You have solar. No battery. There are three answers — and yours decides thousands.
Your net metering tier depends on the month your system was switched on — and almost nobody was told what it meant. Below: all three answers, including the one that says adding a battery does not cost you your grandfathering. You went solar early. That was the right call.
- Battery only — we don't touch your panels
- Storage doesn't break NEM grandfathering
- Stop buying back your own power at peak
- Automatic backup during PSPS shutoffs
- Prepaid lease — up to 40% off sticker
- Free evaluation, 20 minutes, zero obligation
Battery retrofit for existing solar owners in SCE territory. If your solar is leased, we check your agreement first — before anything else.
"Solar Advantage upgraded our undersized system — now it's perfectly matched to our usage." Eric Whitcomb · Google Review
Find your system's start date. That's your answer.
One date decides which rules your solar lives under for twenty years.
Mid-2017You're on NEM 1.0
The best export terms California ever offered — and grandfathering runs 20 years from your permission-to-operate date, then it ends. Systems from around 2012 hit expiry in the early 2030s. Your permit paperwork won't tell you — the clock starts at PTO, not permit — so we look up your actual date.
A battery matters more here, not less: stored power you use yourself keeps its value no matter what happens to the export tariff.
Apr 14, 2023You're on NEM 2.0
Near-retail export credits, 20-year grandfathering — and the single most expensive misunderstanding in California solar:
Adding a battery does not cost you your grandfathering.
The CPUC wrote storage exceptions into the rules on purpose — the state wants existing solar owners to add batteries. You keep your status as long as solar generating capacity doesn't grow by more than 10% or 1 kW — and a battery generates nothing. It stores what your panels already make. We are not adding panels to your roof.
OnwardYou're on NEM 3.0
Your exports earn roughly $0.04–$0.10 per kWh — about 75% less than the older rules. If your bill came in higher than quoted, it's not your panels. It's the rule change.
Storage is the fix — under NEM 3.0 the value sits in using your own power after sundown, and a battery finally gets you the economics your original quote was built on.
What We Add
Storage capacity only — the battery and the electrical tie-in.
What We Don't Touch
Array size, panel count, generating capacity, interconnection class.
What You Keep
Your export credit structure and your grandfathered rate treatment.
⚠ One Exception — Leased and PPA Systems
If your original solar is on a lease or PPA, the interconnection agreement is in the finance company's name. Some contracts allow a battery freely; others need written approval. We check this before anything else — and we'll tell you straight if your agreement blocks it.
April 15, 2026 was the final deadline to reach Permission to Operate under NEM 2.0. If you applied before April 15, 2023 but didn't receive PTO by then, you're now on NEM 3.0. We confirm your actual status during the evaluation.
Your solar clocks out at 4pm. Your bill doesn't.
Your panels peak at midday when the house is empty. Your family uses most between 4 and 9pm — after the sun is gone. So you export cheap power all day and buy expensive power all evening.
| Rate per kWh on Edison | |
|---|---|
| Off-peak power | ~$0.24 |
| Peak power, 4–9 PM | $0.58 – $0.74 |
| What NEM 3.0 pays you to export | $0.04 – $0.10 |
| What NEM 1.0 / 2.0 pays you to export | Close to retail |
Same electron. Same house. Up to three times the price, decided entirely by the clock.
Think of It Like Gas
Most of the day, you sell your power for about $2 a gallon. Then at peak, they sell it back to you for $10 to $15 a gallon.
Same power. You made it. With a battery, you're the one holding the gas when the price spikes — worth roughly $0.28–$0.40 per kWh, every cycle, most days of the year.
And notice what this argument doesn't depend on.
We're not telling you rates are about to spike — Edison actually trimmed rates slightly in January 2026. The point is the gap between what they pay you and what they charge you is enormous right now, today. A battery doesn't need rates to rise. It just needs 4 PM to keep arriving.
When the grid goes down, your panels go down with it
During an outage, a grid-tied system without storage shuts off automatically — it has to, for line-worker safety. So on the day you most need your own power: a roof full of panels, a dark house.
Solar plus a battery islands — cuts from the grid, runs the house off stored power, and recharges from your panels the next day. And a PSPS is scheduled: Edison gives ~48 hours' notice. With a battery, that warning means "top off and ride it out." Chino Valley has seen repeated shutoffs since January 2025; Corona publishes its own guidance. These winds don't check city limits.
Already have a generator? Good — you're covered. The difference is a battery switches over automatically. No fuel, no cord, no midnight trip outside — every day, without you touching it.
Refrigeration
Food and medication stay cold through a multi-day shutoff.
