Pacific Gas and Electric
Northern and central California, from Eureka to Bakersfield including San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento and Fresno. The largest utility in the state by territory. Net billing terms come from the Commission, so the difference against Edison is the retail rate and the time of use periods.
- Type
- Investor owned
- Accounts
- 5.5M
What they credit you
Hourly avoided cost, roughly 75% below the old rate
Published termsExports are compensated from the Avoided Cost Calculator at a value that changes by month, hour and day type, rather than being netted against consumption at the retail rate.
- Month to month
- Credits accrue against the bill and settle at the annual true up.
- Once a year
- Annual, with net surplus compensated at a wholesale rate.
Published terms · checked 2026-09-05 · source
Battery backup is mandatory
in PG&E territory.
PG&E does not credit the power you send back at the rate it charges you to take it.
That does not make solar a bad idea in PG&E territory. It changes what you should build. When exports are worth a fraction of retail the credit stops being the return, and the job becomes using more of your own production inside the house, which usually means a larger array than a one for one utility would need.
Sizing is where that gets decided, so ask about it directly. California pays least for exports in the middle of the day and most in the summer evening, so under net billing a system is sized against what you can use or store rather than against what you can generate. PG&E sets its own limits. Ask PG&E what it allows before you accept that a bigger system is off the table.
A battery then does two separate jobs. It moves daytime production into the evening so you use it instead of selling it, and it keeps the house running when the grid goes down. That second job is not a bonus. Panels on their own shut off in an outage, by design, so a roof full of them powers nothing during a storm. That is the part we will not refer around.
So we treat it as a requirement, not an upgrade. We will not refer you for a panels-only system in PG&E territory, and you should be skeptical of anyone who quotes you one without raising storage first.
Our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement
What your installer should be telling you
Ask for the export value modelled hour by hour for your own roof and your own usage, not an annual average. Under this tariff an average conceals the fact that your best production hour is your worst price.
Applying to PG&E
What PG&E itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- It is called net billing, and the name is the warning
- Under the Net Billing Tariff, exports are sold and consumption is bought as two separate transactions. They are not netted. Any quote that says California net metering is describing a tariff closed to new customers since April 2023.
- The export price changes every hour of every day
- Compensation comes from the Commission’s Avoided Cost Calculator, with a separate value for each combination of month, hour, and weekday or weekend. There is no single cents figure to quote, which is why installers quote averages instead.
- Exports fell by roughly three quarters
- Against the previous tariff, export compensation dropped from close to the retail rate to a few cents on average. The energy you use inside the house is still worth full retail; only what leaves the meter changed.
- The worst hour to export is the hour you produce most
- Value is lowest in the middle of the day, when the grid already has abundant solar, and highest during summer evening peaks. Panels alone are therefore selling into the cheapest hour of the day, every day.
- This is the state where a battery is the whole argument
- Storage moves production out of the cheap hour and into the expensive one. Payback estimates for solar with storage under this tariff are commonly shorter than for solar alone, which is the reverse of most states.
- The old tariff is fully closed
- The final deadline for systems grandfathered under the previous tariff to obtain permission to operate was 15 April 2026. There is no route back into it.
From PG&E’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source
PG&E net metering questions
- Does PG&E offer one for one net metering?
- No. Exports are compensated from the Avoided Cost Calculator at a value that changes by month, hour and day type, rather than being netted against consumption at the retail rate.
- What does PG&E pay for power sent back to the grid?
- Hourly avoided cost, roughly 75% below the old rate. Annual, with net surplus compensated at a wholesale rate.
- Do I need a battery with PG&E?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because PG&E does not credit exports one for one, the return has to come from using your own production rather than selling it, which after dark means storage and usually a larger array than a one for one utility would need. The other half is backup: panels alone shut off in an outage, so a battery is what keeps the house running in a storm. We do not refer panels-only systems in PG&E territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my PG&E bill?
- Sign in at pge.com. Open My Account, then Billing. Open the latest bill and save the PDF. Or screenshot the summary page. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
- What is the catch with PG&E?
- Ask for the export value modelled hour by hour for your own roof and your own usage, not an annual average. Under this tariff an average conceals the fact that your best production hour is your worst price.
Installers serving PG&E customers
Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.
These are real companies operating in PG&E territory, ordered by reviews, years trading and BBB grade. None of them pays us for placement. Pick the one you want and we will call you to arrange it.
Ordering combines three things we read from primary sources: Google review count and rating, years trading taken from the company’s Better Business Bureau profile rather than its own marketing, and its BBB letter grade. BBB accreditation is shown but never scored, because it is a paid membership rather than a mark of quality.
Check any contractor license yourself at the state register. Do that before you sign anything, with any company, including ours.