Understand Your NEM Bill
- 6129 views
Why Do I Still Get a Monthly Bill?
As a residential or small-business NEM customer, you still receive a monthly bill to track your “net energy charges.” These are any charges you owe for the energy you consume from SCE after we subtract any credit for surplus energy your system generates.
You’ll also see some set fees appear on your bill, which will appear as “Delivery” or “Nonbypassable” charges. These fees apply to all SCE customers to support maintenance, operations, and public programs and are due monthly regardless of your energy use.
NEM Billing Options
When you become an NEM customer, you have two options for how to be billed:
1. Annual Billing Option (ABO): With ABO, you are responsible for set fees each month, but you pay all your net energy charges just once a year, at the end of your 12-month cycle. If you prefer to pay your new energy charges monthly instead of annually, you can opt-in to MBO by logging in and submitting this form.
2. Monthly Billing Option (MBO): With MBO, you pay your set fees and net energy charges in full every month, instead of a lump sum at the end of the year.
Annual Settlement Statement: At the end of each 12-month billing cycle, regardless of your Billing Option, your remaining net energy charges are due. If you have a credit balance, you may be eligible for a payout, calculated at the Net Surplus Compensation (NSC) rate. Your net energy balance will reset to zero at the start of each 12-month billing cycle.
What’s on Your Monthly Bill?
Your bill contains everything you need to know about your energy use for the month:
- Amount Due: What you owe now
- Year-to-Date Charges: Annual total as of bill date, due at the end of your 12-month cycle (only applies to ABO customers)
- Detailed Energy Charges: A list and total of individual charges and credits
- Detailed Energy Use: Your current use and history
Examples:
View Full NEM 1.0 Bill Breakdown
View Full NEM 2.0 Bill Breakdown
You can also take our quick video tour of your new bill: Watch the Video
Want just to see what you owe at a glance? Your balance due, as well as your year-to-date total, are listed on the first page of your bill:
Credits, Charges & Annual Settlement
Sometimes your solar generating system produces more energy than you need. When this happens, SCE buys your surplus energy, and you get credit for it.
Similarly, when your solar generating system is producing less energy than you need – for example, at night, or when it’s cloudy – SCE will provide energy and you’ll be charged for it.
Your net energy is the difference between the energy you produce and the energy you consume:
Energy You Produce – Energy You Consume = Net Energy
At the end of the year, you receive your annual settlement statement:
If you consumed more energy than you produced during the year, you’ll have an end-of-year balance due and owe that balance in full.
If you end the year with a negative balance (unused credit), and you opted-in to Net Surplus Compensation (NSC), it will be paid out as a bill credit or by check at the NSC rate.
Billing / Net Surplus Energy Compensation (NSC)
To learn more about how to read your NEM bill statement, please visit on.sce.com/nembillcalc.
Once you’re enrolled in NEM, SCE tracks the amount of electricity exported to the grid by your solar system, as well as the amount of electricity you consume from the grid, during each billing period. We then calculate the “net” difference between the value of your consumed and exported energy to determine the final charges for your electricity. NEM doesn’t track all the energy your solar system produces, only the excess energy you provide to the grid.
If your solar system produces more energy than you need, NEM allows you to receive credit(s) for the surplus electricity you supply to the electric grid. Exported energy can lower your balance or, in some cases, offset it completely – it all depends on how much energy you produce versus how much energy you consume. If your excess energy balance is more than your total energy consumed from the grid, you’ll have leftover energy credit that will roll over into the next month. This credit will roll over every month through your 12-month billing cycle. At the end of that cycle, you either pay any remaining balance owed, or you may still have unused credit. If you still have unused credit when you receive your annual settlement statement, you may be eligible for a payout at the Net Surplus Compensation (NSC) rate.
Your energy charges are the same whether you are an Annual Billing Option (ABO) customer or a Monthly Billing Option (MBO) customer. The difference between the two billing options is when you pay your energy charges.
- Annual Billing Option (ABO): With ABO, you are responsible for set fees each month, but you pay your net energy charges just once a year, at the end of your 12-month cycle.
- Monthly Billing Option (MBO): With MBO, you pay both your set fees and net energy charges in full every month, instead of a lump sum at the end of the year.
Both billing options have advantages: The ABO option offers you the simplicity of a single payment that calculates your total net energy for the year; the MBO option may benefit customers who want to avoid a potentially large balance due all at once. This can happen if your energy exceeds your solar generation, causing charges to build up over the course of a year. You can always log in to My Account online to track your usage to see if and when you’re consuming energy from the grid. This can help you plan ahead for a large end-of-year balance, or decide whether to switch to MBO and “pay as you go.”
If you are an ABO customer and would prefer to pay your energy charges monthly in more manageable payments, you can opt-in to MBO by logging in and submitting this form. It will take 60 days after your change request is processed for monthly billing to begin.
Accounts with Permission to Operate are typically set-up for NEM billing within a few billing cycles, however, we are experiencing delays in some instances where SCE is unable to reprogram or replace the existing meter. Your non-NEM bill will still track the amount of electricity used from the electric grid but will not reflect the surplus energy credit(s) supplied to the electric grid, until the issue is resolved. The credit(s) for the surplus energy you supply to the electric grid will appear on your first NEM bill. For billing inquiries, please contact SCE Customer Service at 866-701-7868 for NEM residential customers or 866-701-7869 for NEM business customers. To learn more about how to read your NEM bill statement, please visit on.sce.com/nembillcalc.