Medical Equipment
CPAP, oxygen concentrators, mobility equipment keep running.
Connectivity
Wi-Fi, phones, a working home office when the block is dark.
PSPS Season
Planned shutoffs become an inconvenience instead of an emergency.
Straight about the tradeoff: whole-home backup through a multi-day event is a bigger, costlier build than essential-loads backup. Most families choose essentials and are completely satisfied — figuring out which circuits matter at your house is the whole point of the conversation.
#earn anchor get cut — and Email 5 with them.Your battery can earn, not just save
When California's grid is strained — hot afternoon, every A/C running — utilities would rather pay thousands of home batteries for stored power than fire up an emergency plant. So they do. That's a virtual power plant, and in SCE territory the Tesla VPP pays about $2 per kWh dispatched — typically around $350 per Powerwall per summer. Enrollment is a toggle in the app.
The accurate frame: VPP is a third stream — savings, resilience, participation income — sized against what's genuinely open when you install. It even changes which battery we'd recommend.
And notice the symmetry: the same grid stress that pays your battery is the stress that causes the outages. It earns during the strain and carries you if the strain wins.
Program availability, rates, and enrollment windows change. We confirm current status per address before recommending anything.
Find out which programs my address qualifies for →Now the Part the Industry Skips
You keep a reserve. Programs hold back ~20% so an event never leaves you empty going into the night.
Payments are variable, not a salary. Paid per kWh dispatched during events that may or may not be called. Nobody can promise an annual number, and we won't.
Some budgets are closed right now. Statewide DSGS is constrained for 2026 — anyone telling you a new install can enroll this year is guessing. Utility ELRP / Power Saver Rewards continuation for 2026 needs confirming, not assuming.
You usually can't stack everything. Most programs bar simultaneous enrollment in competing programs. You pick the best fit.
What expired, and what's actually left
The 30% Federal Homeowner Credit
Section 25D is over. Buy a battery with cash or a loan in 2026 and your federal tax credit is zero. Anyone still advertising it to homeowners is behind — or hoping you don't check.
California's SGIP Battery Rebate
All three ratepayer-funded budgets closed. The one remaining pathway (under 80% of area median income) is fully reserved with a waitlist. If a competitor quotes you an SGIP number this year, ask to see the open budget. You'll find out eventually — better you hear it from us.
What's Still in Force — and It's the Big One
Section 48E, the commercial credit for third-party-owned systems, is alive and stacks:
Our program is a commercial prepaid lease through Concert Finance and Participate Finance. The finance partner owns the system, claims the credit, and passes the value through as a reduced price. You don't file anything. You don't wait for a refund. It's already in the price. An additional 10% may apply if your census tract is a designated Energy Community — we check your address and won't assume it, because most tracts around here probably don't qualify.
Where the Real Clock Is
Not a calendar date — an equipment rule. The Domestic Content bonus requires 50% American-made content for 2026 construction starts, 55% after. Equipment earning the +10% today may not qualify next year. Add permitting and Edison's interconnection modification, and the practical runway is shorter than any date suggests.
How the Price Is Built
Nobody should hand you one big number and ask you to trust it. Here's the ladder, with a reason attached to every step:
Worst Case
Your prepaid amount, your peak-avoidance savings, nothing else goes your way. This is the number we build the conversation on — if the worst case doesn't work, nothing else matters.
Best Case
Add a qualifying Energy Community tract, summer event earnings, and resale value of storage on a paid-off solar home — all upside on a number that already stood on its own.
For comparison, cash cost: a 13.5 kWh battery runs $10,000–$14,000 installed outright — with no federal credit in 2026. The prepaid lease is what makes the math work now.
Solar Advantage is not a tax advisor. Section 48E credits are claimed at the ownership level by the finance partner, not by you; tax treatment depends on individual circumstances — confirm with your CPA. Domestic Content eligibility depends on installed equipment; Energy Community eligibility depends on your property's census tract. Neither adder is guaranteed on every project. Savings and earnings vary by utility, rate schedule, usage, system size, and battery capacity.
Why is anyone paying you to add a battery?
Fair question. California pushed solar hard for a decade and it worked — maybe too well. There's now too much power at midday and nowhere near enough at six. The 4-to-9 window is the grid's most expensive problem.
The building code now pushes new construction toward solar and storage together — storage is required outright for many new commercial and multifamily buildings, and new homes are built battery-ready. Your system predates that shift. So the programs point squarely at homeowners like you, because paying you to put a battery on your wall is dramatically cheaper than building the equivalent storage themselves.
