Pacific Gas & Electric Solar Net Metering is a program from PG&E to provide a solar net metering system to households that have their own solar panel energy system.

By connecting the household’s energy system to the energy grid of PG&E, it allows an interconnection that benefits both PG&E and the homeowner. Through the solar net metering program, a household is supplied additional power by PG&E whenever the home’s solar system doesn’t generate enough power to cover the homeowner’s needs. When the solar panel system produces more energy than is needed, the surplus energy is exported back to PG&E’s electrical grid.

The Pacific Gas and Electric net metering system monitors this flow of energy into and out of the household system. When energy is provided to the home through the grid, PG&E bills the customer for the amount provided. When excess energy is sent to the grid, net metering measures the surplus and provides credits for the household. In this way, net metering 2.0 allows households to accumulate credits during times of surplus energy production in order to offset the costs during times in which energy must be drawn from the grid.

PG&E net metering provides benefits for both the company and its consumers.

For the company:

• Homes that produce surplus energy become sources of power that they can supply to other customers
• The credits that are provided for the energy generated by homes cost less than what it would cost to produce the energy themselves
• The excess energy is sold at commercial rates, giving the company profit from this energy

For the homeowner:

• PG&E net metering provides the household another source of energy in case the home solar panel system does not produce enough energy for their needs
• The household gets credits that they can use in the future if they consume less than their system produced
• Essentially, the surplus energy of the system is saved in the form of credits for future use
• If the credits are not used within the annual cycle, the household is compensated depending on the option chosen by the customer when they signed up

There are two different payment plans that Pacific Gas and Electric net metering offers their customers.

They offer a Tiered Rate plan and Time-of-Use plan.

In a Tiered Rate plan, customers are billed a minimal amount on the first tier. When the consumption has reached the Baseline Allowance, the price goes up. A higher usage surcharge is billed once a consumer exceeds the second tier.

In a Time-of-Use plan, the rates depend on the time when the energy is used. Rates are higher during hours of high demand. Pacific Gas & Electric net metering also pay more for the energy supplied by the household to the grid during peak hours. New customers are automatically enrolled in the Time-of-Use plan.

Compensation rates for the excess energy given to the grid depend on the state regulations. There is also a cap of 1.0 megawatt for the system capacity limit.

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