Policy and tariff

If your state ends net metering, what happens to your system

Grandfathering is real, it is time-limited, and in at least one tariff it does not belong to the house.

Updated September 2026 · Data as of The adopting decision read on 3 September 2026

Written by HyreSolar Research team Research and analysis

Audited by HyreSolar Research team Data audit and fact check

20 years legacy on the old tariff, from interconnection Set by an earlier decision

9 years legacy on the successor tariff A 15-year request was refused

The customer is who the legacy belongs to, not the house Verbatim in the decision

The short answer

An existing system is normally protected for a defined period rather than permanently, and the details of that protection matter more than the fact of it. In the transition we read in full, customers on the old tariffs were left alone: the decision states "the NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0 tariff should remain intact", on a legacy period of twenty years from interconnection set by an earlier decision. But the successor tariff protects its own customers for only nine years, and expressly not on the import rate, so what you pay for electricity can change at any time while only the export terms are locked. And there is a provision almost nobody knows about: that nine-year legacy period is linked to the customer, not to the system. Sell the house inside nine years and the buyer gets no legacy period at all. Only a spouse or domestic partner inherits it, and even then it does not restart.

Existing customers are usually protected, and the protection has a shape

The fear when a state changes its solar tariff is that a system already on the roof will be switched to the new terms overnight. In the transition we read in detail, that is not what happened, and the decision is explicit: "The Commission finds that the NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0 tariff should remain intact."

The protection is a defined legacy period. An earlier decision had established twenty years from the customer's interconnection as the period over which a customer should remain eligible for the earlier tariff, with a stated rationale worth quoting because it is the case for grandfathering generally: to "allow customers to have a uniform and reliable expectation of stability of the net energy metering structure under which they decided to invest".

But read what the same decision says about its own authority. It concluded that the Commission "has the authority to revise the legacy NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0 tariffs", and declined to do so because the outcome "could result in an inequity to one of two groups". It did not decline because it could not.

That distinction matters if you are relying on a legacy period. It was a policy choice, made by a body that had recorded that it could choose otherwise, and it was contested. Parties in that proceeding proposed moving existing customers onto new rates at five years from interconnection, and at eight years. Both were rejected. They were also seriously argued.

The legacy period covers less than people assume

Two limits are stated in the decision and both catch people out.

It covers the tariff, not the bill. The decision restates that the twenty-year period "applies only to service under the net energy metering successor tariff, not to any other aspect of the customer's bill, for example a minimum bill". Fixed charges and other elements were dealt with in a separate proceeding entirely. Being grandfathered on your export arrangement does not freeze what you pay overall.

And on the successor tariff it is narrower still. Its own legacy provision reads: "With the exception of the import rate itself, the adopted successor tariff elements… will be available to an enrolled customer for a period of nine years from the interconnection date."

Read the exception. The rate you pay to buy electricity is expressly outside the lock. Only the export-side terms are protected. So a customer can be fully within their legacy period and still see the cost of the electricity they import change.

Nine years, and the request to make it longer was refused

The successor tariff's legacy period is nine years from interconnection, against twenty on the tariff it replaced. That is a substantial reduction and it was argued about.

Parties asked for fifteen. The Commission kept nine, and its stated reasoning is worth knowing because it tells you something about how these periods are set: the avoided cost calculator that determines export rates "is a forecast and, therefore, its values become increasingly uncertain as time moves away from the present".

In other words, the length of your protection was set by how far ahead the regulator was willing to commit to a forecast. That is a defensible position and it is not a promise about your system's economics over its life. A twenty-five-year asset now carries a nine-year guarantee on the terms that determine what it earns.

That gap between the asset's life and the guarantee's length is the single most useful thing on this page for anyone running numbers. It does not mean the export terms will worsen at year ten; the regulator has made no such statement and we are not predicting one. It means that the last sixteen years of a twenty-five-year projection rest on an assumption rather than on a commitment, and a projection that does not say which is which is not telling you how much of its own answer is guaranteed.

The legacy period belongs to you, not to your roof

The legacy period is the provision that most surprises people, and it is stated plainly in the decision.

"This decision clarifies that the legacy period is linked to the customer who originally causes the system to be installed, not to the system itself. If the original customer moves away within nine years from the system's interconnection date and another utility customer takes control of (e.g., buys, leases, or pays a power purchase agreement for) the system, the subsequent utility customer does not have a legacy period."

Work through what that means when you sell. You interconnect in year one and move in year four. Your buyer inherits the panels, the inverter, the warranties and the roof penetrations. They do not inherit your export terms. They take service on whatever tariff applies to them at that point, with no legacy period at all.

