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BACKGROUND The California Public Utilities Commission oversees the State's Net Energy Metering program. NEM is designed to support the installation of customer -sited renewable energy generation. Customers who install small solar, wind, biogas, and fuel cell generation facilities to serve all or a portion of onsite electricity needs are eligible for the State's NEM program; participation in the program provides customer -generators with rate credits for energy exported to the grid and requires them to pay charges that align NEM customer costs more closely with non -NEM customer costs. DISCUSSION The current NEM program was adopted by the CPUC in Decision (D.)16-01-044 on January 28, 2016. Recently, the CPUC launched a formal proceeding to update the current NEM structure; this new rulemaking is referred to as NEM 3.0. More than 17 proposals have been submitted to the CPUC for consideration. As NEM 3.0 is continuing to progress through the CPUC's rulemaking proceeding steps, the City's energy provider — East Bay Community Energy — determined it imperative to provide input to the CPUC in advance of a decision. At a December 3, 2021, EBCE special board meeting, a resolution was approved by a 9-1 vote of the board members. Broad access to rooftop solar is consistent with key goals and themes in the City's adopted Legislative Framework and draft Climate Action Plan 2.0, including protecting and expanding rooftop solar via a strong successor NEM program; expanding clean energy access by making it easier, not costlier, to adopt rooftop solar and energy storage toward meeting California's ambitious clean energy targets; and deploying solar in all communities and households, particularly those struggling to pay for electricity. Given this, and the City's participation as an EBCE member city, a draft resolution that mirrors the resolution adopted by the EBCE board is provided for the Council's consideration (Attachment 1). Notably, the draft resolution urges the CPUC to: • Strengthen NEM to expand access to all households, particularly of low -and - moderate income • Expand access to other clean energy technologies that pair with solar, such as battery storage • Ensure that the solar installations continue to grow in order to meet State and City climate goals ■ Exclude provisions such as high monthly fixed fees, and that reduce or eliminate credits for sharing electricity with the power grid. • Integrates Time -Of -Use rates into NEM 3.0 as appropriate to incentivize solar distributed generation, electrification, and energy efficiency • Ensures that customers in communities of concern who have not had much access to rooftop, behind -the -meter solar are provided generous incentives so they can be a greater part of the clean energy solution to the climate crisis • Ensures that low-income customers have the opportunity to access the bill savings and resilience benefits associated with the NEM tariff • Provides a pathway for communities of concern to own and operate distributed generation and related storage projects in their communities and to their benefit Page 2 of 3