Looks like there are a few PG&E customers here and at least a couple grandfathered into the old E-6 rate plan, self included.
E-6 customers can technically remain on that plan through 2022. Starting next year, 2020, the plan will begin transition to a 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. peak period. This is quite fair as the E-6 rate plan is overly generous for where we have advanced to.
It was reasonable in the early days of solar PV to incentivize such customers heavily, including with the old overly generous rate plans, but now we deal with the duck curve:
https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2018/ ... curve.html
Solar PV is much cheaper now, and the grid has little to no need for solar PV on a cool sunny spring day. On the other hand, many old plans like E-6 allow customers off-peak or partial-peak rates in the late summer afternoon and early evening when they are generating little or no solar PV but consuming gobs of electricity from the grid to run their AC.
California is still quite generous to solar PV customers on all rate plans, with no current plans to annul net annual metering. So adding more solar PV would be effective for a least a few more years with the current rate plans.
The CPUC and grid operators are appropriately working to "flatten" the duck curve, by shifting solar PV supply and demand to meet loads. This is being solved by:
a) adding energy storage: PG&E and other utilities are already doing this with utility scale batteries; customers can install home batteries too, and there are incentives, although these are currently phasing out, and home batteries are too costly for most residents and rarely cost effective
b) demand response: the newest rate plans require solar PV customers to do their part by more appropriately compensating the real time value of their solar PV production and more appropriately charging them for their real time electricity use
In terms of demand response, almost everyone could do a lot more. Washing machines, electric dryers, pool pumps, pool electric resistance and heat pumps, spas, dish washers, electric resistance and heat pump water heaters, etc. can easily be shifted to off peak use on these plans. AC and home air heat pumps can be run more deeply on off-peak and partial-peak hours then throttled back during peak hours.
In a few years, home batteries will hopefully be reasonably affordable enough to do load shifting by several hours such that solar PV customers will be able to use their own stored solar PV generation in the early evening during peak hours and/or sell excess then to their utility.
'19 Model 3 SR+, '19 Leaf SV, '12 Plug-in Prius (sold 3/19), '16 Leaf SV (prior lease), 11.43kW Solar PV (16MWh/yr prod.), 20.5 SEER/13.0 HSPF ducted air-source HP, 3.70 UEF HPWH, Induction Cooktop, Variable Speed Pool Pump, Battery powered yard tools