Solar Choice program costs
Solar Choice Rate Calculator
When you enroll in the Solar Choice program, you remain on your existing electric rate plan and pay a modest additional fee on a per kWh basis for clean solar power. The fee depends on your type of service, rate plan and enrollment level. You can choose to have 50% or 100% of your monthly electricity usage to be generated via solar projects. Use our calculator to determine your additional monthly fee. It’s helpful to have your PG&E bill available to figure out your monthly usage.
Use calculator to view costs and annual equivalents
DISCLAIMER: Rates are subject to change annually and as approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The estimated additional cost per month is for illustrative purposes only and PG&E cannot guarantee the accuracy of the estimated cost. Your additional monthly cost for participating in PG&E's Solar Choice will vary, based on your actual electric usage. The estimated additional cost per month does not include other fees such as local utility user taxes, certain other taxes, surcharges and fees. PG&E's Solar Choice rate per kWh has been rounded to two decimal places for presentation purposes. For complete rates, review electric rate schedule E-GT (PDF, 383 KB).
Bill charges and credits
In the Solar Choice program, you will be charged for the solar power you are purchasing and related program charges. In return, you will receive a credit for the standard generation you are no longer purchasing. Read on for a more detailed description of our bill charges and credits:
The Solar Charge is the cost of the renewable solar power. This is calculated as the weighted average cost of the resources serving the program.
The Program Charge is set to fund the program’s marketing and administration costs, provide a credit for the positive value that solar provides to the grid, as well as cover additional energy-related costs to ensure that non-participating customers do not fund the program.
Those additional costs include:
- Costs associated with integrating the new renewable resources with the grid (Renewables Integration Charge). No value has yet been approved by the CPUC for this.
- State-level grid-management costs (California Independent System Operator, CAISO).
- Costs for registering, tracking and retiring Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS).
- Resource Adequacy (RA) costs to ensure that there are sufficient generating resources available for anticipated load, locally and on a system basis.
- A credit for the positive value that solar provides in delivering energy to the grid during peak hours (Solar Value Adjustment).
- Program marketing and administration costs.
The Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) is a CPUC-approved figure that ensures stranded generation costs are not shifted to non-participating customers when you switch to PG&E's Solar Choice program. The PCIA value differs by vintage year. Vintage year is based on the date that you begin service on PG&E's Solar Choice program. If you begin service in the first six months of the calendar year (e.g., 2017), you are assigned the prior year's vintage (i.e., 2016). If you begin service on or after July 1, you are assigned the vintage for the current year (2017 in this example). For reference, review the historical values.
The Generation Credit is a credit equal to the average generation rate for your customer class. This credit is to recognize that your renewable energy purchase displaces the charges for the generation portfolio associated with your base rate.
Learn more about the various components described above: review our Historical Rates Table below (click to enlarge) or check out the program's Price, Terms and Conditions (PDF, 286 KB).
20-Year Rate Forecast
Review potential future changes to the credits and charges in our community renewable rates.
Download the 20-Year Rate Forecast (PDF, 190 KB)
DISCLAIMER: This CPUC-approved forecast may result in inaccurate results.
The 20-year forecast of credits and charges shown here are based on a prescribed forecast methodology ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for use by the state’s three large investor-owned utilities and is based on a combination of a rolling five-year escalation rate and an escalation rate using a Consumer Price Index (CPI).* The forecasts are provided to illustrate potential future changes to the credits and charges to help you evaluate your intended participation in PG&E’s Solar Choice or Regional Renewable Choice program. As the CPUC acknowledged in D.16-05-006 (PDF, 588 KB), an estimate of GTSR credits and charges for 20 years (or even 5 to 10 years) is challenging and unlikely to be accurate. Moreover, the 20-year forecasts shown here are not necessarily representative of PG&E-specific forecasts of rate components. PG&E can neither predict nor guarantee any actual cost savings or increases due to changes to these credits and charges, and such changes will affect actual costs. Please contact PG&E for more information about this forecast.
* Specifically, a rolling five year rate escalation was applied to the GTSR component rates that had historical values and the CPI index was applied to GTSR component rates where no historical information was available.
Enroll in Solar Choice
Enrollment is easy. Sign in to your PG&E online account or call us at 1-877-743-8429.
Green–e Energy certification
PG&E's Solar Choice program is Green-e Energy certified.
LEARN MORE AT WWW.GREEN-E.ORG