Many solar homeowners are told the same thing before installation: your electricity bill will practically disappear. So they invest thousands in panels, navigate complex financing, and at first, it seems true. Bills drop to almost nothing. Then, out of nowhere, a $200 bill shows up. Or $400. And eventually, an annual “true-up” bill for $1,000 or more without a clear explanation of where it came from.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most common frustrations we hear from solar customers in the Bay Area. The issue isn’t that your solar panels aren’t working. The real problem is how PG&E calculates, credits, and bills your electricity under solar through systems like NEM 2.0/NEM 3.0 (net billing) and time-of-use rates. The system is complex, and the bill itself rarely explains what’s happening. Once you understand how PG&E structures solar billing, those unexpected charges start to make a lot more sense.
Your Panels Are Working. Your Bill Structure Isn't.
Most people assume that if their solar panels are generating electricity, their bill should be close to zero. That’s not how it works.
Even with a perfectly sized system, there are parts of your Pacific Gas and Electric Company bill that solar simply can’t eliminate. Here’s what you’re still paying for:
The Base Services Charge
As of March 2026, every PG&E residential customer pays a flat fee of about $24 per month just to stay connected to the grid. It doesn’t matter how much electricity you use or how much your panels produce. This charge covers infrastructure, billing, and public programs. It replaced the old minimum charge and is actually about $10 higher for most households. You can read more about PG&E’s base services charge here.
Non-Bypassable Charges
Any time you pull electricity from the grid (i.e. at night, on cloudy days, or during heavy evening use), you pay small per-unit fees called non-bypassable charges. They’re only about 2-4 cents per unit, but they add up over the year. And importantly, your solar credits can’t offset them. Even if your system produces more energy than you use overall, you’ll still owe these charges.
The Timing Mismatch
This is the big one. Your panels generate the most power in the middle of the day. But most households use the most electricity in the evening — cooking, heating or cooling, charging devices, watching TV. During those hours, your system isn’t producing much (or anything), so you’re buying electricity from PG&E at their most expensive rates. This phenomenon is known as the duck curve.
Your Solar Credits Might Be Worth a Lot Less Than You Think
When your panels generate more electricity than you’re using, the extra gets sent back to the grid. In return, PG&E gives you a credit. But here’s the catch: what that credit is worth depends entirely on when you went solar.
If you went solar before April 2023 (NEM 2.0)
You’re on the older net metering system, where exported electricity is credited at close to the retail rate. That means if you send a unit of electricity to the grid, you get almost the same value as if you had used it yourself. It’s a great deal.
For now, you’re locked into this plan. However, legislation like AB 942 could eventually move NEM 1.0 and 2.0 customers onto newer, less favorable terms after a set period.
If you went solar after April 2023 (NEM 3.0 / Net Billing)
This is where the math changes dramatically. Under the new system, your exported electricity is no longer credited at the retail rate. Instead, it’s valued based on “avoided cost,” or what it would have cost PG&E to generate that power elsewhere. In practice, that usually works out to about 5 to 8 cents per unit during the middle of the day. The problem: you’re often buying electricity back in the evening for 40 to 60 cents per unit, meaning you’re selling low and buying high. In real terms:
Your panels export 15 units at noon → you earn about $1.00 in creditsYou import 15 units at 7 PM → you pay about $7.50 to $9.00
You’re $6 to $8 in the hole per day. Multiply that across a month, and the gap becomes hard to ignore.
Bottom Line
For customers on the new billing system, the value of daytime solar exports often isn’t enough to cover the cost of evening usage. That mismatch is the single biggest reason many solar households are still seeing high bills.
The PG&E True-Up Bill: 12 Months of Charges in One Shot
If you’re a solar customer on NEM 2.0, you’re not actually settling your energy bill each month. Instead, PG&E tracks your charges and credits over a full 12-month period and then settles the difference in one annual bill called the “true-up.” This tends to be where the confusion lies.
In the summer, your panels are producing more than what you need. You’re exporting energy, building up credits, and your monthly statements look great, sometimes even showing a balance in your favor.
Then winter hits, days are shorter and your panels produce less. Meanwhile, your usage goes up—heating, lighting, and everyday life. You start drawing down the credits you banked over the summer. If your winter usage outweighs your summer surplus, you end the year owing money.
Here’s the part most people don’t expect; because PG&E uses time-of-use pricing, not all electricity is valued the same. The energy you export on a sunny summer afternoon is credited at a lower rate than what you pay for electricity on a winter evening. So even if your total production and usage roughly balance out over the year, the dollars often don’t.
You're on a Rate Plan You Didn't Choose (and It Might Not Fit)
When you go solar with PG&E, you’re automatically placed on a time-of-use rate plan which means electricity isn’t priced the same throughout the day. It gets most expensive between 4 and 9 PM, exactly when your panels are producing the least and your household is using the most. But what most solar customers don’t realize is that PG&E offers multiple time-of-use plans.
Each one has different peak windows, different price swings, and different tradeoffs. Depending on how and when you use electricity, one plan can be meaningfully cheaper than another. Most people never choose their plan, they’re simply defaulted into a plan during installation—and stay there.
If you went solar under NEM 3.0, you’re likely on a plan called E-ELEC, which was designed for all-electric homes, which comes with its own tradeoffs. The gap between peak and off-peak pricing is wide, which can work against you if most of your electricity usage happens in the evening. This is especially painful if you don’t have a battery to shift your usage.
The really frustrating part is that PG&E doesn’t make it easy to see what you would have paid on a different plan. So, you’re left guessing whether the rate you’re on actually fits your life or is quietly costing you hundreds a year.
Four steps to diagnose why your PG&E solar bill is high:
If you want a rough sense of what’s happening with your bill, here are a few things you can check:
- Figure out which net metering plan you’re on. Log into your PG&E Company account and open your energy statement. Look for “NEM 1.0,” “NEM 2.0,” or “Solar Billing Plan” (NEM 3.0). This matters more than most people realize as it determines how much your exported electricity is actually worth.
- Look at your energy statement, not just the amount due. Most solar customers only look at the bottom-line number on their monthly bill, which is usually low. But the energy statement shows your running balance of credits and charges. If that number is trending negative through the winter, it’s often a sign you’re heading toward a larger true-up.
- Check when you’re pulling from the grid. If your account shows hourly usage, look for spikes between 4 and 9 PM. That’s the most expensive window, and it’s typically when solar panels aren’t producing. If your usage is concentrated there, costs can add up quickly.
- Pressure-test your timing. As a quick experiment, ask yourself: could any major usage shift earlier in the day? Things like dishwashers, laundry, or EV charging running during daylight hours use your own solar production rather than exporting it for low credits and buying it back later at higher prices.
These steps can help you spot obvious issues, but they don’t answer the harder questions like whether you’re on the right rate plan, how much your timing is actually costing you, or what would meaningfully lower your bill. That’s where things tend to break down. Doing this analysis manually is tedious, and PG&E doesn’t make it easy to compare your options or model the impact of changes.
Why We're Building Nura
Going solar was supposed to simplify your electricity costs. Instead, the billing got more complicated: net metering tiers, time-of-use pricing, true-up cycles, export credits that change by the hour. None of it is explained in a way that helps you actually make decisions.
That's what we're building with Nura. We connect to your smart meter data, show you exactly where the gap between your solar production and your consumption is costing you, and tell you whether a different rate plan would save you money for the way you actually live. No hardware, no guesswork.
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