LADWP [RE-wrenches]

Joel Davidson joeldavidson at earthlink.net
Mon Jul 31 14:13:13 PDT 2006 

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Hello William,

The rebate is generous. If the program happens as planned, there is $17 million annual funding. Using LADWP's example systems, the 32 BP 115 watt residential system shows a payout of $13.95k and small commercial example shows a payout of $23k for a 100 Mitsubishi 170 watts system. If rebates are half residential and half commercial ($36.95 for 20.68 kW), then is 460 rebates for 9.5 MW for a total of 1,380 solar roofs by the end of 2010. Only about 98,000 more to go to reach their 2010 goal of 100,000 solar roofs.

LADWP’s On-Again / Off-Again Commitment to Solar Power is a joke. Here is a brief history.

August 1980 The Los Angeles Solar Energy Book highlighted The Rebirth of Solar Energy in Los Angeles, but nothing happened.

July 1981 The Energy/LA Action Plan recommended that DWP should pay the highest justifiable cost for surplus power generated by its customers who invest in solar electric
systems. Never implemented.

In the 1980s, LADWP built and opened to the public the Solar Optimum Energy House, an energy efficient solar demonstration home across the street from the Convention Center. Plans were made to turn the home into a solar powered childcare center. Instead the solar panels and appliances were stripped from the house. The house was abandoned to vandals and eventually bulldozed to become a parking lot.

October 1997 LADWP made a new commitment to solar power with a letter to the Department of Energy to install 100,000 rooftop photovoltaic systems by the year 2010.

May 2001 the Washington Post reported that "It's Still Dawn for Solar Power in LA" and that even though the City announced its intent to become the Solar Capital of the World, after 1 year only 40 systems were installed. 6 of those systems were done during the installation training I gave to LADWP technicians.

February 2003 LA Times reported "LADWP’s Green Power Campaign wilts." The City and LADWP’s On-Again / Off-Again commitment to solar power wastes money, causes loss of jobs to other regions and only delays the inevitable shift we must make to cleaner renewable energy.

July 29, 2006, Doug Korthof [doug at seal-beach.org] (any relation?) posted at ladwp at yahoogroups.com

Electric utilities are based on the idea of controlling the power.

Utilities promise that if they are given control, they will not 
abuse it, and will not fail. They hate the idea of allowing people 
to put in solar systems, because those folks drop off their billing 
system, and attain independence.

But rooftop solar systems ("PV") make the grid more robust, and also 
can help in disaster recovery. By suppressing solar rooftop PV 
systems, utilities and government are failing their promises.

There are two types of PV systems, both of which help the grid:

1. Grid-tie PV systems, which generate electric power during the 
day and which power several homes in the neighborhood. Grid-tie PV 
stop contributing to the grid during blackouts, but they help avoid 
strain on generating and especially local distribution facilities. 
Grid-tie system are simple and should be on every block, but 
volunteer patriot homeowners are discouraged by utilities and 
government bureaucrats.

2. Battery-backup PV systems generate electric that is stored in 
batteries; when the batteries are full, these systems also 
contribute to the grid, and help the grid remain robust just as grid-
tie systems. But in addition, if the grid goes down in a blackout 
or diaster, the inverter detects grid failure, and automatically 
cuts out the grid; but the inverter then directs the battery power 
to the circuits that were chosen to be backed up. In the case of 
disasters, these homes retain emergency power and can last until the 
next day, when the sun comes up and recharges the batteries, or 
until the emergency is over.

Why are there no provisions to help volunteer patriots put in such 
systems? Current rebates and tax breaks are inadequate, and the 
bureaucrats in utilities and in government regard these solar 
volunteers as freeloaders, making it very difficult to install solar.

Indeed, L.A. Department of Water and Power regards the customer who 
wants to put in solar as a potential thief, forcing this patriot to 
prove that the system will perform to predicted results, and forcing 
extensive, unnecessary paperwork that stultifies and defeats the 
process.

