Solar Choice program costs
Solar Choice Rate Calculator
NOTE: Solar Choice is closed to new enrollments. This rate calculator can be used by existing Solar Choice customers to estimate their bill impacts for remaining on the program in 2022.
A customer enrolled in the Solar Choice program remains on their existing electric rate plan. When you enrolled, you chose to have 50% or 100% of your monthly electricity usage to be generated via solar projects. This calculator provides bill impact estimates for customers who enrolled in this program between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 (referred to as "2020 vintage" in the Price Terms and Conditions (PDF, 287 KB)). Most participants are part of this group.
Calculate your own estimated costs
If you enrolled in Solar Choice outside of the dates above you are on a different vintage rate. The average impact for a residential customer using 500 kWh/month is about $3.50 at the 100% participation level. However, with a few pieces of information, you can estimate your own monthly costs.
- Find your vintage rate on your bill
- Multiply your monthly usage from your bill (example: 500 kWh/month) by the total price per kWh that applies to you from the Price Terms and Conditions (PDF, 287 KB) to estimate your monthly impact. These are outlined in a table by vintage year. Customers at the 50% participation level will only have half the impact.
Additional Program Details
- Your vintage year is determined by when you joined Solar Choice. If you enrolled in the first six months of a year you are assigned the previous year’s vintage. For example, if you enrolled in May 2021 you would be on the 2020 vintage rate, while if you enrolled in July 2021, you would be on the 2021 vintage.
- All participants on the 2020 vintage pay slightly more for Solar Choice after 03/01/22 compared to before this date. All residential, streetlight, and electric vehicle (BEV) participants will also pay slightly more regardless of when they enrolled.
- Small business customers on the 2019 and 2020 vintage pay slightly more, while customers on 2015-2018 vintages pay less.
- All other vintage rates are lower in 2022 than 2021, meaning those participants pay less after 03/01/22.
- All medium business (A-10) participants still enjoy a discount compared to not participating in Solar Choice.
- Customers can leave Solar Choice at any time without penalty.
- PG&E cannot predict future Solar Choice rates, but if a participant leaves the program they will not be able to rejoin until at least 2025 due to direction from the California Public Utilities Commission.
2020 Vintage Bill Impact Calculator
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). 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 (PDF, 92KB).
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 (PDF, 92KB) or check out the program's Price, Terms and Conditions (PDF, 245 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, 333 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. Residential enrollment in Solar Choice is on hold pending California Public Utility Commission action on PG&E’s Emergency Petition for Modification (PFM). Residential customers attempting to enroll will be placed on a waitlist for future enrollment. Nonresidential capacity in the program is full and customers are being waitlisted for future enrollment if capacity becomes available.
Green–e Energy certification
PG&E's Solar Choice program is Green-e Energy certified.
LEARN MORE AT WWW.GREEN-E.ORG