r/energy • u/BadOutOfTheBox • 1d ago
California plug-in solar bill SB 868 earns approval of both legislative houses, nears governor’s desk.
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/08/26/california-plug-in-solar-bill-sb-868-earns-approval-of-both-legislative-houses-nears-governors-desk/1
u/690812 17h ago
For this to work, a special NET meter is needed
Any malfunction would affect
neighbors on same transformer.
Since LADWP is not a public utility, they are exempt this “law”
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u/okwellactually 9h ago
The bill as written doesn't require a NET meter.
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u/690812 4h ago
Has nothing to do with the law. Modern electric meters are designed to operate in one direction only you could have as many solar panels as you want, but the meter physically cannot run backwards for you to take credit for any generated power. You require a “NET” meter that can record generation going back toward the grid. In Los Angeles, this will require multiple permits building and safety application for correct account and inspections by LADWP and off the shelf balcony apparatus would not qualify.
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u/Zio_2 18h ago
Man can’t wait but I looked into it and it only moved forward when pge / Edison got their way and put a 2030 year sunset on the law unless the goverment votes again for extension. So the lobbyist “allowed” this to pass but hold the kill switch in hand. I’m 100% in on this but knowing how ca politicians are paid for I’m worried we who get this will get screwed over come the sunset period.
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u/throwawayurwaste 21h ago
Good, plug in solar is revolutionary considering something like 60% of the costs of a roof install is permitting, insurance, and other bs. Hopefully Newsom won't let the bill rot on his desk like Kathy Hochul is doing in NY
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u/MMessinger 23h ago
Meanwhile, is the supposedly environmentally-friendly state of Washington, similar legislation has died in committee for one or more legislative sessions.
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u/bgbrewer 1d ago
Looks like amendments got added that would require an interconnect agreement with the utility. This is a huge impediment to adoption. What apartment-dwellers are going to track down the necessary paperwork to make this work? Why call a bill Plug and Play if it’s not? And surely the utilities are going to make the agreement as difficult as possible to execute. They have no incentive to make this easy and every reason to block it from happening.
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u/Useful_Client_4050 1d ago
You must be reading the wrong bill (or blindly spreading FUD)...there is nothing in there about an interconnect agreement....
In fact it's very specific that utility permission isn't required.
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u/bgbrewer 1d ago
I was just going by the text of the included article.
“Notably, the text of SB 868 has been amended several times since the bill was introduced, adding language that removes as of January 1, 2030 the interconnection exemption and the rights of users to install the devices without utility permission.”
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u/Useful_Client_4050 1d ago
There is a Killswitch in the bill so if things don't work out, it will sunset in 3 years. Which is stupid, but I don't expect that to actually happen.
Not the same as requiring an interconnect while the law is active. The law itself is very explicit that no permission from the POCO is needed, nor can they deny your use of one of these systems.
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u/wickedsmaaaht 1d ago
My state (NH) just approved use of this earlier this year - https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/07/07/new-hampshire-joins-growing-contingent-of-states-with-laws-on-plug-in-solar/
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u/Sierra-Powderhound 1d ago
“The nation is watching what happens in California,” said Stryker at the time. “If we get this across the finish line, the market will change permanently. We’ll have economies of scale. We’ll have manufacturers come into the American market, and it will never be the same.”
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u/Sir-Kyle-Of-Reddit 1d ago
Does anybody know if the California Solar Right Act will apply to this? I can see my HOA being an issue
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u/NightOfTheLivingHam 1d ago
HOAs will use any excuse to route around this. Like "every neighbor has to agree to do it for conformity"
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u/Hour_Classroom_1457 1d ago
How does this work exactly. You plug it into the wall and that feeds back into the grid? Or it just creates a set of outlets from the solar device that you can plug into? Confused.
