What does SCE pay for power sent back to the grid?

Hourly avoided-cost export price, plus an adder closing after 2027. At the end of each 12-month Relevant Period. If you exported more kWh than you imported over that period, SCE calculates an Energy Export Credit Adjustment charge equal to those surplus kWh times its then posted Average Retail Export Compensation Rate. Leftover export credits go first to any of the period’s energy charges still unpaid and then to that adjustment, and any remainder carries forward. A bundled customer who affirmatively elected Net Surplus Compensation before the period’s final bill is also paid for the surplus kWh, as a bill credit or by check, at a rate based on CAISO day-ahead DLAP prices averaged from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. over the 12 months. Leftover export credits are forfeited if you leave the schedule, and the generation part is forfeited if you switch between SCE and a community choice aggregator or direct access provider.

Do I need a battery with SCE?

Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because SCE 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 SCE territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.

How do I find my SCE bill?

Sign in at sce.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.

← Back to the schedule

Southern California Edison net metering in California

Most of southern and central California outside San Diego and Los Angeles city, including Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Serves the suburbs around Los Angeles but not the city itself, which is LADWP and outside this tariff entirely.

Type: Investor owned
Accounts: 5.2M

What they credit you

Hourly avoided-cost export price, plus an adder closing after 2027

Published terms

SCE’s Net Billing Tariff credits each exported kilowatt-hour at an hourly price derived from the CPUC’s Avoided Cost Calculator, and if you applied to interconnect between 15 April 2023 and 31 December 2027 that price table is locked for nine years from permission to operate. The price varies by month, by hour and between weekdays and weekends or holidays. Residential customers who applied in that window also earn an ACC Plus adder on each exported kWh, unless an exclusion applies, fixed for the same nine years: $0.016 for a 2026 vintage, or $0.037 for an Equity Customer such as a CARE or FERA household, falling to $0.008 or $0.019 for 2027 and nothing from 2028. Export credits pay only energy charges, never the daily Base Services Charge or non-bypassable charges, though the adder can pay both.

Month to month: Export credits are dollar credits that first pay that month’s energy charges. Anything unused carries to later bills within your 12-month Relevant Period. At the annual true up, leftover credits first cover any of the period’s energy charges still unpaid, then the Energy Export Credit Adjustment, and whatever remains carries into the next Relevant Period (the tariff makes that carry-forward effective from 1 July 2024 or, if later, once SCE’s billing system is ready). Unused ACC Plus adder rolls over to future bills until it is used up, and the balance may extend past the nine-year lock-in.
Once a year: At the end of each 12-month Relevant Period. If you exported more kWh than you imported over that period, SCE calculates an Energy Export Credit Adjustment charge equal to those surplus kWh times its then posted Average Retail Export Compensation Rate. Leftover export credits go first to any of the period’s energy charges still unpaid and then to that adjustment, and any remainder carries forward. A bundled customer who affirmatively elected Net Surplus Compensation before the period’s final bill is also paid for the surplus kWh, as a bill credit or by check, at a rate based on CAISO day-ahead DLAP prices averaged from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. over the 12 months. Leftover export credits are forfeited if you leave the schedule, and the generation part is forfeited if you switch between SCE and a community choice aggregator or direct access provider.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-13 · source

Installers serving SCE customers

Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.

CompanyReviews, years trading, BBB grade

Not sure which to choose?

Let us choose the installer for youIf you are not sure which company to pick, we will recommend a trusted partner installer that serves your address, from the installers available in your area.Choose for me

These are real companies operating in SCE territory. Bold Energy is listed first because it is the company we introduce first. That order is our choice, not a score. The other companies are 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.

What this looks like on a SCE bill

An average California household, against a system sized to cover its year. The energy charge is the part that goes to zero. The fixed monthly charge underneath it is the part that never does, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

Meter readingkWh

Energy charge$174.74

$174.74

We have read this provider’s own tariff. What it still bills you at zero is set out below, with the sheet it came from. The energy line above uses the statewide average. See what they still bill

DirectionReading…

California average household use, 503 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 34.74¢ per kWh. Your utility still bills a fixed monthly customer charge that no system offsets, so this is the energy part of the bill, which is the part that goes away.

