The California Public Utilities Commission said Thursday it will delay indefinitely a vote on its controversial plan to reduce net metering payments to rooftop solar owners as it considers rewriting the proposal.

The proceeding, led by former Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves, is now in the hands of new President Alice Reynolds, who previously served as energy adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“The assigned commissioner [Reynolds] has requested additional time to analyze the record and consider revisions to the proposed decision based on party comments,” Administrative Law Judge Kelly Hymes wrote in an email to parties in the proceeding.

“The proposed decision, which was issued on December 13, 2021, will not appear on the commission’s voting meeting agenda until further notice,” Hymes said.

In an email to clients, ClearView Energy Partners said, “We regard [this] as perhaps the strongest indicator from the CPUC to date that significant changes to the proposed decision are likely. On this point, we reiterate our long-held view that the final decision may move more toward the recommendations from solar advocates.”

The “provision most susceptible to change” is a proposed $8/kW grid participation charge that has particularly irked homeowners, ClearView said.

California Sen. Diane Feinstein wrote to Reynolds on Jan. 25, recommending that the CPUC reconsider the grid participation charge “to spur adoption of this technology.”

“The fee structure should properly reflect the benefits of distributed generation and promote wide adoption of rooftop solar,” Feinstein said.

Newsom, too, has said he thinks the plan needs work. (See CPUC Takes Heat on Rooftop Solar Plan.)

Opponents of the plan spoke in public comments at the CPUC’s Jan. 27 voting meeting for more than eight hours, leaving only a short time at the end of the day for the commission to take up its scheduled business. (The net metering proposal was expected to be taken up at the meeting, the earliest date on which it could be heard, but the CPUC did not put it on the agenda.)

The proposed decision, released in December, would reduce electric bill credits for homeowners with rooftop solar arrays by up to 80% and add the monthly grid charge to their bills. (See California PUC Proposes New Net Metering Plan.)

In the decision, crafted by Guzman Aceves and Hymes, the CPUC said the current net metering scheme unfairly shifts costs from homeowners who can afford rooftop solar to those who cannot.

It “negatively impacts nonparticipating customers, is not cost-effective and disproportionately harms low-income ratepayers,” Hymes wrote.

Estimates of the annual cost shift have ranged from more than $1 billion to $3.4 billion.

Opponents, led by the solar industry, have contended it will decimate rooftop solar adoption.

Homeowners who purchase rooftop solar arrays and return electricity to the grid have never paid a connection fee and are compensated at full retail rates, which are more than utility-scale solar costs. California has approximately 1.3 million rooftop solar arrays as a result of the generous incentives, advocates argue.

Those who support the CPUC’s proposed decision, including the state’s large investor-owned utilities, argue utility-scale solar is more cost-effective and can serve far more consumers that rooftop arrays.

Hymes said in her email Thursday that she would update parties on the next steps.

“After additional analysis is conducted, I will issue a subsequent ruling providing information on the proceeding schedule and details regarding the oral argument hearing,” she said.