How to model California's NEM 3.0

This video predates April 15th. All new projects now have NEM3 as a default.

California’s NEM 3.0 solar compensation scheme - which applies to any project whose interconnection application was submitted after April 14, 2023 -  has significantly changed the economics of solar projects for customers of California's 3 Investor Owned Utilities relative to NEM 2.0.  (Learn more about NEM 3.0 here.)  

California's NEM 3.0 policy affects customers that purchase electricity from the following 3 major utilities:

• Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
• Southern California Edison (SCE)
• San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)

Transitioning a System from NEM2.0 to NEM3.0 Rates

OpenSolar makes it easy to move a system designed with NEM2.0 rates to the updated NEM3.0 rates. Any time you open or create a project with NEM2.0 rates, you will see a notification at the top of the proposal preview tab indicating the project was designed with NEM2.0 rates. In that notification will be a button enabling you to transition the system savings estimates to be based on NEM3 rates at the click of a button. 

You will also be notified on the Energy tab when a system is designed with NEM2.0 rates with a similar button enabling you to move the project to NEM3.0. 

Searching for NEM3.0 Rates Available in the OpenSolar Database

You can easily find NEM3.0 rates in the OpenSolar Database by including the search keyword search "NEM3" as shown in the image below:

Viewing the Details of a NEM3.0 Rate

If you go to view the details of a NEM3.0 utility rate, you will find a summary of the export rates that applies to that utility tariff rate in the "Solar Compensation" section.

If you’d like any help with modeling NEM 3.0 in your proposals, please reach out to our support team. 

To learn more about adding batteries to systems, please see these Help Center articles:

• Add and update batteries
• How OpenSolar models Battery Storage