- SMUDCommunity-owned, own solar rate, not NEM 3.0
- PG&ENet billing tariff — exports near avoided cost
- Roseville & LodiCity-run municipal utilities, own rules
- Catches people outWest Sacramento is PG&E, not SMUD
Why this is the first thing to get right
The greater Sacramento region is unusual in California. Most metropolitan areas sit inside a single investor-owned utility’s territory. Ours is split four ways, and each of the four credits exported solar power differently.
That difference is not a detail. It changes the ideal system size, it changes whether a battery pays for itself, and it changes the entire savings model. A proposal built on the wrong utility’s rules is wrong from its first assumption — and out-of-area companies quoting Sacramento get this wrong constantly.
Who serves your address
| Utility | Type | Serves, in our footprint |
|---|---|---|
| SMUD | Community-owned (municipal utility district) | Most of Sacramento County: Sacramento, Elk Grove, Folsom, Citrus Heights, Carmichael, Rancho Cordova, Fair Oaks, Orangevale, Antelope, Arden-Arcade, Natomas, Galt, Wilton, Gold River, Rosemont, Vineyard, North Highlands, Rio Linda |
| PG&E | Investor-owned (CPUC regulated) | Rocklin, Lincoln, Loomis, Granite Bay, Auburn, El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park, Placerville, Davis, West Sacramento, Woodland, Winters, Dixon, Vacaville, Fairfield |
| Roseville Electric | City-owned municipal utility | City of Roseville only |
| Lodi Electric | City-owned municipal utility | City of Lodi only |
Two boundaries catch people out repeatedly. West Sacramento is PG&E, not SMUD, despite being minutes from downtown across the river. And Roseville is neither — it runs its own utility, while neighbouring Rocklin and Granite Bay are PG&E.
PG&E: the net billing tariff
PG&E customers who applied after April 2023 are on California’s net billing tariff, often called NEM 3.0. The essential change from the older net metering arrangement is this: exported energy is credited at something much closer to the utility’s avoided cost than to the retail rate you pay.
In practice that means sending a kilowatt-hour to the grid at one in the afternoon and buying one back at seven in the evening is no longer a roughly even trade. The gap between those two values is the economic case for a battery, and it is why storage attach rates on PG&E systems are so much higher than they used to be.
The practical consequences for a PG&E customer in Rocklin, El Dorado Hills, Davis or Vacaville:
- Self-consumption is worth far more than export. Design and behaviour that shift usage into daylight hours genuinely pay.
- Storage changes the model rather than merely improving it. Run the numbers with and without.
- Oversizing is penalised. Under retail-rate net metering, surplus was banked at full value. It is not any more.
- Your rate schedule matters. Solar customers are generally on a time-of-use schedule, and which one you are on changes the answer.
SMUD: a different animal entirely
SMUD is a community-owned utility district. It is not regulated by the CPUC and it is not on the state net billing tariff. Its board sets its own rates and its own solar terms, and it has run its own solar and storage rate structure for new solar customers rather than adopting the state framework.
What that means for a Sacramento, Elk Grove, Folsom or Carmichael homeowner:
- Do not assume PG&E arithmetic applies. The export credit, the rate structure and the interconnection process are SMUD’s own.
- SGIP does not reach you. The state storage rebate is administered through the investor-owned utilities. SMUD customers fall outside it, though SMUD has at times run its own storage programmes.
- Get the current rate sheet. SMUD’s solar terms have changed more than once, and what applied to a neighbour who installed four years ago may not apply to you.
SMUD has historically had some of the lower residential rates in California, which is a genuine benefit to living here and, at the same time, slightly lengthens solar payback compared with a PG&E neighbour a few miles away. Both things are true.
Roseville and Lodi: municipal utilities
Roseville Electric and Lodi Electric are city-run utilities with their own interconnection rules, their own rate schedules and their own solar programmes. Neither SMUD nor PG&E terms apply. If you are in Roseville or Lodi, the single most useful thing you can do before taking any quote is to obtain your utility’s current solar interconnection terms in writing and check that whoever is quoting you has read them.
This is the most common place we see out-of-area companies get Sacramento wrong: a Roseville homeowner handed a proposal modelled on PG&E’s net billing tariff, for a utility that does not use it.
What to do before you take a quote
- Confirm your utility from a recent bill — not from your city name.
- Note your rate schedule, which is printed on the bill.
- Download twelve months of usage from your utility’s online account. Both SMUD and PG&E make this available.
- Ask every installer which tariff they modelled and what export rate they assumed. A good answer is specific. A vague one tells you what you need to know.
The one-line version
SMUD, PG&E, Roseville Electric and Lodi Electric are four different utilities with four different sets of solar rules. Find out which one you are on before you compare a single quote. Our service area pages list the utility for every city we cover.
Written by the Sacramento Solar team for Sacramento-area homeowners. We install solar; we are not tax advisers, accountants or financial advisers. Figures are ranges current as of early 2026 and are offered as orientation, not as advice about your own situation. Verify current programme rules with your utility, the relevant agency or a qualified professional.