California: PG&E, SCE and SDG&E

How to read your true-up bill

If you have solar with PG&E, SCE or SDG&E, one statement a year settles the whole year. Here is what it adds up, why it can be bigger than you expect, and how to see it coming.

Checked November 12, 2026

First: which plan are you on?

It depends on when your system's application went in, and it changes how the true-up works.

The utilities call the yearly statement different things: PG&E's is the True-Up Statement, SCE's the Annual Settlement Statement, and SDG&E calls the 12-month window the Relevant Period. Your true-up month is set by when your system was switched on, and you can ask once to change it.

NEM 1 and NEM 2 last 20 years from when the system was connected. After that, the utility moves you to the current plan; PG&E does it at your annual true-up.

New in 2026: the Base Services Charge

Every residential customer of PG&E, SCE and SDG&E now pays a fixed Base Services Charge of about $24 a month (about $12 or $6 for income-qualified households). It started on October 1, 2025 at SDG&E, November 15, 2025 at SCE and March 1, 2026 at PG&E, where it replaced the old Minimum Delivery Charge. In exchange, per-kWh prices went down.

For solar owners it matters twice: solar credits can't pay it, so it's a floor under every bill, and because per-kWh prices fell, each kWh of credit is worth a little less than before. On NEM, SDG&E lets you pay it monthly or at true-up.

Reading a NEM 2 true-up, line by line

These are the names on PG&E's statement; SCE and SDG&E use similar ones.

1. Total NEM charges before taxes: the year's energy charges minus the year's solar credits. A negative number means your solar covered more than you used.
2. Minimum Delivery Charges (up to March 2026 at PG&E): the small amount you paid each month. If the year's NEM charges are larger, what you already paid is subtracted from what you owe.
3. Base Services Charge (from March 2026 at PG&E): paid on top, and never offset by credits.
4. Non-bypassable charges: state-mandated charges on the power you pull from the grid. Solar credits don't cancel them.
5. Amount due: what's left after all of the above, plus taxes.
6. Net surplus compensation: if you made more than you used over the year, the extra is paid at a low wholesale rate, about 2 to 3 cents per kWh (for October 2026 true-ups: 2.740¢ at PG&E, 1.858¢ at SCE, 2.003¢ at SDG&E).

On the Solar Billing Plan

You already pay energy charges every month, so the true-up is mostly about export credits you didn't use. The utilities treat leftovers differently: at PG&E they roll into the next year, at SCE they're applied to earlier charges and then forfeited, and at SDG&E net surplus is paid at the surplus rate. Your utility's Solar Billing Plan page has the current rule.

Community choice customers get two true-ups

If a community choice agency (MCE, Peninsula Clean Energy, San Diego Community Power, Central Coast Community Energy and others) supplies your power, the utility trues up the delivery part and the agency trues up the generation part, sometimes in a different month. Central Coast Community Energy, for example, trues up every customer in December. Look for two settlement lines, one from each.

Why a true-up can be bigger than you expect

• You use more: an electric car, a heat pump, a pool pump or more people at home.
• The system makes less: a failed inverter or a disconnected panel can go unnoticed for months. Check it against what it should make.
• When you use it: on time-of-use plans, evening power costs more than the midday power your panels export, so the same kWh in and out don't cancel out.
• Prices changed: new rates during the year change what both your use and your credits are worth.

How to avoid a surprise

1. Read one line every month. Your monthly statement shows the running total of charges due at true-up (on PG&E bills, "YTD Estimated NEM Charges at True-Up"). If it's climbing, you'll see the bill coming.
2. Pay toward it monthly. Paying part of the running total each month is the simplest way to avoid one big bill. Ask your utility how.
3. Check the system every few months, or when a monthly bill looks off. A single month can be checked against what it should make for that month.
4. Look at your rate plan once a year with the utility's rate comparison tool, especially after adding an electric car or a battery.

This covers PG&E, SCE and SDG&E customers. City utilities such as LADWP and SMUD set their own rules.

More for solar owners

• Is my solar system working?Check a year, a month or the lifetime total against what your system should make.
• Production guarantee checkLease or PPA: see whether the system fell short of the guarantee and what you're owed.
• Selling a house with solarOwned, financed or leased: UCC-1 filings, lease transfers and buyouts.
• Replacing a roof with solar on itRemoving and reinstalling the panels: cost, who does it, and warranties.
• When the installer has gone out of businessWhat still works, who you pay now, and who can fix it.
• Lease and PPA terms by companyEscalators, transfers and buyouts at Sunrun, Tesla, SunStrong and others.
• Solar company bankruptcy trackerWho services SunPower, Sunnova, PosiGen and other failed companies' contracts now.
• When the leasing company won't answerHow to get a repair or a refund, step by step, in writing.
• Reminders: a spring check and upcoming deadlinesAdd them to your calendar. Nothing is sent to us.

Sources: CPUC: net energy metering and net billing; PG&E: understand your solar bill; PG&E: sample NEM 2 true-up statement with the Base Services Charge; SDG&E: Base Services Charge; SCE: Base Services Charge for solar customers; NRG Clean Power: the solar true-up bill explained; NRG Clean Power: NEM 3.0 is final; MCE: understanding your NEM bill; San Diego Community Power: Solar Billing Plan; Central Coast Community Energy: Solar Billing Plan; Energy Toolbase: NEM 3.0 billing and compensation.

General information, not legal or financial advice. Your contract and your utility's current rules decide.