Modeling California’s NEM 2.0 takes two extra steps in the financing page. Recall that a utility rate is made up of charges for energy generation, transmission, distribution, and charges for other small programs in addition to a minimum monthly charge. In NEM 2.0, the charges for some programs, such as nuclear decommissioning and various public programs, can’t be reversed. These are called “non-bypassable charges” and can’t be offset by future solar production. In addition, California utilities don’t compensate the solar customer for these programs - so the customer only gets credit for excess energy based on the energy portion of the bill but not the program fees. This portion is what we refer to as an “hourly export penalty” - the value of the program is removed from the hourly rate. The program fees are typically between 1 and 3 cents per kWh, small in comparison to the overall rate.
To model NEM 2.0 in Aurora, create a financing with the following:
- Set the Export Rule to Hourly Export Penalty
- Specify the Non-bypassable-charge rate. Aurora maintains these values in the associated utility rates for PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E so you may see these values auto-filled. If not, consult the utility company’s rate sheets.
- Set the Billing Frequency to Annual
- Aurora will only apply non-bypassable-charges to Annual billing projects.
To learn how to add in a custom rate, check out steps here.