Solar Billing Plan - Understanding Export Pricing

How to Read the Energy Export Pricing Data File:

• This file shows the hourly prices for exporting solar energy to SCE for 20 years. There's a unique set of SCE Solar Billing Plan (SBP) prices, based on your vintage year, as shown below. The Solar Billing Plan may also be called Net Billing Tariff (NBT): 
  • NBT23: For customers who applied in 2023 and have fixed prices for 9 years.
  • NBT24: For customers who applied in 2024 and have fixed prices for 9 years.
  • NBT25: For customers who applied in 2025 and have fixed prices for 9 years.
  • NBT00: For customers who do not have fixed prices.
• The prices are presented in Universal Time Coordinates (UTC) format, which is 8 hours ahead of PST. For example, 12:00:00am PST on 1/1/2024 is 8:00:00am UTC on the same day.
• SCE has to provide 20 years of prices, but they are not guaranteed for all customers.  
  • If you have NBT23, NBT24 or NBT25, you only have fixed prices for 9 years from the date you started using solar energy. After that, the prices may change.  
  • If you have NBT00, the current year prices are the actual prices. After that, the prices are for illustrative purposes and may change.
• The file has different columns that explain the prices. Here is what they mean:
  • RIN (Rate Identification Number) Column:  

1. United States, California

2. This tells you if the price is for Delivery or Generation.

• Delivery: “USCA-SCXX”, the Delivery Service EEC Price (transmission, distribution, greenhouse adder and methane leakage) component.
• Generation: “USCA-XXSC”, the Generation EEC Price (energy, cap and trade and generation capacity) component.
  • NOTE: If you buy your energy from another source, such as a Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) or other Energy Service Provider (ESP), you need to check with them about energy export pricing.

3. This tells you which vintage of SBP/NBT the values are for. The number after “NBT” is the year you applied. For example, NBT23 means you applied in 2023.

4. There is no definition, yet.  

• Dates and Times Columns: These tell you when the price is effective.
  • DateStart and DateEnd: These are the dates in UTC time.
  • TimeStart and TimeEnd: These are the times in UTC time.
  • DayStart and DayEnd: These are the days in PST time. They are numbers from 1 to 8. 1-5 are Monday to Friday, 6-7 are Saturday and Sunday, and 8 is a holiday.
• ValueName:  

1. Month
2. Weekday or Weekend
3. HS (Hour Start) and hour of the day (Hours 0-23) in Pacific Prevailing Time 

• Value and Unit Columns: This tells you the value of export kWh for this interval. The unit is US dollars.
• Rate Type: All NBT customers are TOU rate type.