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-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] *On Behalf Of *Rebekah Hren *Sent:* Monday, May 3, 2021 7:02 AM *To:* offgridso...@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 < offgridso...@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 offgridso...@sti.net <offgridso...@sti.net>* *text 209 813 0060* On Sun, 2 May 2021 07:15:55 -0700, frenergy <frene...@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 <will...@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: <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=icon> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=link> _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org There are two list archives for searching. 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