And you get first dibs.
How the program actually works
Free Evaluation, ~20 Minutes
We look up your real PTO date and tier, check your lease or PPA if you have one, verify your Energy Community tract, and review 12 months of usage so the battery is sized to your real evening load — not a guess.
Your Numbers, In Writing
The full ladder: sticker, every credit with the reason attached, your prepaid amount, and a savings estimate from your real bills. Worst case first. Fixed price, no hidden charges.
Install and Commissioning
Certified crew installs and ties in the battery, handles permitting and the utility interconnection modification, and walks you through operation before we leave.
Getting your real numbers isn't a commitment. If it doesn't pencil, we'll tell you — and you've lost nothing but twenty minutes.
Typical timeline: {{ TIMELINE_WEEKS }} from signed agreement to commissioning, varying by utility and AHJ permitting.
Equipment and what's included
Battery
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Compatibility
Works alongside most existing string and microinverter systems, including Enphase IQ. If your inverter needs anything, you'll know before you sign — not after.
Everything Included
- Battery and all mounting hardware
- Electrical tie-in to your existing system
- Critical-load subpanel if required
- All permits and AHJ inspection
- Utility interconnection modification filing
- Grid program enrollment where available
- System commissioning and walkthrough
- 5-year leak warranty on any penetration
- Monitoring app setup
- After-sales support — one call and we're on it
What existing solar owners ask us
No, provided the modification doesn't increase your solar generating capacity by more than 10% or 1 kW. This program adds storage only — no panels, no additional generation. If your solar is leased or on a PPA, the interconnection agreement is held by the finance company and we verify their terms before proceeding.
We look it up. Your permit date isn't the answer — grandfathering runs from your permission-to-operate date, which is usually months later and which most homeowners have never seen. It takes a few minutes on our end and it's the first thing we do.
Then you're in good shape there, and we won't pretend you need rescuing. For most people in your position this isn't an outage decision at all — it's a rate decision. You're selling power at a few cents midday and buying it back near seventy at peak. The battery ends that trade. The backup is what comes with it — automatic, no cord, no midnight trip outside.
Because the 4-to-9pm crunch is the grid's most expensive problem, and paying homeowners to store power is far cheaper than building utility-scale storage. California's code now pushes new construction toward solar and storage together; your system predates that, so the programs point at homeowners like you.
The residential one did — Section 25D ended December 31, 2025. Buy a battery with cash or a loan in 2026 and your federal credit is zero. Section 48E, the commercial credit for standalone storage, is alive and stacks: 30% base plus 10% Domestic Content. Our prepaid lease is structured so the finance partner owns the system, captures those credits, and passes the value through in your price — up to 40% off sticker. You don't file anything.
It closed. All three ratepayer-funded SGIP budgets ended December 31, 2025. The one remaining pathway is for households under 80% of area median income and it's fully reserved with a waitlist. For most homeowners in Chino Hills and Corona, SGIP isn't part of the picture, and we're not going to pretend it is to make a quote look better.
You might not, and we'd rather say that upfront. The 30% base is reliable. The Domestic Content 10% depends on the equipment installed. A further 10% depends on whether your census tract is a designated Energy Community — we check your address and tell you which adders apply to you specifically before you see a price.
Nothing for the evaluation, and nothing out of pocket to find out. On the system itself, the honest answer is that it depends on your evening load, your rate schedule, and which credits your address qualifies for — which is exactly why we build the price in front of you step by step instead of quoting a number that'd be wrong for most people.
It depends on your evening load, not your roof. We size against 12 months of real usage. Better slightly generous than short — an undersized battery that runs empty at 8pm solves nothing.
Usually not everything at once, and anyone promising that is selling you something. We build a critical-load configuration — refrigeration, medical equipment, lighting, Wi-Fi, selected outlets. If you want whole-home backup, we'll price it honestly.
Only if installation requires it. Batteries are typically wall-mounted outside, next to your inverters. Any penetration carries our 5-year leak warranty.
Common, and not a problem. We work on systems we didn't install. We'll need your interconnection paperwork and system details, and we can help track those down through Edison.
California homeowners who added storage
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Verified customer · Google Review"Solar Advantage upgraded our undersized system — now it's perfectly matched to our usage."
Eric Whitcomb · Google ReviewTwenty minutes. Your real bill. Your actual address.
We look up your true PTO date and tier, check your agreement, verify which credits your address qualifies for, size the battery to your real usage, and walk you down the whole ladder in writing — worst case first. Nothing is final until you've seen real terms. If it doesn't pencil, we'll say so.
866-800-8971