For the past three (3) years, LADWP has not even taken one more 
solar system rebate request, and has fought tooth and nail against 
solar PV power. Instead of leveraging the small resources allocated 
to Citizen Ratepayer systems, LADWP spends the majority of their 
resources on systems that they pay for completely, installed by 
their own personnel, and without quality control.

These bureaucrats must be made to realize that the Citizen is 
putting up the great majority of the money, and is volunteering the 
roof of their home; instead of fighting with and degrading these 
public-spirited Citizens, the bureaucrats should be disciplined to 
facilitate the process.




-----Original Message-----
>From: William Korthof <wkorthof at earthlink.net>
>Sent: Jul 30, 2006 9:20 PM
>To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
>Subject: Re: LADWP [RE-wrenches]
>
>
>Joel,
>
>$0.14/kwh x 20 years would imply a rebate around $5/watt AC.
>That's more generous that I expected. By a lot... is that real?
>
>/wk
>
>
>Joel Davidson wrote:
>> 
>> Hello William,
>> 
>> I also can not get PVWATTS V2 to go from the map to the data screens 
>> following the LADWP instructions.
>> 
>> You are right about $0.14/kWh if you already have projects in the queue. 
>> 8/3/06 application forms are available to customers currently on LADWP's 
>> waiting list, unless they are affordable housing PV projects.
>> 
>> 8/14/06 LADWP starts taking reservation requests for new projects.
>> 
>> LADWP's revised rebate program is a bureaucratic disgrace compared to 
>> New Jersey's simple rebate process.
>> 
>> For decades LADWP boasted that it was pro-solar but did nothing. Then 
>> David Freeman became general manager, fired 2000 employees (with no 
>> impact on service quality), eliminated the multi-billion dollar debt 
>> that the bureaucracy had caused, and started a solar program. A few PV 
>> projects got started despite resistance from the bureaucracy. As soon as 
>> Freeman left, the bureaucracy went back to its bad old ways of boasting 
>> about solar but doing very little. Compare SMUD's PV programs to PV in 
>> LADWP territory and it's like day and night. LADWP's entrenched 
>> bureaucracy has either intentionally nipped or ineptly mismanaged every 
>> effort to expand PV in LA. The new mayor and utility commissioners 
>> should clean house.
>> 
>> Joel Davidson
>> 
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "William Korthof" 
>> <wkorthof at earthlink.net>
>> To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 4:45 PM
>> Subject: LADWP [RE-wrenches]
>> 
>> 
>>>
>>> They're doing it again.
>>>
>>> LADWP is supposedly on track to reauthorize a solar rebate program. 
>>> They've put together a "design based incentive". If I've managed to 
>>> understand this correctly, the incentive is supposed to be $0.14 per 
>>> kWh times the predicted system output over 20 years, from a customized 
>>> version of PVWatts (a DOE solar output estimation tool I never use):
>>> http://mapserve2.nrel.gov/website/LA_PVWatts/viewer.htm
>>>
>>> I clicked the link and got a spiffy, colored "smart" map with many 
>>> selectible layers (bar on right side). The link to PVwatts layer (V2) 
>>> doesn't seem to cause anything useful to pop up. Hmmmmm. Otherwise, I 
>>> don't see any functionality with this program. Weird.
>>>
>>> Leaving asside my comments about how this program seems to be an 
>>> arcane divergence from an effective solar incentive, bound to serious 
>>> confusion and mistakes among installers and customers and very 
>>> difficult to administer, applications will loaded with "errors" and 
>>> the queue will inevitably log-jam in short order due to"insufficent 
>>> staffing"...
>>>
>>> At this point, after 3.5 years of no solar program, we have dozens of 
>>> LADWP customers who want solar and are ready to sign a contract. 
>>> Several already have, a few even have completed (unrebated) systems. 
>>> But the mostly people are expecting some sort of reasonable rebate, 
>>> like what customers of all other major utilities in the state have 
>>> enjoyed for years. Can anyone help figure out what the deal is?
>>>
>>>
>>> William Korthof
>>> Energy Efficiency Solar
>>>
>>>
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>> 
>> 
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>
>
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