[RE-wrenches] Utitlity Rate question

Mon May 3 21:23:14 EDT 2021

Rebekah:

Well I spent way too much time thinking about and trying to model these
PG&E rates in Excel.  Here is what I came up with:

The higher the value, the better the rate plan for selling energy.  As you
can see, there is not much difference between all of these options.  About
a week ago I wrote all of my clients and warned them not to let the big,
bad PG&E force them into new rates, based on a cursory look at the
tariffs.  Now I feel obligated to write all of them again to clarify that,
as far as I can tell, it doesn’t make all that much difference.  It’s a
little embarrassing.

This chart does not take into account the effects of consumption.  Unless
you have an energy monitor, you have no way of factoring in consumption.  I
happen to have an energy monitor <http://egauge15947.egaug.es/58C32/> and
when I looked at the data it provide, it showed that the E-1 rate I have
did offset my consumption efficiently.  PG&E has an online rate comparison
tool and it too indicated that E-1 is best for our home.  Of course you
can’t use E-1 unless you are grandfathered and opted out of the rate change.

The table above is based on my best efforts to build a spreadsheet for each
of these rate structures that models them accurately.  I can’t promise I
got it all correct, but I surely tried.  Modeling these rate plans is a bit
of a mind-bender due to the number of variables each of these rates
incorporates and then trying to keep them all straight in my head.  For my
limited resources this was some heavy mental gymnastics.

I want to thank Antony Tersol for the illumination he provided on how to
plug the baseline rates into the TOU modeling.

I will collate the info I have on this subject and put it on the Case
Studies section of our web site later tonight if anyone is curious. I will
include the spreadsheets.  Any feedback is welcome.

Thanks everyone for the interest and input.

William Miller

Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985

*From:* RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On
Behalf Of *Rebekah Hren
*Sent:* Monday, May 3, 2021 7:02 AM
*To:* offgridsolar at sti.net; RE-wrenches
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Utitlity Rate question

Hi William,

Thanks for posting the links to your studies. With CA NEM. 2.0 customers
forced into TOU rate schedule, I have been wondering if you have done an
analysis on whether TOU-C (peak 4-9 everyday) or TOU-D (peak 5-8 weekdays)
is a better pair with solar?

https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/rate-plans/how-rates-work/Residential-Rates-Plan-Pricing.pdf

I am leaning towards TOU-D but haven't done an in-depth analysis. Clearly
there isn't going to be much solar generation during peak hours regardless.

Thanks!

Rebekah

Tel: 336.266.8800

On Sun, May 2, 2021 at 9:54 AM Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar <
offgridsolar at sti.net> wrote:

You guy's all know that utility is not going to get easier to understand.
It is going the other way and has been! Some of the AG solar guy's below me
in the greatest growing region in the world are probably the best. I can
dig up some of their names from the AG shows on radio KMJ in Fresno. The 5
am AG show has alot of solar on it and you can stream it.

I am away for a few days but will post something when I get back. Here is a
link to KMJ and to the AG solar company.

https://www.kmjnow.com/on-air-schedule/

https://pickettsolar.com/industries/agribusiness/

*Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar*

*"we go where powerlines don't"*

*http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/ <http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/>*

*e-mail  offgridsolar at sti.net <offgridsolar at sti.net>*

*text 209 813 0060*

On Sun, 2 May 2021 07:15:55 -0700, frenergy <frenergy at psln.com> wrote:

Jerry,

            That's the easy answer but this all gets really deep into weeds
as unless you're a PG&E smart meter (and we *really* trust them), you don't
know when that E-6 baseline is crossed to know when you're getting or
paying the higher rate.  There's 2 things going on, baseline and
time-of-use.  Customer usage, cloudy days plus other variables make a
precise calculation impossible.  A customer might enter the
higher-than-baseline rate halfway into the month and then low consumption
and sunny days pulls the customer back below baseline, paying the lower
rate.

            So many headaches, William, I've tried to figure all this out
on paper but have relied more on raw experience of what works to zero-out
one's bill which with E6 can easily happen with less KWhrs produced than
consumed.

            I would love to talk to wrenches who can help me with decent
rates for AG pumping and the AG-solar destroyer: demand charges.

Bill

Feather River Solar Electric

Bill Battagin, Owner

4291 Nelson St.

Taylorsville, CA 95983

530.284.7849

CA Lic 874049

www.frenergy.net

On 5/1/2021 3:16 PM, Jerry Shafer wrote:

Wrenches

Currently with PG&E , you buy and sell at what ever rate you are on, Peak =
peak, off peak =off peak,

On Sat, May 1, 2021, 3:02 PM William Miller <william at millersolar.com> wrote:

Friends:

After years of not quite understanding the intricacies of the newer, more
complicated utility rate schedules I have spent the last 72 hours diving
deeply into the rabbit hole.  I have one question I need answered.  Maybe
someone has the answer.

If you are on a tiered electric utility rate I know you pay more for energy
after you exceed certain daily amounts—the baseline.  I am clear that if
you avoid paying the higher rates, the value of the energy you generate is
equal to the money you save.  However if you ratchet your daily usage below
zero and are net-exporting for part of a day, at what value are you
credited in an NEM contract?

Is it:  You get the baseline rate no matter how much energy you export.

Or is it:  After you export more than the baseline rate, you start getting
credited at the over-baseline rate.

Or is it something different altogether.

If anyone knows the answer to this arcane question I would be very grateful
to learn it.  It may vary from utility to utility or plan to plan.  PG&E
E-6 is the tiered rate I most commonly encounter.

If any of you are particularly masochistic you can review some work I have
published on the subject here:

https://millersolar.com/MillerSolar/case_studies/28_UtilityRates/UtilityRates.html

This is an intricate subject and I believe anyone working in grid-tied
solar should have at least a passing familiarity with the topic.  It
affects the realized benefits of investing in grid-tied solar.

Thanks again for being the great group of friends that you are.

William Miller

Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985

On 5/1/2021 12:46 PM, William Miller wrote:

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