Being moved from PG&E to East Bay Community Energy

[cali8484]

How about on your power service aspect? Have you noticed any changes? Less reliable, more reliable? Billing a pain? Or ???

We have been working from home for years so I suspect our consumption is the same this year. But we added the SolarRoof and 2 Powerwalls so buy much less power. Bill for July/August dropped from around $500/mo to under $50.

I haven't see any service reliability difference but the billing is more complex to me because of the monthly true up plus the PG&E fees and their true-up and that's really where I am not sure it's better overall.

 

[Ampster]

the billing is more complex to me because of the monthly true up plus the PG&E fees and their true-up and that's really where I am not sure it's better overall.

Yes, you really have to dive into the detail to evaluate the benefits. PGE and the other Investor Owned Utilities lobbied very hard against the CCA legislation 10 years ago. They even got the absurd PCIA charge allowed to try to give them an advantage.
PGE does not make the bills simple to understand. However even with the PCIA charge added my bill is less than it would have been if I had stayed with PGE alone. There is a simple test I do from time to time that confirms my assumption.

 

[Dan L at EBCE]

A monthly true up would be bad if you pull energy from the grid during the winter months. You would get paid for the excess energy you produced each month and not carry over any credits to cover you for the months you aren't producing as much solar energy and reliant on grid energy.

Thanks for the info. I noticed an error. Their TOU is every day, mine is only M-F. I guess I need to see how that impacts my costs.

This is Dan Lieberman with EBCE. Our TOU rate schedules are exactly the same as PG&E. If you are on TOU-C, then it's every day. If you are on TOU-D, then it's M-F. You select your preferred rate schdule with PG&E and they let us know what you chose, then we honor that.

 

[Dan L at EBCE]

I do not think any CCAs have rate periods that are different than PG&E. Every time PG&E changes rates a CCA usually follows to be competitive. What you are seeing is a change in the PG&E rate coincidental with conversion of your community to a CCA or as @miimura said, a mistake. Call them and go on the rate that is best for you and the energy mix tha you prefer. The mix info should be on their website.

A monthly true up would be bad if you pull energy from the grid during the winter months. You would get paid for the excess energy you produced each month and not carry over any credits to cover you for the months you aren't producing as much solar energy and reliant on grid energy.

This is Dan with EBCE. Our NEM credits do carry over from month-to-month. The only time we charge NEM customers is when you exhaust all of your NEM credits and then continue to be a net consumer, we charge you for that net amount. As a NEM customer, you are never worse off on EBCE service than on PG&E service.