Pacific Gas & Electric?s plan to bill customers for departing load when they install distributed generation?in this case, solar power?was denied by the California Public Utilities Commission December 18. The commission found that those who have their own sources of electricity already pay a public-goods charge on their unused load and cannot be levied a charge on top of that. PG&E's proposal would have imposed a sort of exit fee on net-metered customers, where the meter in essence runs backward when an entity is supplying its own energy. PG&E claimed that customers with net meters are much like those who choose direct access to get around the utility system and should therefore bear financial responsibility. The CPUC rejected PG&E?s premise.