On September 27, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed SB 1374, which would have increased incentives for shared solar panels on apartment buildings and schools to treat them similarly to homeowners who own their rooftop panels.
The bill would have required the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), by July 1, 2025, to revise electric rate tariffs for customers in multi-unit residential and nonresidential buildings and public schools with solar photovoltaic systems to allow for account-level netting. The bill would have given schools and apartment buildings the same right to “self-consumption” for solar that applies to single-family homes.
The law would have reversed CPUC’s November 2023 decision to eliminate the ability of these shared-solar programs to offset their electricity costs with rooftop solar and require them to sell all of their solar power to utilities at lower “avoided cost” rates.
In his veto message, Newsom said the bill:
would compound the challenge of electric bill affordability by overturning a key component of a recent CPUC decision adopting these alignment changes. Specifically, this bill would increase the amount that most customers would pay for their own electric service to provide a rate subsidy to certain customers, and public schools, that install solar PV systems on their property.