Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed several bills Sunday that will tweak the way California's electricity market works, encouraging solar power and phasing out some rules created during the state's electricity crisis.

One bill will require California utilities to buy surplus solar power from homeowners who generate more than they use. Another bill will expand the state's "feed-in tariff," a system that sets a price for renewable power that utilities buy from businesses with midsize solar arrays.

Another piece of legislation will raise the electricity rates of customers who use relatively little power, ending a rate freeze put in place during the energy crisis of 2000-01. The same bill also will allow a limited number of large electricity customers - such as businesses or schools - to leave the utilities and buy power from other companies.

Schwarzenegger has made expanding the use of renewable power one of his top priorities, although he and the Legislature haven't always agreed on how to do it.

The governor this weekend carried out his threat to veto two related bills that would have forced the state's utilities to get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Schwarzenegger argued that the bills placed too many restrictions on the utilities, and he decided to pursue the same 33 percent goal through an executive order instead.

The energy-related bills Schwarzenegger signed Sunday weren't nearly as contentious.