When Cosmic Solar and Roofing began 16 years ago, people told us, “Even if we install solar, the utility company will always find a way to make us pay.” We assured these concerned clients utilities have grandfathered Net Energy Metering (NEM) plans, providing homeowners stability and an investment opportunity. These guaranteed 20-year agreements were important to provide the industry dependability and credibility – and the utilities kept those promises in place, until now.
Former Edison executive, turned Assemblymember, Lisa Calderon, (D) Whittier, submitted AB 942 to the California Public Utilities Commission. If enacted, this bill would break existing NEM contracts with solar owners, lowering their grandfathering promise down to only 10 years. Utilities are blaming solar customers for not buying as much energy as they used to. However, the home or business owner’s incentive is to save money, while saving the environment. The whole concept is to produce energy and use it at the site of production, saving utilities from having to transmit and distribute energy (electricity) far distances, making the grid more resilient.
According to Brad Heavner, Executive Director of California Solar & Storage Association, utility companies have tripled their own spending in the last 12 years in order to feed their own profits. Utilities are private companies, but are regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), but the CPUC has done a poor job of forcing the utilities to be more efficient. Jeff St. John, Chief Reporter and policy specialist at Canary Media, covered a new analysis commissioned by a distributed solar and storage trade group with partner Richard McCann, at M. Cubed Consulting says that rooftop solar has actually saved customers about $2.3 billion on their utility bills in 2024. San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, a North American energy infrastructure company. They have a Texas division, but SDGE operates within the Sempra California division. It is very easy to look up its enormous profits. It does not make sense that utilities want to scapegoat solar for losing money. Solar customers finance their own systems, pay utilities for hook up to the grid, send extra production to the grid to be sold to other utility customers and pay distribution fees for times when utilities send power to their homes. Rooftop solar customers are investing in the utilities and until now they have been getting credit for energy sent to the grid. They deserve fair compensation, not penalties. Solar customers own their solar production and they should be able to sell it to the utilities because the utilities sell it and make the profit themselves.
California citizens have done the right thing by following the energy goals of California. The extreme weather conditions we have been experiencing have driven energy usage up and electric vehicle usage is on the rise. High peak hour usage is now in the evening with more use of air conditioning and heating during 4:00pm to 9:00pm, leaving many (even solar customers, at times) with unmanageably high utility bills.
Recently, Cosmic Solar and Roofing toured Lunar Energy’s storage systems design and manufacturing plant in Mountain View, California. At our company, we offer Powerwall 3, Franklin Whole Home and Enphase batteries, as well as others, however, new storage technology is rapidly changing and is very exciting. These systems foster innovation and are improving technologies to integrate distributed energy resources. With these systems, you can control your storage system from anywhere in the world with an app on your phone by turning smart home appliances on and off or, and another click takes you off-grid. Or this technology can be deployed in an automated way to turn off or on devices depending on the weather conditions and how much storage is in your battery. With these integrated systems the future of solar and storage is very exciting and with the help of AI it is just the beginning of automation. The future of rooftop solar in California is about freedom, fairness, and environmental stewardship. Utilities may seek control, but Californians can fight for lower bills, clean air, and climate leadership. Protecting solar rights ensures a future where the sun’s power belongs to all.
Californians trusted the 20-year NEM contract would be honored by the utilities and should not stand for an Assembly member (who worked at Edison for 25 years) taking away the important rights of solar owners across the State. Coincidentally, according to the LA Times, Southern California Edison gave Calderon’s campaign $11,000. Sempra provided $11,000 and Pacific Gas & Electric $8,000. This is the same individual attempting to roll back solar benefits the utilities had promised to solar owners for 20 years. Rooftop solar paired with battery storage can meet evening energy peaks, support EV charging, and prevent blackouts. Trust must be preserved. Breaking 20-year agreements discourages solar and storage investment and erodes public confidence. Solar companies have continued to adapt to new, more restrictive NEM plans and now must prevent bill AB 492 from passing.
You might ask yourself “I’m only one individual. What can I do?” First of all, we can contact our state representatives and the Governor’s office and let them know we expect the CPUC to hold utilities accountable to their contract with solar owners. Secondly, solar owners are installing batteries to store their production during the day, and using it in the evening. This saves the home or business owner money by not sending their energy to the utilities’ grid. The research on battery systems is accelerating and smart systems are monitoring and regulating the battery systems so they store and use energy in a timely manner to save even more money for solar owners. These systems will off-set the utilities lack of compensation for solar customers. Storage systems are becoming smarter and the utilities need to cooperate with the goals of the state and partner with solar customers fairly. Here at Cosmic Solar and Roofing, we have maneuvered around these more restrictive NEM plans while many predicted the end of solar, but yet we managed to adapt and continue on in this difficult environment where legislators continue to try to put an end to the solar industry. Now the utilities have thrown another roadblock presented and supported by state legislators and the Governor.
Here’s how you can help: AB 942 (Calderon) proposes to break your existing solar contracts, cutting the term from 20 years to ten years. Please make a phone call to oppose AB 942. Call the bill author, Assemblymember Lisa Calderon at (562) 692-5858. When the phone picks up, please say something similar to the following: “Hi! My name is _____ . I am calling to urge the Assemblymember to pull AB 942 from consideration. Stop penalizing solar customers and start going after the real reason for higher utility rates: Runaway utility spending that is not effectively regulated.”
Judith Shadzi, PR & Pey Shadzi, Vice President of Cosmic Solar & Roofing.
