TOU PV [RE-wrenches]

Joel Davidson joeldavidson at earthlink.net
Thu Jun 27 09:04:01 PDT 2002


Doug, This is not a rumor. California utility employees and others are
discussing TOU PV. Yesterday I received the email below from a pro-solar
LADWP employee. What follows is my attempt to simplify the isse and a
response that I received.
-----
The LADWP is not under jurisdiction of the CPUC. However, it is an
"energy service provider", and as such, in the State of California, is
governed by legislation at the State level directing "energy service
providers" specifically to undertake certain actions or responses.

For example SB 656, included language:
SB 656, Alquist. Public utilities: energy metering.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission is vested with
regulatory authority over public utilities.
This bill would require every electric utility in the state, including
a privately owned or publicly owned public utility, municipally
owned utility, and electrical cooperative that offers residential
electrical service, whether or not the entity is subject to the
jurisdiction of the commission, to develop a standard contract or tariff
providing for net energy metering, as defined, to be available to
eligible customer-generators, as defined, pursuant to specified
conditions.

The issue of TOU and Net Metering is in the current AB 58 language, and
in my reading of it, I understand that TOU credits will be monetized:

"(B) For all eligible customer-generators taking service under
tariffs employing ''time of use'' rates, any net monthly
consumption of electricity shall be calculated according to the
terms of the contract or tariff to which the same customer would
be assigned to or be eligible for if the customer was not an eligible
customer-generator. ...
...the net kilowatthours produced shall be valued at the same price per
kilowatthour as the electric service provider would charge for
retail kilowatthour sales during that same time of use period.
...
any excess kilowatthours generated during the
billing cycle shall be carried over to the following billing period,
valued as a monetary value, calculated according to the
procedures set forth in this section, and appear as a credit on the
customer-generator's account, until the end of the annual period..."

>From the above, the distinction between what is a 'peak period credit'
versus a 'base period credit' is not supported. Since LADWP would be
governed by the same law, we would have to follow suit and monetize
peak period credits, making them applicable throughout the billing cycle
usage. The Bill also amends the term "commission" to "rate making
authority". In LADWP, the governing authority would be Water and Power
Board, followed by City Council approval of rate ordinance.
-----
Thanks for the info. It seems like:
1) PV power will offset real-time consumption
2) and any excess kWh will carry over to the next billing period
3) and have the same kWh value in the next billing period to offset the
same TOU kWh.

In simple terms, 10am-to-6pm kWh are strawberry flavored and all other
kWh are vanilla flavored. A PV system exports to the grid 50 kWh of
strawberry kWh in July. In August, that strawberry 50 kWh can only offset
strawberry kWh consumption. At the end of the billing year, extra
strawberry kWh disappears. Does this sound right?
-----
Actually, continuing with your flavorful analogy, I understand it this way:
Individual shoppers ( residential <10kW )can take the strawberry flavored
and the vanilla flavored kWh each month to the store and get a store
credit with a $ symbol on it. The store only sells kWh. Each month you can
use the store credit to buy either flavor of kWh. The vanilla flavored
usually
cost (retail) about half of what the strawberry flavored do, so you get
about
twice the vanilla flavored for each strawberry flavored you bring in. You
can keep getting store credits and add up to what looks like big $$, but
you can never use them on anything but that store's kWh, so you may lose
them if you don't use them.
Big group shoppers ( > 10 kW to 1MW ) get to do the same as the
individual shoppers, but at the end, if they have a store credits, they get
the ability to get the wholesale value of what those store credits could
have bought (this is the 'generation value' of energy in AB 58 for the >
10kW accounts ).
LADWP currently is treating as separate the strawberry and the vanilla,
as if there were 2 separate stores with no means of exchanging credits
between the two.

Doug Pratt wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joel Davidson [mailto:joeldavidson at earthlink.net]
>
> On Jun 10, I heard from LADWP employees that California utilities are
> re-writing the rates so that customers with Time of Use net metered PV
> systems will not get full value for their peak electric production.
>
>   This sounds like a rumor Joel. TOU metering became available to PV
> intertie customers because of a law passed by the State legislature. It
> clearly states that any utility billing scheme that's available to a
> customer *without* an intertie system, has to also be available *with*
> an intertie system. It took the utilities about 4 months after it became
> law to scramble up a bi-directional TOU meter. In order to change the
> deal for PV customers, they'd have to change the deal for everybody.
>
>  I've got a hard copy printout of the law at my office (I'm at home
> now). Want a copy? Email me your fax # at: <doug at realgoods.com>
>
> Cheers,
> Doug Pratt

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: michael.welch at homepower.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================





More information about the RE-wrenches mailing list