SDG&E service area

Net billing · NEM 3.0

Your bill is not about how much power you use. It is about when.

Between 4 and 9 p.m. SDG&E charges close to 70¢ a kilowatt-hour. The power your panels send back at noon earns you about 6¢. That gap is the entire argument for a battery — and you cannot size one without knowing the shape of your own day.

See my own curve

You will need twelve months of usage from SDG&E. It is free, it takes about two minutes, and we show you exactly where to click.

Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere until you ask for it.

A typical San Diego household, hour by hour kWh

The shaded band is when power costs the most and your panels have already stopped producing.

Two prices for the same kilowatt-hour

What you are paid for power you export at midday

Roughly. Set by the state's avoided cost calculator, not by your retail rate.

What you pay for power you buy back at 6 p.m.

70¢

Summer on-peak on TOU-DR1. About twelve times what you were credited.

Under net metering, exporting and importing were close to the same trade. Under NEM 3.0 they are not. Storing your own production and using it after 4 p.m. is where the value moved.

Get your twelve months from SDG&E

SDG&E records your usage every fifteen minutes and lets you download it. It is your data and it is free. About two minutes.

Look for this on sdge.com

SDG&E's own six steps

  1. Log in to My Energy Center
  2. Click the Usage tab
  3. Select Electric using the Meter dropdown above the graph
  4. Click Green Button Download below the graph
  5. Choose 12 months and CSV
  6. Click Download
Open My Energy Center

Opens SDG&E in a new tab, so this page keeps your place. Come back when you have the file.

Drop your Green Button file here

CSV or XML · read on your device, never uploaded at this step

If SDG&E has moved something since we wrote this, look for anything labelled Green Button, usage download or export my data. Or call us and we will walk you through it.

Send it to an engineer

We size the battery against your actual evenings, not a rule of thumb, and send back what it covers and what it costs. Your file goes with it.

One more thing that changed in 2026

Section 25D, the 30% federal credit for a system you buy, expired on 31 December 2025. If you pay cash or take a loan this year, the federal credit is zero. Third-party-owned systems still qualify under Section 48E — the owner claims it and passes the value through in your rate. Sunrun is the owner.

General information, not tax advice. Ask your tax professional about your own situation.