California regulator says its solar rules are fair, but trio of environmental groups wants to toss them out

"Parties on both sides of a long-running debate over the California Public Utilities Commission's controversial overhaul of rooftop solar regulations are anxiously awaiting a ruling from the state's court of appeals. Depending on what conclusion the justices reach, the decision may alter the rate of compensation that at least some of the roughly 2 million Californians with solar installations on their homes and businesses receive when their systems generate excess electricity."

"The decision may come down within the next couple of months. But if the court of appeals wishes to hear oral arguments, the ruling will be issued later in the year. "There's a lot hanging on this one," said Roger Lin, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three environmental organizations that took their case to court against the public utilities commission, or CPUC."

"The case stems from a decision the CPUC made a little more than three years ago regarding the third iteration of California's Net Energy Metering tariff program, colloquially known as NEM 3.0. Under a net energy metering billing mechanism, customers with rooftop solar receive credits that are applied to their utility bills when their systems produce excess power. In December 2022, the CPUC's five commissioners unanimously voted to update the state's rooftop solar regulations."

"The complicated 260-page decision included incentives to encourage customers to pair their solar installations with battery storage systems. But the new rules included a revision mandating that new rooftop solar customers will no longer be credited at the retail rate of electricity when their systems generated surplus energy. Instead, they get paid at the "actual avoided cost," which is lower."

A court of appeals ruling will determine the fate of the CPUC's overhaul of rooftop solar regulations and could change compensation rates for about 2 million Californians with solar. The CPUC adopted NEM 3.0 in December 2022 and implemented it in April 2023, offering incentives for battery storage while reducing credit rates for new systems to the "actual avoided cost" rather than retail rates. Environmental groups challenged the decision in court. The appeals court could overturn, modify, or uphold the CPUC rules. A ruling may arrive within months or later if oral argument is scheduled.

Read at The Mercury News