SCE requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in SCE territory.

SCE 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 SCE 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. SCE sets its own limits. Ask SCE 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 SCE 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 which EEC vintage year and ACC Plus rate your interconnection request date locks in, and whether the savings estimate depends on the adder. If you apply late in 2027, ask whether the lock holds if permission to operate comes after 31 December 2027, because Sheet 6 says prices for those customers change each year. Check that the estimate uses Schedule TOU-D Option PRIME, the rate residential NBT customers must take. Non-residential accounts, homes that had to install solar under the Title 24 building code, NEM or NEM-ST customers moving over (other than NBT Transition Customers) and anyone moving into a home with an existing system get no adder, and master-metered or non-time-of-use customers get no Equity adder. A new occupant who is not the original account holder’s spouse or domestic partner also loses the locked export prices. On a community choice aggregator, SCE pays only the delivery part of the export price and no Net Surplus Compensation, so ask the aggregator what it pays for the generation part.

What SCE bills you anyway

In a month when your production covers everything you use, the energy charge can reach zero. This does not. It is the floor under every bill, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

The charge: $24.15 a month for most households, $12.08 or $6.00 if you qualify
How it is set: Since November 2025 SCE has billed a Base Services Charge in place of the old Basic Charge. The amount is set by the Commission rather than by SCE, and it is assessed by the day: SCE states "$24.15 per month for customers not enrolled in any of these programs, assessed via an approximate daily charge of $0.80", $12.08 a month at roughly $0.40 a day for FERA households and for qualifying deed-restricted affordable housing, and $6.00 a month at roughly $0.20 a day for CARE households. Multiply the daily figure by the days in your billing period. Two things here matter to a solar household. SCE says the change "decreases the cost you pay for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity by approximately 10%", which moves money out of the rate your panels offset and into a charge ordinary export credits cannot touch (on the Solar Billing Plan, only SCE’s ACC Plus Adder can pay it). And the old floor is gone: asked directly whether a customer with no usage still receives a minimum charge, SCE answers "The minimum charge is no longer applicable. If you have 0 usage, you receive the Base Services Charge." Schedule DM, Domestic Multifamily Accommodation, is the one residential exemption, and it is not an exemption from paying: SCE says those customers "are exempt from the Base Services Charge" and "will continue to pay the Basic Charge", so they stay on the older charge rather than escaping a fixed charge altogether. DM covers a multifamily building on a single SCE meter that is not sub-metered — an apartment building or duplex built on or before 13 June 1978, a residential hotel or a qualifying RV park — so almost no house is on it.

Base Services Charge, effective November 2025 under Assembly Bill 205, amount set by the CPUC · checked 2026-09-29 · source

