If you live in the following Contra Costa communities:
• Concord
• Danville
• Martinez
• Moraga
• Oakley
• Pinole
• Pittsburg
• San Ramon
• Unincorporated Contra Costa County
You should have revived a notice that MCE Contra Costa will become your primary electricity provider (rather than PG&E). Residents of El Cerrito, Lafayette, San Pablo, Richmond, and Walnut Creek have already made this transition.
Who is MCE?
MCE is a Community Choice Aggregation. Instead of PG&E, MCE will be purchasing electricity and setting rates. MCE states that they can offer more electricity from renewable sources at lower rates compared to PG&E. For example, MCE states that 55% of their electricity comes from renewable sources vs PG&E’s 33%.
What will PG&E’s role be?
PG&E will continue to handle metering, billing, and distribution of electricity. If you need to report a power outage, for example, call PG&E.
How does this affect my Solar System / Net Metering?
For solar customers, PG&E bills once a year for electricity. Some taxes and fees are still billed monthly, but the electricity itself is billed annually.
MCE, however, bills solar by the month. If your system produces more credits than used, those credits will keep rolling over indefinitely, up to $5000. In addition, if the credits are greater than $100, MCE allows you to “cash out” these credits every April at full retail value.
Also, MCE will give a 1¢ extra credit per kilowatt above retail rates.
On the other hand, if you have a month where credits are lower than the cost of the electricity consumed, that difference will be billed.
What’s the catch?
Enrollment into MCE is automatic. This means your Net Metering agreement will automatically be transferred.
However, since PG&E and MCE have different billing models for solar customers, PG&E will issue an immediate true-up upon transition.
If your true-up date is during the fall or winter months, this may mean that you will have a large balance to pay because auto-enrollment will happen in April. This is before the summer months, which offer the greatest electricity offset.
If, however, you have extra credits with PG&E, those credits will be zeroed out.
I don’t want my true up to happen so soon or I am not interested in enrolling in MCE. Can I stay with PG&E?
Yes. By staying with PG&E, the billing and the Net Metering program you currently have will continue as normal. Or, you can delay enrollment to a future date, such as your next true-up date.
However, since enrollment is automatically set for April, you must take action immediately.
To out out or delay enrollment, call MCE at (888) 632–3674.
Where can I get more information about MCE?
For more information, please refer to the following two pages:
If you have any questions about MCE, we encourage you to call them directly at (888) 632–3674.
We at Your Energy Solutions will also do our best to assist. Just reply to this email if you have any questions.
Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for choosing Your Energy Solutions for your solar install.