Net Energy Metering Revisit - Rulemaking (R.) 20-08-020

Announcement

On August 25, 2022, the Commission adopted a decision extending the statutory deadline in this proceeding to August 27, 2023.  For previous announcements including the press release, fact sheet, model, and procedural emails, please see the Proposed Decision and Events Following the Proposed Decision sections of this webpage. 

Background

Please visit the net energy metering (NEM) overview webpage, the R.14-07-002 webpage, and the NEM2 evaluation webpage for information on California's current NEM program and its statutory background.  

The Commission committed in Decision (D.) 16-01-044 to later review the NEM successor (or NEM2) tariff, citing interactive, yet unresolved, policy movements within the Commission, but outside the scope of R.14-07-002. Accordingly, the Commission adopted an Order Instituting Rulemaking on August 27, 2020 to revisit the existing NEM tariffs.

The major focus of this proceeding will be on the development of a successor to existing NEM2 tariffs pursuant to the requirements of California Assembly Bill 327 (2013, Perea). The proceeding's scope also includes the review and potential modification of all NEM tariff schedules, and issues related to consumer protection. 

Visit this webpage to view documents in the R.20-08-020 proceeding.

Issues in Scope

As described in the Scoping Memo, the issues to be determined in this proceeding are:   

1.   What guiding principles (including those related to Assembly Bill 327 (2013, Perea), equity, environmental goals, and social justice) should the Commission adopt to assist in the development and evaluation of a successor to the current net energy metering tariff?
2.   What information from the Net Energy Metering 2.0 Lookback Study should inform the successor and how should the Commission apply those findings in its consideration?  
3.   What method should the Commission use to analyze the program elements identified in Issue 4 and the resulting proposals, while ensuring the proposals comply with the guiding principles?
4.   What program elements or specific features should the Commission include in a successor to the current net energy metering tariff?
5.   Which of the analyzed proposals should the Commission adopt as a successor to the current net energy metering tariff and why? What should the timeline be for implementation?
6.   Other issues that may arise related to current net energy metering tariffs and subtariffs, which include but are not limited to the virtual net energy metering tariffs, net energy metering aggregation tariff, the Renewable Energy Self-Generation Bill Credit Transfer program, and the net energy metering fuel cell tariff.
7.   What additional or enhanced consumer protections for customers taking service under net energy metering and/or the successor to the current net energy metering tariff should be adopted by the Commission? 

Guiding Principles

These guiding principles, adopted in D.21-02-007, will assist the Commission in the development and evaluation of proposals for a successor to the current NEM tariff.

(a) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should comply with the statutory requirements of Public Utilities Code Section 2827.1;  

(b) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should ensure equity among customers;  

(c) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should enhance consumer protection measures for customer-generators providing net energy metering services;  

(d) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should fairly consider all technologies that meet the definition of renewable electrical generation facility in Public Utilities Code Section 2827.1;  

(e) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should be coordinated with the Commission and California's energy policies, including but not limited to, California Senate Bill 100 (2018, DeLeon), the Integrated Resource Planning process, Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards, and California Executive Order B-55-18;  

(f) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should be transparent and understandable to all customers and should be uniform, to the extent possible, across all utilities;  

(g) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should maximize the value of customer-sited renewable generation to all customers and to the electrical system; and  

(h) A successor to the net energy metering tariff should consider competitive neutrality amongst Load Serving Entities.

Proceeding Schedule

The schedule below reflects modifications made to the original schedule in an April 8, 2021 ruling, in the evidentiary hearing on August 3, 2021, and in a December 17, 2021 ruling.

Event Date
Comments on Guiding Principles Received December 4, 2020
Reply Comments on Guiding Principles Received December 11, 2020
Proposed Decision on Guiding Principles Issued January 5, 2020
Issuance of NEM2 Lookback Study January 21, 2021
Workshop on E3 White Paper and Program Elements February 8, 2021
Decision on Guiding Principles Issued February 17, 2021
Party Proposals Served March 15, 2021
Workshop Presenting Party Proposals March 23-24
Second Workshop on Proposals April 22, 2021
Cost Effectiveness Analysis Results Provided to Parties May 28, 2021
Opening Testimony on Issues 2 -6 June 18, 2021
Rebuttal Testimony July 16, 2021
Evidentiary Hearing on Issues 3 - 6 July 26 - August 6, 2021
Completion of Settlement Talks August 27, 2021
Opening Briefs on Issues 2-6 August 31, 2021
Reply brief [matter submitted] September 14, 2021
Proposed Decision (PD) on successor to current NEM
tariff  
December 13, 2021 
 Comments on Proposed Decision Received  January 27, 2022
 Reply Comments on Proposed Decision Received  January 14, 2022
Commission Decision No earlier than January 27, 2022

NEM2 Evaluation

The NEM2 Evaluation (or "Lookback Report") by Verdant Associates was released in January 2021.  More information can be found here.

