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Understanding Your Commercial Solar Bill with Pioneer

Understand NEM and Your Commercial Solar Energy Bill

Energy bills for businesses with private, rooftop solar systems or commercial solar arrays see different billing details than standard energy customers. We’ve provided some details about billing to help you understand your commercial energy bill as it relates to solar power generation, Net Energy Metering, electricity transmission, utility distribution and energy consumption.  

Pioneer partners with PG&E for the distribution of commercial energy billing. PG&E distributes monthly billing statements to customers with PG&E’s transmission and delivery charges and Pioneer’s electricity generation charges. Since PG&E collects payments on behalf of Pioneer, you only need to make one payment to PG&E for the total amount shown on your bill. There will never be any duplicate charges. PG&E will bill for Net Energy Metering (NEM) transmission and delivery charges, annually, through its annual true-up process.

Benefits of Pioneer's NEM Program

  • Generation credits are applied at the retail rate against the electricity consumed each month.
  • Pioneer pays $.005 (1/2 cent) per kWh more than PG&E for any over-production sold back to the grid (Net Surplus Compensation Rate or NSC). See Pioneer’s current NSC rate.
  • Unused generation credits rollover, from month to month.
  • Pioneer bills for net electricity used, monthly.
  • Net Surplus Generators will receive checks during the March/April billing period if their credit balance for the past 12 months exceeds $25. Credit balances less than $25 will be rolled forward onto the next bill.

Pioneer NEM Enrollment Process

Eligible solar customers can return to Pioneer at any time. When a solar customer enrolls with Pioneer, PG&E will set the renewed annual true update to align with the transition date to Pioneer.

What is an Energy True-Up?

With Pioneer, the true-up process occurs monthly. If a customer produces more kWh than consumed in a month, the excess is credited to the customer’s account. This will appear on the current bill and roll forward to the next month’s bill. If a customer consumes more energy than produced (kWh), the net energy consumed will appear on that month’s bill as a charge. Pioneer and its customers perform this true-up on a monthly basis. In the March/April time frame, if there is any cumulative credit owed, a check will be issued to the customer. 

PG&E performs its true-up process on an annual basis.

An Example of Pioneer Community Energy Residential Bill

For questions or additional information on your solar energy production, Net Energy Metering or anything about your commercial energy bill, please contact your Pioneer Community Energy team by email at info@pioneercommunityenergy.org or by phone at (916) 758-8969 or 1 (844) YES-PIONEER.

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