The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is soon to vote on a proposed decision that is expected to be harmful to the value of
rooftop solar for renters in multifamily housing, farms, and schools.
The decision would disallow residents of multi-meter properties to consume their own rooftop solar production, even if they own the solar array. The policy forces customers to first sell their solar production to the utility, and then buy it back at higher rates.
“The CPUC is proposing a blatant seizure of property,” said the Solar Rights Alliance.
California’s existing Virtual Net Metering and Net Energy Metering Aggregation programs allow properties with multiple meters to install a single solar array for the entire property, sharing one system’s electricity and associated net metering credits with all customers and meters on the property. The proposed decision states that these customers should be limited in how much of their own solar production they can use, even if it is stored in their own battery.