There is one exception and it is narrow. A legal partner, meaning a spouse or domestic partner for a residential customer, may continue it. Even then the decision is explicit that "the legacy period does not restart… the legacy period maintains its original interconnection date and length of nine years". The utilities were directed to create a uniform attestation for this.

The solar industry made exactly the objection you would expect, on the record: tying the legacy period to the customer rather than the system "breaks with current policy and may impact the value of a home". The Commission did not change course.

Which makes this a home-value question as much as a tariff question

The legacy provision connects directly to something we cover elsewhere, and the connection is not obvious until you see it.

Research on solar and resale value found premiums falling sharply as systems age, and separately found no significant premium for third-party-owned systems. A legacy period that expires on sale adds another mechanism pointing the same way: part of what a solar home is worth to its current owner is a tariff arrangement the buyer cannot have.

We are not going to quantify that, because nobody has and we found no source attempting it. The industry asserted an effect on home value in a regulatory filing, which is an interested party's argument rather than evidence.

But it is a real consideration in two directions. If you are selling, do not assume the buyer inherits your economics, and do not let a listing imply they will. If you are buying, ask specifically what tariff you would take service on, because it may not be the one the seller has been enjoying, and the savings history you are shown may not be repeatable.

The vocabulary of grandfathering

Legacy period: The defined length of time an existing customer may continue taking service under a tariff that has since closed to new applicants. It runs from a specified event, which in the cases we read is the interconnection date rather than the contract date.
Interconnection date: The date your system was connected and authorised. It is the clock-start for a legacy period, which is why it matters more than the date you signed or the date installation finished.
Import rate: What you pay for electricity you draw from the grid. Expressly excluded from the successor tariff’s legacy lock, so it can change while you are still protected on the export side.
Closed to new enrollments: A tariff that still serves its existing customers but accepts no new ones. This is the normal shape of a transition: the old regime is not abolished, it stops taking applicants and then ages out.
Legal partner: The narrow exception to the rule that a legacy period ends when the original customer leaves. For a residential customer this means a spouse or domestic partner, and even then the period does not restart.
Avoided cost calculator: The model that sets export rates under the successor tariff. Its forecast nature was the stated reason for limiting the legacy period to nine years rather than fifteen.

The two legacy regimes, side by side

	The earlier net metering tariffs	The successor net billing tariff
Legacy period	20 years from interconnection	9 years from interconnection
Where it came from	An earlier decision, on a stability rationale	The adopting decision; a 15-year request was refused
What it covers	Service under the tariff only, expressly not other bill elements such as a minimum bill	The successor tariff elements, expressly excluding the import rate
Does it survive a sale?	Not addressed in the passages we read	No. It is linked to the customer, not the system
Who can inherit it	Not addressed in the passages we read	A legal partner only, and it does not restart
Could the regulator revoke it?	It concluded it has the authority and declined on policy grounds	Not addressed

From the adopting decision, read 3 September 2026. Blank cells are genuinely not addressed in the sections we read rather than absent from the decision.

The row worth acting on is the sale row. On the successor tariff, the legacy period is a personal entitlement that ends when you move, and neither the panels nor the address carries it forward.

What to do about it

1
Find out which tariff you are actually on, and your interconnection date
Legacy periods run from interconnection, so that date is the one that matters rather than when you signed or when installation finished. Your utility can confirm both.
2
Find out how long your protection runs and what it covers
Ask specifically whether it covers the import rate. In the successor tariff we read it does not, so a customer inside their legacy period can still see the price of electricity they buy change.
3
If you plan to sell inside that window, find out whether it transfers
On the tariff we read it does not, and only a spouse or domestic partner may continue it. That is a fact to establish before you list, not during a negotiation.
4
If you are buying a house with solar, ask what tariff you would be on
Not what the seller is on. The seller’s bills may reflect an arrangement you cannot have, which makes their savings history a poor guide to yours.
5
Do not model twenty-five years of savings on a nine-year guarantee
A payback calculation that assumes today’s export terms for the life of the system is assuming something no regulator has promised. Ask what the model assumes after the legacy period ends.
6
Treat proposed legislation as proposed
Bills that would change legacy rules circulate widely and are frequently described as though enacted. Check the status on the legislature’s own site before acting on anything you read about a pending change.

Method and limitations

What was read

The adopting decision in full for the passages quoted: the finding that the earlier tariffs should remain intact, the twenty-year legacy period and its rationale, the Commission's conclusion that it has authority to revise legacy tariffs, the five-year and eight-year proposals that were rejected, the limit of the legacy period to the tariff rather than the whole bill, the nine-year successor legacy period with the import rate expressly excluded, the refusal of a fifteen-year extension and its reasoning, and the provision linking the legacy period to the customer rather than the system together with the legal-partner exception.

One state, and the limit that puts on this page

Everything specific here comes from one state's decision. We could not reach a primary source for any second state's treatment of legacy customers, and we name none.