There are several reasons your settlement bill (the annual bill you receive at the end of your 12-month cycle for your net energy balance) may be higher than you expect. Most NEM customers are enrolled in the Annual Billing Option (ABO), which means you receive one settlement bill each year for energy you’ve consumed. Remember, your settlement bill is the bill for all of your net energy charges for the year. If you consume more energy from the grid than your system produces over the course of a year, charges can add up.
This is especially true if you start using more energy after your system is installed; for example, if you buy an electric vehicle, or install a pool. If your solar generating system wasn’t sized with these investments in mind, you’ll use more energy from the grid.
Another reason you might have a higher bill depends on when you use energy. Since most NEM customers are billed through a Time-of-Use (TOU) rate, energy prices vary by time of day and season. If you can shift energy use to off-peak daytime hours (8 a.m. – 4 p.m.) when your system is active, it can help you use less grid energy overall, and at the most affordable pricing during the day.
You can view your usage history by logging in to My Account. You’ll be able to see both the energy you’ve consumed from the grid, as well as the excess energy you’ve generated. Reviewing your usage history can help identify when to shift your energy use, which can have an impact on your bill. Get Energy Tips>.
You can switch to the Monthly Billing Option (MBO) to pay your new energy charges monthly instead of annually. If you’d like to opt into MBO, you can do so by logging in and submitting this form. It will take 60 days after your change request is processed for monthly billing to begin.
For billing inquiries please contact SCE Customer Service at 866-701-7868 for NEM residential customers or 866-701-7869 for NEM business customers.
Net surplus generation (or energy) occurs when your NEM renewable energy system sends more energy to SCE’s electric grid than you have used during your 12-month billing period.
A twelve-month period, or portion thereof, starting on the day a Permission to Operate (PTO) is issued, and every anniversary thereafter.
For Customers electing to receive service under NEM for a home or facility that has a system already in operation, the 12-month billing period will commence on the date that the customer begins receiving service under NEM and on every subsequent anniversary thereof.
If a customer terminates service or experiences a change from SCE Bundled Service to CCA/CA Service or DA Service or from CCA/CA Service or DA Service to SCE Bundled Service, the 12-month period will end on the date when the change of service is effective.
On your annual 12-month settlement bill, SCE will calculate the Total Energy Amount as the difference between the energy consumed from the grid during the relevant 12-month period and the energy exported to the grid during the same period.
If the Total Energy Amount is negative, you have supplied surplus electricity and you are eligible for Net Surplus Compensation.
If the Total Energy amount is positive, you have used more electricity than you supplied over the course of your 12-month billing period, and therefore you are not eligible to receive Net Surplus Compensation.
Net Surplus Compensation (NSC) is equal to the Net Surplus Compensation Rate (NSCR) multiplied by your Net Surplus Energy kilowatt-hours (kWh). The NSC rate is based on current market prices and varies by month. Details on the NSCR rates can be found here.
The credit amount indicated on your bill is calculated using the full retail rate for energy used on-site. This rate includes generation, transmission, distribution, and funding for public programs. Under NSC, SCE pays you the market rate, comparable to what we pay other energy producers, as required by California Assembly Bill 920.
Not necessarily. Payment is issued only if the customer has net surplus electricity (you have supplied more energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh) to the grid than you have used over the 12-month billing period). It is rare for a customer to have monetary credit remaining at the end of a full 12-month bill period and not have net surplus electricity. However, this scenario can occur with customers who supply energy to the grid during peak periods when electricity is more expensive and use energy from the grid during off-peak periods when electricity costs less.
Before or at the end of your 12-month settlement bill, if you are on the Annual Billing Option (ABO) and have supplied more electricity than you have used, you may be compensated with an on-bill credit or a check for the NSC paid at the market rate.
The Monthly Billing Option (MBO) includes a settlement of monthly energy charges and credits (in $s) over the entire 12-month billing period. This means that any dollar-value energy credits remaining at the end of the 12-month billing period are used to offset energy charges billed to the customer in an earlier month in the 12-month billing period. This essentially eliminates the need for a customer to adjust the start date of their 12-month billing period for the purposes of maximizing the use of the monetary credits received over the 12-month billing period. Any remaining surplus energy may be compensated with an on-bill credit or a check for the NSC paid at the market rate.
For either Annual or Monthly Billing Options, once the NSC is calculated and issued to the account holder, the balance will be zeroed-out and the new 12-month billing period will begin on the next regularly scheduled meter read date.
You may elect to change the start date of your 12-month billing period once only for the lifetime of the account, by completing and returning a NEM One-Time Relevant Period Change Request Form (14-936).
You will be responsible for selecting the date of the requested change. We must receive this form at least 60 days prior to the requested start date of the new 12-month billing period. When the start date is changed, your existing 12-month billing period will end, generating your settlement bill, and your new 12-month billing period will begin. Under no circumstances will a 12-month billing period extend beyond 12 months.
Yes. The following customers are ineligible for Net Surplus Compensation:
- Direct Access (DA) customers
- Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) customers
- Bio-Gas (BG-NEM) and Fuel Cell (FC-NEM) customers
- Customers on an NEM-Aggregation arrangement
Call Support Default