Applying to SCE

What SCE 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, and each utility publishes its own set of values. There is no single cents figure to quote.
Exports were repriced, self consumption was not: Against the previous tariff, an exported kilowatt hour is now credited at an hourly avoided cost value rather than close to the retail rate. The part that did not change is the important part: a kilowatt hour you use inside the house still avoids the full retail rate. Only what leaves the meter was repriced.
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 hours of the day.
This is the state where a battery does the most work: Storage moves production out of the cheap midday hours and into the evening ones, where nearly all of the export value sits on the utilities’ own price sheets.
There is a bonus credit on exports, it shrinks every year, and it locks for nine: SCE’s Schedule NBT carries an ACC Plus Adder, credited on top of the hourly export price and fixed for nine years. SCE’s own table, in dollars per kWh exported: $0.040 for 2023, $0.032 for 2024, $0.024 for 2025, $0.016 for 2026 and $0.008 for 2027, and nothing from 2028. Equity Customers, including CARE and FERA households, get $0.093, $0.074, $0.056, $0.037 and $0.019. Unused adder rolls over to future bills until it is used up, and it can pay fixed and non-bypassable charges that ordinary export credits cannot.
Some customers get no bonus credit at all: The tariff excludes non-residential accounts, homes that had to install solar under the building code, and NEM or NEM-ST customers moving over (other than NBT Transition Customers). A new customer moving into a home with an existing system is not eligible either, unless they are the original account holder’s spouse or domestic partner. Master-metered and non-time-of-use customers cannot get the Equity adder.
On a community choice aggregator the utility pays only the delivery part: Export compensation is built from a generation component and a delivery component. A bundled utility customer receives both. If your supply comes from a community choice aggregator or through direct access, the utility pays you only the delivery component, which is usually a small fraction of the total, and no Net Surplus Compensation at the true up. What the aggregator pays for the generation part is a separate arrangement with them, so ask for it in writing.
The old tariff is closed to new customers: The previous net metering tariff closed to new applications in April 2023. Systems applied for under it had until April 2026 to finish interconnection, final building permit sign-off and electrical clearing, with a later window for some aggregated applications. No new application can join it.
A daily fixed charge sits under the bill: California now bills a Base Services Charge, set by the Commission rather than by the utility and charged by the day: about $24.15 a month for most households, with CARE households near $6.00 and FERA or deed-restricted affordable housing near $12.08. Ordinary export credits cannot pay it. SDG&E calls it "a non-nettable charge that is not eligible to be offset by export credits" on the Solar Billing Plan. At PG&E and SCE the ACC Plus bonus credit is the one exception: their tariffs let it pay any charge, the fixed charge included.

From SCE’s published guidelines · checked 2026-10-13 · source

SCE net metering questions

Does SCE offer one for one net metering?: No. SCE’s Net Billing Tariff credits each exported kilowatt-hour at an hourly price derived from the CPUC’s Avoided Cost Calculator, and if you applied to interconnect between 15 April 2023 and 31 December 2027 that price table is locked for nine years from permission to operate. The price varies by month, by hour and between weekdays and weekends or holidays. Residential customers who applied in that window also earn an ACC Plus adder on each exported kWh, unless an exclusion applies, fixed for the same nine years: $0.016 for a 2026 vintage, or $0.037 for an Equity Customer such as a CARE or FERA household, falling to $0.008 or $0.019 for 2027 and nothing from 2028. Export credits pay only energy charges, never the daily Base Services Charge or non-bypassable charges, though the adder can pay both.
What does SCE pay for power sent back to the grid?: Hourly avoided-cost export price, plus an adder closing after 2027. At the end of each 12-month Relevant Period. If you exported more kWh than you imported over that period, SCE calculates an Energy Export Credit Adjustment charge equal to those surplus kWh times its then posted Average Retail Export Compensation Rate. Leftover export credits go first to any of the period’s energy charges still unpaid and then to that adjustment, and any remainder carries forward. A bundled customer who affirmatively elected Net Surplus Compensation before the period’s final bill is also paid for the surplus kWh, as a bill credit or by check, at a rate based on CAISO day-ahead DLAP prices averaged from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. over the 12 months. Leftover export credits are forfeited if you leave the schedule, and the generation part is forfeited if you switch between SCE and a community choice aggregator or direct access provider.
Do I need a battery with SCE?: Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because SCE 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 SCE territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my SCE bill?: Sign in at sce.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 SCE?: Ask which EEC vintage year and ACC Plus rate your interconnection request date locks in, and whether the savings estimate depends on the adder. If you apply late in 2027, ask whether the lock holds if permission to operate comes after 31 December 2027, because Sheet 6 says prices for those customers change each year. Check that the estimate uses Schedule TOU-D Option PRIME, the rate residential NBT customers must take. Non-residential accounts, homes that had to install solar under the Title 24 building code, NEM or NEM-ST customers moving over (other than NBT Transition Customers) and anyone moving into a home with an existing system get no adder, and master-metered or non-time-of-use customers get no Equity adder. A new occupant who is not the original account holder’s spouse or domestic partner also loses the locked export prices. On a community choice aggregator, SCE pays only the delivery part of the export price and no Net Surplus Compensation, so ask the aggregator what it pays for the generation part.