Big SDGE NEM 2.0 (and 1.0?) detrimental change starts May 1, 2026

[CharlieEscCA]

The current March and April only Monday thru Friday time periods 10 am to 2 pm being Super Off Peak is becoming year round.

I have a program that pulls actual solar production from Solar Edge and calculates the value of that production based on the actual tariffs in place for each and every day.

Modifying this program to include a setting to treat the entire year having weekdays 10 to 2 be super off peak, my last years true up is as follows:

01/09/2025 to 01/08/2026	$Value	Peak kWh	Off Peak kWh	Super Off Peak kWh
March and April only weekdays 10-2 super off peak	$6562	2438	8704	3443
All months weekdays 10-2 super off peak	$5700	2438	4602	7545

So, unless you have a very large unused NEM balance at the end of your true up period prior to this change, you will be looking at a larger true up amount owed.

And whenever the tariffs change again, if the spread between super off peak and off peak becomes larger, the pain will be greater.

The good news is that my six year old system recovered all costs in the first three years.

The other item of note that before this change, any battery made no economic sense, while a small battery could eliminate a substantial portion of the peak kWh usage BUT it would want to be configured to only recharge from 10 am to 2 pm (one could keep recharging to 4 pm of not fully charged and you expect to want more kWh for peak usage that day).

Based on my unused NEM balance these past six years, I expect to still have an unused NEM balance or perhaps owe $100 to $200 more - so again for me, a battery makes no sense until my 20 year NEM 2.0 eligibility ends.

Are we still loving CA?

P.S. I saw nothing about this change having been proposed / discussed - it just got announced April 21, 2026 (I just learned of this today).

[solar pete]

HI CharlieEscCA,

Thanks for sharing, I found it interesting that you got system payback in 3 yrs, that's better than we typically get here in Australia where it seems at the moment it is closer to 4 to 5 years on average, although those with larger bills who get a solar and battery system now that we have a subsidy on battery's can get around a 4year payback time. Cheers

[CharlieEscCA]

Payback was quick because SDGE rates are so high.

I'm able to track exactly what I use and when I use it. So using the tariffs, I track my avoided cost.

[haizman]

Charlie,

I just became aware of the 10-2pm super off-peak change and trying to quantify the impact to my system (NEM 1.0 - 8 years remaining). I too have a SolarEdge system (5kW) and are wondering if you can share more details around your analysis program?

I've played around with curruptbear's my_SDGE solution on Github to try and compare rate plans using the Green button usage export, but find it difficult to update outdated rate tables to gain accurate insights.

I'm really wondering if adding a battery will be cost-effective at this point, given that I'm on EV-TOU-5? I'm also wondering what the right tactics are to maximize a battery storage with the new Super Off-Peak changes that reduce my NEM 1.0 value during prime production times.

Thanks!

[CharlieEscCA]

Since posting this, I have switched my rate plan to TOU-DR (instead of EV-TOU-2) as this plan has the least spread (ie difference) between Peak to Off Peak to Super Off Peak, and in my situation, this makes this switch a non issue. I generate anywhere between 1400 to 1800 excess kWh over my 12 month true up period, so as long as the spread between the different rate periods is not super wide, I'm good to go.

You can log into the SDGE website and go to the "Change my plan" area. Select choose a new plan, and it will show the "wait" indication, but come back with a comparison of different options. I'm 99% sure you want to get off that EV-TOU-5 plan as you are correct it greatly devalues you super off peak production.

If you take my kWh totals and turn it into percentage peak, off-peak, super off-peak production, apply that to your yearly solar production that SolarEdge shows, you will have a pretty good idea of your production for those three period. You can then look at your true-up bill and see the total year end (positive or negative) net usage for each time period and do kind of a rough idea of how this might affect you.

If you want, you can post a picture of just this table (remove your account number if its on there) and I can give you my comments on how different plans affect you.