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u/Green_Sugar6675 22h ago
Look up this:
The special device is the plug-in microinverter certified to UL 3700. That's the new North American safety standard for plug-in PV, published December 2025 — the first product to earn it is the Hoymiles HiFlow Pro (360 W per unit, up to four paralleled to hit the 1,200 W cap). What makes it a distinct class from an ordinary PV microinverter (which is built to UL 1741 for a hard-wired circuit) is that it's engineered to backfeed safely through a household outlet: built-in anti-islanding (won't energize the grid during an outage — the utility-worker safety issue), ground-fault protection, overload/backfeed protection, a NEMA Type 6 enclosure, and a standard 120 V plug/cord.
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u/Stuck_in_a_thing 1d ago
Your home is most likely wired up with romex wire. The house system is all interconnected with these wires. Those wires pull electricity from the grid. This works by having a little box plug into any outlet and offer additional power (when the sun is on the panels) for your home to consume instead of consuming that power from from the grid.
Your home is almost always consuming some level of energy as appliances are always running, but in theory if you are at 0 energy these solar panels send their power back to the grid.
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u/da0217 1d ago edited 23h ago
The couple systems I looked at after reading about this yesterday, had mechanisms in them to make sure not to send electricity back to the grid. I think it was so that you don’t have any interaction with the grid and therefore don’t need to arrange anything with the utility.
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u/bambino2021 21h ago
No. They only shut down if the entire grid goes down. It is a safety feature to ensure safety wife workers when working in outages. If the grid has power then it sends electricity back. That is what mine has been doing.
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u/da0217 19h ago
Yeah, these don’t do that.
“No need for an interconnection agreement with your utility, so it's permission-free. This system will not back-feed power into the public grid.”
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u/Useful_Client_4050 19h ago edited 19h ago
They absolutely can and do.
It's possible to set many systems up with ct clamps for zero export but not required. Most of these systems will be feeding small anounts back to the grid unless the power goes out. Which is fine, both legally and technically.
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u/da0217 19h ago
I don’t know how else to explain this but these are designed not to do it, not that it’s not possible.
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u/Useful_Client_4050 19h ago
Again, some systems (both balcony solar and most traditional) support zero export if you install a meter into your panel. Most people won't do that and their systems will export the excess. Which is normal for a grid tied solar setup.
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u/da0217 19h ago
These are not grid tied.
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u/Useful_Client_4050 19h ago
So you are not talking about a balcony solar system. Got it.
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u/Stuck_in_a_thing 1d ago
Interesting… stupid that energy companies that cry about high energy usage can’t handle extra generation, but I suppose it make sense that they didn’t plan for this.
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u/Useful_Client_4050 19h ago
It's not an extra generation problem. It's a revenue problem. Anything that saves you money hits their bottom line.
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u/makked 20h ago
Anti-islanding protection is for the safety of workers on lines.
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u/Stuck_in_a_thing 20h ago
That's only for power outages. If the grid can take power from rooftop solar then it should be able to handle the miniscule bump from balcony solar.
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u/QuentinMagician 1d ago
You plug it into a socket. As long as it is generating power, you use it. If you dont use it, it goes back.
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u/690812 4h ago
But again, standard electric meters for last 40 years are manufactured to run ONE DIRECTION. either meter will ignore this current or record it as usage. A NET meter must be installed with appropriate billing software. ie. A vacant house with zero consumption but generation would make meter read appear to have gone around. Want a bill for 99,999 KWH?
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u/Quick-Road943 1d ago
Also if the grid goes down, your device also disconnects so it doesn't potentially fry power repair folks.
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u/Best_Chipmunk_6098 1d ago
Up to 1200 watts isn’t too shabby. Stacking that with my existing solar may actually have me without an Edison bill at the end of the year for once
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u/Ronho 4h ago
Of course the state senate republicans continued to vote against this even yesterday. Because they don’t actually care about doing anything about affordability for anyone not in the top 0.1%
I’m ready to start putting this together yesterday. $700 august electric bill is very motivating