The California State Meeting has accredited a invoice that may pressure people buying properties with photo voltaic initiatives into new internet billing situations, which might doubtless scale back compensation for his or her power exports. Assembly Bill 942 is now heading to the California State Senate.
If enacted, AB 942 would require that properties with renewable power initiatives, like photo voltaic arrays, be transferred from their present net-metering contracts into NEM 3.0 in an try to resolve the “cost-shift” of utility bills onto non-solar electrical clients. If handed by the Senate and signed by the governor, this might take impact beginning on January 1, 2026.
“All through the method, Assemblymembers commented how they heard extra opposition to AB 942 than every other invoice this session,” stated Brad Heavner, government director of the California Photo voltaic & Storage Affiliation (CALSSA) in a press launch. “That opposition will solely develop louder when AB 942 strikes to the Senate and Californians proceed to make their voices heard in opposition to a invoice that may undermine property rights, scale back house values, and jeopardize the state’s clear power future.”
NEM 3.0 altered compensation charges for power exports in extra of a person’s electrical energy consumption — calculating compensation based mostly on averted power prices at sure occasions of day. This shift in internet billing lowered compensation by as much as 75% in comparison with earlier internet metering situations.
AB 942 was launched by Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D) in February. Initially, the proposed invoice would have lowered internet billing contract phrases from 20 to 10 years. Calderon previously labored as a authorities affairs director for Edison Worldwide, a electrical utility firm.
Whereas the invoice states that rooftop photo voltaic has performed a vital position in transferring towards the state’s clear power objectives, it additionally states that California subsidies for rooftop photo voltaic have created “a big shortfall for masking the fastened prices of {the electrical} grid, and nonsolar ratepayers make up the distinction.” CALSSA denies the declare that photo voltaic has harmed the grid, and factors to utility spending because the wrongdoer.
“The utility story that photo voltaic clients are all rich and save an excessive amount of cash can be false,” Heavner stated. “Photo voltaic is predominantly adopted by working class clients looking for to stabilize theri power prices and help California’s clear power objectives.”
