Your SCE Annual True-Up Bill Explained: Why Solar Customers Get a Bill at Year End

Adrian Marin|Independent Solar Advisor, Temecula CA

Helping Riverside County homeowners navigate SCE rates and solar options since 2020

Most SCE solar customers are surprised the first time they receive a true-up bill. Here is exactly how the settlement works, why NEM 3.0 changes the math, and what you can do to keep the balance low.

What the True-Up Actually Is

Under NEM 3.0, SCE does not settle your solar account every month. Instead, the utility issues monthly statements that track your energy usage, solar production, and net position, but the actual financial settlement, where money changes hands for your 12-month net energy balance, happens once per year on the anniversary of your system's interconnection date.

That anniversary is your true-up date. If your Temecula or Murrieta home went live on SCE solar in April 2024, your first true-up was in April 2025, and it will recur every April. This date is not tied to the calendar year, which catches many homeowners off guard when they budget for a December settlement and receive a bill in the spring instead.

Why You Still Get a Monthly Bill

Even solar customers with a large system receive an SCE bill every month. The reason is the Minimum Daily Delivery Charge, currently about $0.37 per day. This works out to roughly $11 per month and covers grid infrastructure costs. Solar production cannot offset it.

Beyond the MDDC, your monthly statement reflects your net energy position for that billing period. During summer months, when Temecula temperatures push air conditioning loads into the evening, many households import more grid power than they export. Those months carry a net charge. During spring and fall, when production is high and cooling loads are modest, exports often exceed imports and the credit rolls forward to reduce the true-up balance.

The 12-Month Net Calculation

At true-up, SCE adds up every kilowatt-hour you imported from the grid over 12 months and every kilowatt-hour your system exported. If your exports exceed your imports, SCE owes you money for the net surplus at the applicable NEM 3.0 export rate. If your imports exceed your exports, you owe SCE the difference, valued at your applicable TOU import rate.

The critical asymmetry here is the rate gap. SCE's NEM 3.0 export rates run roughly 5 to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour depending on the time of day and season. Import rates on the standard TOU-D-PRIME plan run 28 to 34 cents per kilowatt-hour during on-peak hours (4 pm to 9 pm on weekdays) and 15 to 18 cents during off-peak hours. A home that exports 1,000 kWh and imports 900 kWh does not come out ahead financially because the 900 kWh of imports may have cost four to six times more than the 1,000 kWh of exports generated in credit.

Why Most NEM 3.0 Solar Customers Still Owe at True-Up

Under the old NEM 2.0 rules, export credits were close to the retail import rate, so a system sized to produce 100% of annual consumption typically generated a near-zero true-up. NEM 3.0 changed this fundamentally. Because exports are worth so much less than imports, the financial outcome depends heavily on when your panels produce versus when you consume.

A standard Temecula home without battery storage follows a predictable pattern: panels produce from roughly 7 am to 6 pm, peaking around noon. Consumption peaks between 6 pm and 10 pm when residents are home, cooking, running laundry, and cooling the house. That evening consumption comes entirely from the grid at peak rates. The midday surplus gets exported at 5 to 8 cents. The result is a system that appears to produce 100% of annual kWh usage, but still generates a $100 to $400 true-up because the time-of-use math does not balance.

How Battery Storage Changes the True-Up Math

A battery inverter system changes the economics of NEM 3.0 dramatically. Instead of exporting midday surplus at 5 to 8 cents, the battery stores it. When the sun sets and grid rates climb to 28 to 34 cents, the battery dispatches stored solar, covering evening loads without a grid import charge.

In practical terms, a 10 kWh battery on a typical Temecula home can shift 4 to 6 kWh per day from grid import to stored solar. Over 365 days, that represents 1,460 to 2,190 kWh of avoided imports. At a blended on-peak rate of 30 cents, that is $438 to $657 per year in true-up improvement, before factoring in SGIP rebates that can cover a substantial portion of the battery's upfront cost.

How to Read Your SCE NEM Monthly Statement

Your monthly NEM statement has several key line items worth tracking:

• Net Energy Metering charges/credits - the running 12-month net balance, shown in dollars. A negative number means you are currently in credit territory heading into true-up.
• Minimum Delivery Charge - the fixed monthly grid access fee, currently about $11. This appears every month regardless of solar performance.
• Summer TOU vs. Winter TOU rates - SCE switches between summer rates (June through September) and winter rates for the remainder of the year. Summer on-peak rates are higher, which affects months where you have net imports.
• Annual True-Up Estimated Balance - SCE's projection of what you will owe or receive at year-end based on current trajectory. Check this monthly to catch problems early.

Common True-Up Shock Scenarios

Four situations account for most unexpected true-up balances in Temecula-area homes:

• Consumption growth after installation - adding an EV, a new HVAC zone, a pool pump, or additional residents after the system was sized for a smaller load profile. The system size was correct for the original home, not the current one.
• Shading or soiling - a mature tree casting new shadow on panels, a neighbor's second-story addition, or panels that have not been cleaned in two or more years. Even partial shading on one panel can reduce output across a string by 15 to 30%.
• TOU rate changes mid-year - SCE adjusts rates annually. If your effective rate for evening imports increased mid-year, your true-up balance can be higher than your monitoring app's estimate, which may use prior-year rates.
• Unusually hot summers - Temecula averages 14 days above 100 degrees in a typical summer, but years with extended heat domes push that number higher. Air conditioning loads during those periods can exceed the sizing assumptions made during system design.

How to Avoid a Large True-Up Balance

These four practices reduce true-up exposure over the course of the year:

• Monitor monthly, not annually - check your inverter app and SCE statement each month. If your estimated true-up balance is growing through summer, you have time to adjust behavior before year-end.
• Size for actual consumption - use 13 months of actual SCE bills when sizing, not your utility's estimate. If you plan to add an EV or upgrade appliances, size for anticipated consumption.
• Add battery storage - under NEM 3.0, the self-consumption improvement from a battery delivers more value than additional panels alone.
• Shift large loads to solar hours - set EV charging to run between 10 am and 3 pm, run the dishwasher and laundry during midday, and pre-cool the home before 4 pm rather than after. These habit changes reduce evening grid imports without any hardware investment.

What to Do If Your True-Up Bill Is Larger Than Expected

Pull your last 12 monthly NEM statements and identify which months had the largest net import balances. Compare those months against your inverter's production log. If production dropped relative to prior years, schedule a panel inspection. If production was on target but consumption was higher, you are likely undersized for your current load.

Contact SCE and request a TOU rate analysis. Depending on your consumption profile, a different rate plan may reduce your effective import cost. If you believe a billing error occurred, SCE has a formal dispute process. For persistent true-up balances caused by an undersized system or high evening imports, the most direct solution is battery storage, a system expansion, or both.