If you installed solar through Bear Valley Electric Service, Liberty Utilities (CalPeco Electric), or PacifiCorp’s Pacific Power, the terms you were promised when you signed up may be in question right now, and it has nothing to do with your contract with your installer.
What’s actually happening
A CPUC staff proposal, now under formal protest before the Commission, would revise the net billing tariffs for California’s three smaller investor-owned utilities:
Bear Valley Electric Service (BVES), which serves Big Bear;
Liberty Utilities (CalPeco Electric), which serves the Lake Tahoe area; and
PacifiCorp, doing business as Pacific Power. Under existing CPUC decisions, solar customers of these utilities who interconnected under the current net metering tariffs were guaranteed the terms of that tariff for
20 years from the date their system was connected to the grid, the same 20-year legacy period NEM 2.0 customers of the large utilities (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E) received.
A formal legal protest filed against the proposal describes it as running directly counter to existing Commission policy, “advocating for the immediate eradication of the legacy rights” the Commission itself granted these customers, rights the protest says customers relied on when they decided to install solar in the first place. As reported by the
Sierra Sun, the Solar Rights Alliance has publicly opposed the proposal, arguing it would break a promise already made to existing customers.
Why this matters even if you’re not on one of these three utilities
The proposal, as written, applies only to customers of BVES, Liberty, and Pacific Power. But the legal argument behind it, that a 20-year legacy guarantee the Commission already granted can be revisited and shortened, isn’t limited by its terms to small utilities. Advocacy groups have specifically flagged this as a precedent concern for NEM 2.0 customers of the large utilities as well. Nothing about PG&E, SCE, or SDG&E customers’ terms has changed as a result of this proceeding, but it’s a proceeding worth watching if you’re relying on your own 20-year guarantee holding up.
What “20-year guarantee” actually means for you
If you interconnected your solar system under one of these tariffs, the Commission’s own prior decisions set the terms of your net metering arrangement, meaning the credit structure and billing rules, for 20 years from your interconnection date, regardless of later changes to the tariff for new customers. That’s the exact promise this proposal would revise for the three affected utilities, and it’s the reason the opposition to it has been as pointed as it has.
What to do if you’re a BVES, Liberty, or Pacific Power solar customer
- Find your interconnection date. This is the anchor date your 20-year guarantee runs from, and it’s worth having on hand regardless of how this proceeding resolves.
- Watch the CPUC proceeding. Formal proceedings move through public comment and decision phases, and the outcome isn’t settled yet. Check the
CPUC’s public document search for the docket covering this net billing tariff revision.
- If your system economics depend on the current tariff holding for the full 20 years, this is worth documenting now, alongside your original proposal and any savings projections you were shown at the time of sale.
- If you’re a BVES customer in Big Bear, this is separate from BVES’s 2027 general rate case, which covers different issues entirely. Don’t confuse the two proceedings when you’re tracking what’s happening with your utility.
Where this fits with what’s already changed in California
This is a different issue from the NEM 3.0 export-rate reduction that the California Supreme Court declined to revisit earlier this year, which we covered in our guide to
NEM 3.0’s final status. That ruling was about export compensation rates for customers who interconnect going forward. This proposal is about something different: whether a guarantee already made to existing customers of three specific utilities can be shortened after the fact. If it succeeds, it would be a new kind of precedent, not an extension of NEM 3.0 itself.
Questions about the CPUC net metering proposal
Does this proposal affect my PG&E, SCE, or SDG&E net metering terms?
Not directly. As written, it applies only to customers of Bear Valley Electric Service, Liberty Utilities, and Pacific Power. Advocacy groups have raised it as a precedent concern for customers of the large utilities, but no change has been proposed for those customers.
Has the CPUC made a final decision on this?
Not as far as I can confirm. This is a staff proposal under formal protest, and CPUC proceedings typically go through further comment, revision, and a final Commission vote before anything is settled.
What should I do right now if I’m a BVES, Liberty, or Pacific Power customer?
Document your interconnection date and your original contract terms, and watch the CPUC docket for updates. There’s no action to take on your solar contract itself at this stage, since this proceeding is about the utility tariff, not your agreement with your installer or lender.
Worried about how a utility tariff change could interact with your solar contract’s terms or savings projections?
Send us your contract and we’ll tell you where you stand, usually in one 15-minute call.
Call (213) 579-5156 or visit californiasolarexit.com.
By
Daniel Merritt, Senior Solar Contract Analyst
Daniel Merritt is a Senior Solar Contract Analyst at California Solar Exit. This article is general information, not legal advice, and results depend on the facts of each contract.