What generalises is the set of questions rather than the answers: how long, covering what, and does it survive a sale. Those three are worth asking wherever you are, and your own commission's decisions are public documents.

Two things we deliberately do not state

A pending California bill that circulates as if it were law. It would have required a buyer of a property with an existing system to take service on the current tariff rather than the seller's legacy one. Its status page shows it stalled in a Senate committee with no action after 29 August 2025. It is a proposal that did not pass, and we mention it here only because it is widely described otherwise.

A claim about Nevada. A reversal there appears in the record of this proceeding as an argument made by parties. We have not verified the underlying facts and do not repeat them as established.

Not legal or financial advice

This describes a regulatory decision. What applies to you depends on your state, your utility, your tariff and your interconnection date. Your commission publishes its decisions, and your utility can confirm your own dates in a phone call.

Questions

If my state ends net metering, do I lose it?

Usually not immediately. In the transition we read, existing customers were left on their tariff and the decision states it should remain intact, under a legacy period of twenty years from interconnection. But grandfathering is a policy choice with a time limit, and the same decision recorded that the regulator has authority to revise legacy tariffs and simply chose not to.

How long does grandfathering last?

It varies, and the difference is large. In the case we read, the earlier tariffs carry twenty years from interconnection while the successor tariff carries only nine. A request to extend the successor’s period to fifteen years was refused, on the reasoning that the forecast underlying export rates becomes increasingly uncertain further out.

Does my legacy period protect what I pay for electricity?

On the successor tariff, no. Its legacy provision applies "with the exception of the import rate itself", so only the export-side terms are locked. You can be well inside your legacy period and still see the price you pay for imported electricity change.

Does the legacy period transfer when I sell my house?

On the successor tariff we read, no. The decision states the legacy period is linked to the customer who originally caused the system to be installed, not to the system itself, and that a subsequent customer who buys, leases or takes a power purchase agreement for the system does not have a legacy period. Only a spouse or domestic partner may continue it, and it does not restart.

Does that affect what my house is worth?

The solar industry argued exactly that on the record, saying the change may impact the value of a home, and the regulator did not change course. We are not going to quantify it because nobody has. What is fair to say is that part of what a solar home is worth to its current owner is a tariff arrangement a buyer cannot inherit.

Can a regulator take away a legacy period it already granted?

The decision we read concluded that the Commission has the authority to revise the legacy tariffs and declined to exercise it on the grounds that doing so could create inequity. So the protection rests on a policy choice by a body that has recorded it could choose differently, and forced transitions at five and eight years were seriously proposed in that proceeding.

Should I rush to install before rules change?

Be careful with that reasoning, because it is also the oldest urgency tactic in this industry. Interconnection dates do matter, since legacy periods run from them and transitional adders shrink on a schedule. Verify any deadline from the regulator’s own materials rather than from a proposal, and remember that a nine-year legacy period is not a guarantee about a twenty-five-year asset.

What should a payback calculation assume after the legacy period ends?

That is the right question and most proposals do not answer it. A model that applies today’s export terms across the whole life of the system is assuming something no regulator has promised. Ask what the projection assumes for years ten onwards, and how much of the payback falls after the guarantee expires.

Written and audited by

HyreSolar Research

Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking

We are a research desk, not a sales floor. We read the statute, the tariff, the code section, the federal filing or the manufacturer data sheet ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it. Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. That rule has cost us whole sections, and it is the reason the rest can be trusted.

160: primary sources read and cited
220: figures with a retrieval date
115: federal and state government sources
66: researched pages published

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Data as of The adopting decision read on 3 September 2026. Authorship on this site is organisational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.

Sources & retrieval dates

CPUC Decision 22-12-056: Decision Revising Net Energy Metering Tariff and Subtariffs — Adopted 15 December 2022. Source for every quotation on this page: that the earlier tariffs should remain intact, the twenty-year legacy period established by an earlier decision and its stability rationale, the Commission’s conclusion that it has authority to revise legacy tariffs, the rejected five-year and eight-year transition proposals, the limitation of the legacy period to the tariff rather than other bill elements such as a minimum bill, the nine-year successor legacy period excluding the import rate, the refusal of a fifteen-year extension and the forecast-uncertainty reasoning behind it, the provision linking the legacy period to the customer rather than the system, the legal-partner exception and the direction to create a uniform attestation, and the industry’s recorded objection that the change may impact the value of a home. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
California Legislative Information, AB-942 bill status — Cited only to establish that a widely discussed bill affecting legacy tariffs on sale of a property did not pass. The status page shows it referred to a suspense file in August 2025 and re-referred to a Senate committee on 29 August 2025, with no action after that date. Retrieved 3 September 2026.

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