credit is cash payable to the customer.

Legacy NEM net surplus compensation is a separate annual concept with its own eligibility and calculation. Label monthly export credits, carried balances, bill offsets and any final settlement separately when reviewing a statement.

Model battery shifting as a scenario, not a guarantee

A battery can store midday solar for later household use or, where allowed and configured, export at a different time. Its value depends on the tariff, control settings, round-trip losses, reserve, equipment limits, warranty treatment and installed cost.

Compare at least a solar-only case, a battery self-consumption case and any allowed export case using the same load and solar data. Evaluate outage backup separately; bill savings do not measure resilience.

Reproduce one bill before trusting a long-term forecast

Download the detailed bill, interval export file and effective export-pricing schedule. Record the utility, CCA, tariff name, application and permission-to-operate dates, billing dates and schedule revision.

Map each interval to its month, hour and day type; multiply by the applicable component or components; total the period; then reconcile delivery, generation, carried credits and charges. Investigate differences instead of forcing the result to match.

Require a proposal to show auditable hourly assumptions

Ask for the hourly production model, hourly household load assumption, self-consumed kWh, exported kWh, imported kWh, every import and export schedule, escalation assumptions and battery dispatch rules. Each volatile source should include its URL and effective date.

Reject a savings chart that applies one retail rate to every exported kWh or hides CCA, fixed-charge, battery-loss or annual-settlement treatment. A transparent low, base and high case is more useful than a single guaranteed-looking number.

LADWP uses a separate municipal net-metering rule

LADWP is a municipal utility, not one of the CPUC-regulated investor-owned utilities using the Solar Billing Plan. Its published net-metering rider describes two-directional measurement and credits under the applicable LADWP rate schedule.

For an LADWP address, use the current LADWP bill, rate schedule, interconnection documents and net-metering rider. Do not import SCE hourly export values into an LADWP analysis.

Bottom line: keep a one-page export-credit record

Keep the utility and generation provider, tariff and vintage, interconnection and permission-to-operate dates, current import rate, export schedule revision, adder eligibility and end date, annual settlement month, battery mode and downloaded interval files together.

Update the record when the rate, provider, tariff, battery settings or account changes. That evidence makes a bill review repeatable and prevents a statewide average from being mistaken for the home's actual credit.

Frequently asked questions

Questions worth asking

• Is there one California solar export rate?
• How is each hourly solar export credit calculated?
• Why can a solar bill show separate delivery and generation credits?
• Does a community choice aggregator change solar export credits?
• What do tariff vintage and the nine-year export-credit period mean?
• Are unused solar export credits paid as cash at True-Up?
• Does a battery always increase the value of exported solar?
• How can I audit the export credits on my solar bill?