A publicly owned utility sets its own terms
Since April 15, 2023, California customers applying for interconnection have taken service on the net billing tariff pursuant to CPUC decision D.22-12-056, in the territories of Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric.
Publicly owned utilities are not in that list. They are not subject to the Commission's net metering decisions and set their own arrangements for customers who generate their own electricity. That is a structural difference rather than a detail, and it is why so much California solar content will mislead you here.
It also means the research burden shifts. Rather than reading about a statewide tariff, you need your own utility's current terms: what arrangement a new residential solar customer goes onto, how exported energy is credited, whether there is a size limit, and what the interconnection process and timeline look like.
Ask for that directly and in writing. Then hold every quote against it, because an installer working from a statewide template will produce numbers built on the wrong rules.
The questions that actually decide your return
Ask how exported electricity is credited and whether the value depends on the time of day it is exported. That single answer determines whether the timing of your production matters and therefore whether a battery is a financial decision or purely a resilience one.
Ask whether the arrangement you would go onto is fixed for a period or subject to change, and if fixed, for how long. A twenty-five year savings projection rests on an assumption about the years ahead, and you are entitled to know what that assumption is rather than have it buried.
Ask what rate plan a solar customer is placed on and how it differs from your current one. In many utilities going solar means moving onto a different rate structure, and the change to what you pay for the electricity you still buy can matter as much as what you are paid for exports.
Then ask your installer which specific arrangement and rate their projection assumes. If they cannot name it, the projection is not about your household, and that is worth knowing before rather than after you sign.
Summer heat, outages and storage
Sacramento summers put a heavy afternoon and evening cooling load on a household, which is generally good news for solar because production and demand overlap for much of the day. How much that is worth depends on how your utility credits exports versus what you pay for what you buy.
Ask your installer to model the share of production your household consumes as it is generated, and to value the remainder at the actual export terms. A projection that treats all production as equally valuable is assuming a one-for-one arrangement that may not be the one you are on.
A grid-tied array without battery storage shuts down during an outage, as a safety requirement so that crews are not working on lines a rooftop system is energising. If keeping cooling running through an outage matters to you, storage is not optional and it has to be designed in.
California's Self-Generation Incentive Program provides incentives for battery storage that can function during a power outage, with $850 per kilowatt hour under its Equity category and $1,000 per kilowatt-hour under Equity Resiliency for qualifying customers. Ask whether you might be eligible and confirm with the programme rather than the salesperson.
What changed federally, and what California still offers
The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. A cash or loan purchase made now receives no federal credit, and a quote that still applies it is overstating your return substantially. Check any projection line by line rather than trusting a summary figure.
Section 48E survives at 30 percent and is available to third-party owners of residential systems under leases and power purchase agreements. So the credit still exists, it simply no longer flows to a homeowner who buys the system, and you should expect lease providers to lead with that. Ask what they claim and what of that value actually reaches you in the rate offered, then confirm with a tax advisor rather than with the sales material.
California's Self-Generation Incentive Program continues to provide incentives for battery storage installed on the customer's side of the meter, including systems that can function during a power outage. Its Equity and Equity Resiliency categories are aimed at lower-income, medically vulnerable and at-risk for fire communities.
Depending on the category a customer qualifies for, the incentive is $850 per kilowatt hour under the Equity category or $1,000 per kilowatt-hour under Equity Resiliency. Eligibility criteria and performance requirements are set out in the SGIP Handbook, and applicants have one year after reserving funds to meet them, including enrollment in a qualified Demand Response program. Ask an installer whether you might qualify, and check with the programme rather than taking a sales answer as final.