City of Roseville

Roseville Electric is implementing annual billing for solar customers beginning Jan. 1, 2011 because it's required by California state law.

Our customers are billed monthly for their prior month's energy use. The total energy charges billed is the difference between the electricity the customer used and how much power was generated by the solar panels during that time period.

Eligible solar customers will continue to receive a bill for monthly energy charges, but customers are now eligible to pay the energy charges (kWh) once during a 12 month period. All other charges - the monthly basic service charge and all Environmental Utility (water, garbage and sewer) charges - are due and payable every month, as they are today.

Solar customers who generate more energy than they use will receive a monthly statement showing a credit to their energy charges (kWh). The credit will carry forward each monthly billing period.

If the customer's credit from solar generation is smaller than the amount of electricity used, the bill will show an amount owed for energy charges. However, the customer is not required to pay the energy charge balance until the end of the 12-month billing cycle. The customer will be notified in the utility bill, when the balance is due and payable.

If the customer has a credit at the end of the12-month billing period, the credit will appear on the bill and roll to the next month. Customers also have the option to request a refund check for this amount.

The new law specifically prohibits applying credits from the generation of solar to be applied to our customer's entire bill amount - just the customers' electric energy charge. In the past, the credit has applied to the entire bill, which includes water, garbage and sewer charges. California law prohibits the City from applying the credit to other utility charges.

We are working on a billing solution that is easy for our solar customers to understand. As soon as the new bill is created we will post a sample on our website at www.roseville.ca.us/solarbilling

Solar customers on the 12-month billing cycle can pay any month they owe. In fact, Roseville Electric recommends customers pay the balance shown each month to avoid a very large bill at the end of the 12 month billing cycle.

The annual year for each customer will be different and will reflect when your account was changed to the annual billing plan.

The Finance Department will transition solar customers to annual billing beginning in January 2011. The transition is expected to be complete by the end of March 2011.

• All residential and small commercial customers who have solar generation systems and meet all of Roseville Electric's Rule 21 Standards for Interconnection and comply with applicable requirements in the City of Roseville municipal code.
• Small commercial customers are those who are non-residential solar customers with a historical demand (kW) less than or equal to 10kW over the past 12 months

• All other non-residential solar customers with a historical demand (kW) greater than 10kW over the past 12 months
• Solar and Large Business Customers (more than 10 kW peak demand) any month they have a credit it will carry over to the next month. Any month where they have used more electricity than they have generated must pay the amount owed on their bill. At the end of 12 months, they will lose any excess energy generated.
• Solar customers who do not meet all of Roseville Electric's Rule 21 Standards for Interconnection are not eligible.

Monthly

• The energy generated by the customer's solar and not used by the customer will be credited to the customer's energy charges.
• Credits may roll from billing period to billing period.

Annually

• Solar energy generated that exceeds the amount used by the customer during the 12 month annual period is valued at the Net Surplus Energy Compensation rate which is defined by City Municipal Code. 

The credit rate for surplus kilowatt hours is the same as the current tier 1 residential kWh energy charge.

State law does not mandate electric utilities reimburse customers at the market rate for solar. Roseville Electric's solar reimbursement rate was adopted by the Roseville City Council in late 2010 and is effective beginning January 1, 2011.

If you are already a solar customer, the billing change does not require us to replace your meter. The state's new law does not change the way electricity is measured by your meter. You will continue to have a net meter - which ensures your bill shows the amount of electricity (kWh) used and the amount of energy generated during the monthly billing cycle.