E3 White Paper

As part of the new proceeding, the CPUC commissioned Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) to author a white paper on potential successors to the NEM2 tariff.  The white paper was released publicly on January 28, 2021, and can be downloaded here. E3 presented its analysis in a workshop on February 8, 2021. Slides used during the workshop are available here.

The white paper represents E3's perspective on a framework that can meet the statutory requirements for the NEM program. It was entered into the record of R.20-08-020 and parties to the proceeding were instructed to discuss it in their proposals for a successor to the current NEM program.

Party Proposals

Parties submitted proposals for the successor to the current NEM tariff on March 15, 2021. The proposals are available in the Documents tab of the R.20-08-020 docket.  An online workshop was held on March 23-24, 2021, to allow parties to present on their proposals, and other parties and stakeholders to ask questions. Recordings of the workshop are available here: Day 1 | Day 2. Due to a technical error, the recording for Day 1 omits a portion of the workshop. At 2:31.42 (approximately 2.5 hours in), the recording skips from the Natural Resources Defense Council's time to the joint investor-owned utilities' time. 

Linked below are the original proposals as well as the presentation slides submitted by parties for the workshop.  

 A second online workshop was held on April 22, 2021, to present E3's plans to provide basic modeling of some of the party proposals. Slides used during the workshop are available here.

Party Proposal Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

On May 28, 2021, CPUC Energy Division released the results of a cost-effectiveness analysis of party proposals. On June 15, 2021, Energy Division replied to questions about the results that were submitted by parties to this proceeding and made minor modifications to the model. The report, results, and models can be downloaded here.

Testimony

Some parties submitted opening and/or rebuttal testimony to this proceeding's service list. Most of this testimony can be found at the CPUC's E-File Documents Search Form by selecting "Supporting Documents" in the Document Type dropdown menu and typing "2008020" in the Proceeding Number field.

Evidentiary Hearings

The evidentiary hearing in this proceeding took place from July 26 through August 10, 2021. Transcripts of the hearing can be found at the CPUC's E-File Documents Search Form by selecting "Transcript" in the Document Type dropdown menu and typing "2008020" in the Proceeding Number field.

Briefs

Opening briefs were submitted on August 31, 2021 and reply briefs were submitted on September 14, 2021.  The opening briefs and reply briefs are available in the Documents tab of the R.20-08-020 docket.

Proposed Decision

A proposed decision was published on December 13, 2021.  The proposed decision has not yet been placed on the agenda for a Voting Meeting. To learn when it will be heard, see the agenda and hold list on the CPUC website.

The CPUC provided a press release and fact sheet about the Proposed Decision, and the Excel model used for the Proposed Decision, in December 2021.  The model was updated on December 23, 2021 to fix a formatting bug in the Results worksheet.

Events Following the Proposed Decision

Opening comments on the proposed decision were submitted on January 7, 2022 and reply comments were submitted on January 14, 2022.  The comments are available in the Documents tab of the R.20-08-020 docket.

The following procedural email was sent to the Service List of R.20-08-020 by the proceeding's Administrative Law Judge on February 3, 2022:

This procedural email provides notice to the parties of Rulemaking 20-08-020 that the proposed decision, which was issued on December 13, 2021, will not appear on the Commission's voting meeting agenda until further notice.  On January 11, 2022, the Commission reassigned Rulemaking 20-08-020 to President Alice Reynolds.  The assigned Commissioner has requested additional time to analyze the record and consider revisions to the proposed decision based on party comments.  Furthermore, the assigned Commissioner wants to ensure all five Commissioners participate in oral arguments.  Accordingly, the oral arguments hearing will be rescheduled at a later date.  After additional analysis is conducted, I will issue a subsequent ruling providing information on the proceeding schedule and details regarding the oral argument hearing.  A copy of this procedural email will be placed in the correspondence file of Rulemaking 20-08-020.  Due to the size of the service list, the procedural email is being sent in batches.

On May 9, 2022, the proceeding's Administrative Law Judge issued a ruling to take comment on several issues.  On June 2, 2022, the Administrative Law Judge issued a ruling that addressed the number of pages for comments and the deadline for reply comments.  Parties' opening and reply comments are available in the Document tab of the R.20-08-020 docket.

On August 25, 2022, the Commission adopted D.22-08-044, stating in the decision: "[t]he current statutory deadline of August 27, 2022 does not allow time for: i)the Commission to review and address the two separate sets of comments (i.e., the April 6, 2021 Ruling comments on the fuel cell staff proposal and the May 9, 2022 Ruling comments on the successor tariff) in proposal decisions, ii) the public to review and comment on the proposed decisions, and iii) the Commission to consider the proposed decisions."  Therefore, the decision extended the statutory deadline in this proceeding to August 27, 2023.

How to Participate in this Proceeding

Visit the CPUC's brochures webpage to find information on what happens in a proceeding, informal and formal participation, making public comments, participation at hearings and workshops, the CPUC's Intervenor Compensation Program, and ex parte communications with CPUC decisionmakers.

If you want to be notified of events in R.20-08-020, sign up for the proceeding's service list here.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about information on this webpage, please contact the CPUC Energy Division at energy@cpuc.ca.gov.

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