Newsom’s Sep 30 deadline came and went, and every bill we told you was sitting on his desk got an answer. Three of them will come up on porches this week. Plug-in solar got signed. Home batteries got a path to count toward grid reliability. Community solar got vetoed. None of it changes what you sell Monday. Your homeowner probably read about at least one of them over the weekend, and the headlines ran ahead of the bills. Here’s what each one says.
Top Stories
1. Plug-in solar is signed (SB 868, Chapter 985). It isn’t live yet.
Newsom signed SB 868 (Wiener) on Sep 30. It’s Chapter 985. It’s a non-urgency bill, so it takes effect Jan 1, 2027. Nothing changes on a California outlet this month.
Once it’s in effect, a portable solar device that plugs into a receptacle, up to 1,200 W AC total per home, skips utility interconnection. The device needs a UL (or equivalent national lab) plug-in PV certification and anti-islanding protection so it can’t backfeed the grid during an outage. The utility can’t require pre-approval or fees. It can require a simple online registration. The bill doesn’t touch lease, landlord, or HOA rules, and the interconnection exemption sunsets Jan 1, 2030.
A lot of what’s going around online says “plug in today” and “no permission needed.” Both are wrong right now. Homeowners online are still arguing over which kits are even certified, so treat product availability as unsettled.
Sources: LegInfo status · Chaptered text · Governor’s 9/30 legislative update
2. Home batteries get a path to count toward grid reliability (SB 913, Chapter 987)
Newsom signed SB 913 (Becker) on Sep 30. It’s Chapter 987. It tells the CPUC, working with the CEC and CAISO, to build better pathways for aggregated customer-sited resources, like networks of home batteries, to qualify as resource adequacy capacity. That’s the capacity utilities have to line up to keep the lights on. The bill also requires guardrails so a NEM or Net Billing customer doesn’t get paid twice for the same exported energy.
The CPUC deadline is on or before June 30, 2028. CALSSA’s Sep 30 release and some trade coverage say 2027. The chaptered text on LegInfo says 2028. Go with LegInfo.
Sources: LegInfo status · Chaptered text · Governor’s 9/30 legislative update
3. Newsom vetoed the community solar rewrite (AB 1813)
AB 1813 (Ward) would have made the CPUC redesign its customer renewable energy subscription program, the state’s community solar track. Newsom vetoed it on Sep 30. His veto message calls the bill “structurally flawed.” It says the bill would set a price above the grid value of the power and put “significant upward pressure” on bills, and it cites a Public Advocates Office estimate of about $1.5 billion a year. No rebuilt subscription program is coming out of this session.
Sources: LegInfo status · Veto message (PDF) · Governor’s 9/30 legislative update
Why It Matters at the Door
When they say “I’ll just plug in a balcony kit.”
Agree that it’s real. The governor signed it. Then give them the facts in order: Jan 1, 2027 before the new rule applies, 1,200 W AC max, certified gear only, the utility can still ask them to register, and the HOA still gets a say. Then talk scale. A plug-in kit is a few panels on an outlet with no backup. Rooftop solar with a battery is what covers the bill and the outage. Ask for the last 12 months of bills and size to that.
If they rent or truly can’t use the roof, a certified kit after Jan 1 may be a fair answer for them. Say so. You’ll keep your credibility on the rest of the street.
When they ask “can my battery make money for me?”
Tell them the state just signed a law aimed at letting networks of home batteries count toward grid reliability. Then give them the date. The CPUC has until June 30, 2028 to build it. Nobody knows yet what it pays, and the law blocks double pay on exports they’re already credited for. Sell the battery on backup and on what it does to their own bill. SB 913 is one more sign the state wants home batteries working for the grid. Leave the dollar figure out.
When they say “I’ll wait for community solar.”
Newsom vetoed the rewrite on Sep 30. No new subscription program came out of this session. If they own a roof that works, rooftop solar plus storage is the product they control on their own property. You don’t need the $1.5 billion number on the porch. If you use it, say it’s the Public Advocates Office estimate cited in the Governor’s veto message.
Scrub these pitches:
- Don’t say plug-in solar is legal to hook up today, or that it needs “no permission.” It starts Jan 1, 2027. The utility can require registration. HOA and lease rules still apply.
- Don’t pitch a plug-in kit as a rooftop replacement. It’s capped at 1,200 W AC, has no backup, and the exemption ends Jan 1, 2030.
- Don’t guess whether adding a plug-in kit affects a NEM 2 customer’s legacy status. That’s a question for their utility.
- Don’t promise battery payouts from SB 913. There’s no per-home number, and the CPUC deadline is June 30, 2028.
- Don’t quote June 30, 2027 for SB 913. That’s the trade-press date. LegInfo says 2028.
- Don’t pitch community solar as coming. AB 1813 was vetoed.
- Still true from earlier issues: the lawsuit isn’t bringing back retail NEM, and there’s no blanket 30% federal credit on a 2026 cash buy (§25D ended for expenditures after Dec 31, 2025).
CA Corner
SB 905 (Chapter 986), signed Sep 30. This is Becker’s companion to SB 913. Large utilities have to publish how full their distribution lines get at peak and how much room they have off-peak, and look at load flexibility and distribution-connected storage before defaulting to traditional grid upgrades. It also has regulators consider a lower return on equity for certain utility spending. That’s utility planning and cost control. No product, rebate, or install rule changes for your homeowner this week.
Sources: LegInfo status · Chaptered text
The rest of the desk list. SB 222 (heat-pump permitting) was signed Sep 28 as Chapter 738. It covers heat pumps. It only matters if your crew also sells HVAC.
Source: LegInfo status
Jan 1, 2027 is a busy day. SB 868, SB 913, and SB 905 all take effect that day. The property-tax new-construction exclusion for active solar also goes inoperative for new systems on Jan 1, 2027. If a deal depends on the exclusion, have the homeowner confirm with the county assessor. Don’t invent a dollar figure.
Source: BOE LTA 2026/034
CTA
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