Riverside utilities board takes up virtual solar program that would share credits among apartment and shopping center tenants

Riverside Public Utilities asked the Board of Public Utilities on Nov. 9 to create a program that would let one solar system on an apartment complex or multitenant commercial center send bill credits to many tenants' electric accounts.

Staff recommended that the board hold a public hearing, adopt a resolution creating the Virtual Self-Generation schedule and send it to the City Council for approval.

The records reviewed do not show the board's action. Minutes of the Nov. 9 meeting had not been posted.

Why the utility proposed it

California's 2025 Energy Code, which took effect Jan. 1, 2026, requires new nonresidential and multifamily buildings to include solar panels on site, with several exceptions, according to the staff report.

The utility's existing self-generation program works only for properties with a single meter. The report says it offers no way to divide solar credits among separately metered apartments or stores.

How it would work

Under the proposal, the solar system would feed the grid through its own production meter. Its output would be valued at the utility's avoided energy cost and split among accounts on the property by percentages the owner sets.

Tenants would see the amount as a "Solar Credit" line on their monthly bills, the report says.

At least two accounts would have to share each system, and at least half of the credits would have to go to tenants rather than to the owner's own accounts for common areas, offices or a clubhouse.

Systems could be as large as 5 megawatts, with net exports capped at 1 megawatt. Owners could change the split once in 12 months for free.

A proposed fee schedule would charge $6.30 per account for a second change within a year. The report says that fee would take effect after the council adopts its master fee resolution, expected in summer 2027.

The program builds on the Self-Generation Program the council adopted in May 2022, after the utility met its state net metering obligation of 32 megawatts.

Nuclear plant reserve

The board was also asked to recommend that the council cut yearly deposits from $1 million to $500,000, beginning in fiscal 2026-27, for a city-held reserve set aside for uncertain costs of decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

Riverside owns 1.79% of San Onofre Units 2 and 3, which were permanently retired June 7, 2013, the report says.

The reserve held $13,704,000 as of June 30, according to unaudited figures. It is separate from Riverside's portion of decommissioning money held by the plant's trustee, which stood at $40,505,000 on the same date.

The council lowered the deposit from $2 million to $1 million in 2024, the report says.

Substation contract

The agenda also included a $934,383.27 contract with International Line Builders Inc. of Corona for the Hunter Substation Circuits 21 and 22 4kV to 12kV Make-Ready Project, Phase 2. The item called for rejecting a bid from Servitek Electric Inc. of Norwalk as non-responsive.