Net measuring abbreviations applied by the Supreme Court in California

The Supreme Court of California today is ranked groups for the environment in a case, regarded as the main one for the spread of solar energy on the roof in California.

In unanimous voting, the judges told a more nine court to review a decision that it confirms the payments of the owners of solar panels for the sale of unnecessary energy back to utility companies. The lower court “wrong, by relying on (a) a highly delayed approach“In order to review the decisions of the regulators of state utility services, justice Leonra Krueger wrote in the decision. He used a standard dating before legitimate changes approved by the state legislative body more than 25 years ago, has expanded the judicial review of the regulators’ decisions, she writes.

The decision in question by the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the California Committee on Utilities in 2022 to reduce the “net energy measurement” payments to the owners of panels by about 75%. Although the Supreme Court stated that the decision was referring to the wrong legal standard, the higher court did not rule on the legality of reduced payments, leaving it to the lower court to decide by a new standard.

“They generally said that the lower court was packed throughout the substance from the decision (net measurement),” says Bernadet Del Chiaro, Vice President of California in the Environment Working Group. “I think they make it clear that this should be reviewed.”

The previous decision of the Commission for Utilities to change the net measurement program was intended to help accounts be accessible to all customers, while promoting the acceptance of renewable energy sources. The Lynn Group, as well as the Protect Foundation, our communities and the working group for the environment, claims that the decision of the Commission for Utilities leaves decisive reasons for the benefits of the customers and disadvantaged communities.

According to the previous iterations of the program – “NEM 1” and “NEM 2” – utilities paid to SOLAR customers at a retail rate for their extra energy, which is the same price that utilities would charge other customers when resolding this energy. This was changed with the current iteration of the program – “NEM 3.0” – which instead gives customers the “avoided costs”, which is how many utilities they save without buying this energy in the wholesale market.

Customers who joined the program after mid -April 2023 receive the new rate, while customers under the previous two versions will continue to receive the old rate for the duration of their contracts, which is usually about 20 years.

The utility commissioners ruled in favor of energy companies, who claim that the older versions of the program create a disloyal burden on customer costs. Those without solar energy on the roof, said utilities, have to pay more than their peers for routine network support. The groups leading the case stated that this idea was overworked.

Environmental groups have said this decision has left the benefits of the benefits of low -income clients, as well as the benefits of “millions of customer generation facilities providing energy in hot summer days and preventing eclipses,” Malinda Dickenson, representative of the three ecological groups, told a hearing in JuneS

The 2022 Commission’s decision of the Committee on Utilities includes an 82% drop in customers seeking solar roofing links, and industrial groups expected a loss of about 17,000 jobs in the first year of change.

This is a developing story.