Solar Billing Plan - Understanding Export Pricing

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How to Read the Energy Export Pricing Data File:

  • This file shows the hourly prices for exporting solar energy to SCE for 20 years, from 2023 to 2043. There are three sets of SCE Solar Billing Plan (SBP) prices. 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.
    • 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 or NBT24, 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 2024 prices are 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.