CoServ Solar Policy Change [update to NEM program]

[greenmonk]

So I postponed my solar installation because CoServ told me they were changing their solar policy and it would be released in early January. I contacted them through their solar email address and they just sent me what the change is and I'm not sure what to think. I still have a chance to change my solar order, so I'm trying to understand with this policy change, is it advantageous for me to have Powerwalls or does it matter.? 🤔 For those who have been on CoServ with solar, what do you think?

Here is the change....

After many months of review and close examination, CoServ has created a new Buyback Compensation Plan that is more equitable for our entire Membership. This new plan will include CoServ buying back all received energy from the Member's solar system at our avoided wholesale power cost (This rate can change monthly based on natural gas pricing), and Member's purchasing all delivered energy from CoServ at the applicable retail rate. The buyback of received energy will occur in form of a credit applied to each bill. These changes will be made available to review on our website by end of day January 3, 2023. The new policy will go into place starting February 1, 2023.

I'm waiting to hear back if this means we can now chose whatever retail plan that we want. I was thinking the Summer Savings Plan would be best since it's TOU and is only expensive 3-8pm from May-Oct. I can't find it on their website yet, so I also asked them for a link to that.

 

[JakiChan]

They're basically doing what CA did with NEM3. Gutting their payback rate in the name of "equity" when in reality it's just a cash grab. Their answer on the rate plan will be important, because basically you'll still end up with a power bill at night and will get almost nothing for overproduction during the day. It might make Powerwalls make sense for you or it might mean not to do solar at all.

 

[greenmonk]

They're basically doing what CA did with NEM3. Gutting their payback rate in the name of "equity" when in reality it's just a cash grab. Their answer on the rate plan will be important, because basically you'll still end up with a power bill at night and will get almost nothing for overproduction during the day. It might make Powerwalls make sense for you or it might mean not to do solar at all.

So I finally got a response back on if I can choose my rate...

The buyback of received energy will occur in the form of a credit applied to each bill. As of right now, your rate will be the Standard Residential Rate plus with a total customer charge of $25. However, if you produce enough power in excess you will be able to credit against the member charge which you could not do on the net metering plan. As for choosing your rate, I do believe at some point in the intermediate future, you will be able to choose which rate you want but as of right now that's not how the buyback rate will be structured.

I'm definitely not happy about this and feel like they're screwing solar owners. In the previous program, you also were only allowed to do the Standard Residential Rate, but got everything as a 1:1 credit. The only thing that has changed is that now they will give you less for the same amount of energy you send them. They're actually only grandfathering people in the old program for 3 years and then they have to change to this new buyback program too. I was waiting to get my solar installed until I found out about what the coming change would be.

The policy change was going to be what helped me make a decision on if I should get Powerwalls. So in my specific case, does this mean Powerwalls (2) would be advisable so I can use the energy I produce to power my house at night? As long as I did my calculations correctly, I made sure not to oversize my system, so I should never produce more than I actually use in a day. I estimate that it will cover 60-70% in peak summer. The only time that might happen is during the winter since it's mostly gas at that point, but charging my Tesla will help.

 

[jbctech]

Hey greenmonk - I actually have CoServ and am scheduled to have solar installed in the next week. I'm new to this but do I have this right...in the old plan, they gave you a 1:1 credit up to what you used in a month and the customer charge was $20 (not recoverable). In the new plan, they give us a lower, retail rate credit up to what we use in a month and the customer charge is $25 (recoverable). I'm planning on getting 2 PowerWalls but am missing the grandfather timelines by less than a week after over 6 months of waiting. I wish they communicated this change a bit better - still not seeing anything on their website about what happens after Wednesday.

 

[greenmonk]

Hey greenmonk - I actually have CoServ and am scheduled to have solar installed in the next week. I'm new to this but do I have this right...in the old plan, they gave you a 1:1 credit up to what you used in a month and the customer charge was $20 (not recoverable). In the new plan, they give us a lower, retail rate credit up to what we use in a month and the customer charge is $25 (recoverable). I'm planning on getting 2 PowerWalls but am missing the grandfather timelines by less than a week after over 6 months of waiting. I wish they communicated this change a bit better - still not seeing anything on their website about what happens after Wednesday.

Everything I posted in my quotes are directly from emails Coserv sent me. You can email them yourself if you have specific questions. They haven't posted a single thing on their website even though they have a link to an FAQ for the new policies (but the link doesn't work!). Email them your questions at [email protected]. They're pretty fast with their replies.

I'm also scheduled to get my installation done next week and I'm not happy. Just like you, I'm planning on getting 2 PowerWalls. I'm hoping my estimates for my usage and what I will produce are correct because then I should be able to store enough extra energy in my PWs during the day to power my home at night and not send any back to the grid for the lower rate. It also means that I'll need to plan to charge my car during the day to pull from the solar to also make sure I don't send any extra to CoServ. I'm just going to be really petty with them because they are giving absolutely ZERO incentive to not use as much energy during the day as I possibly can. It's just all ridiculous! They should be incentivizing us to not charge our EVs during peak hours and to not use as much energy as we can during the day. Instead, they are going to pay us the low rate for energy we send them, but charge us the full retail rate for energy we pull from them.

 

[greenmonk]

Hey greenmonk - I actually have CoServ and am scheduled to have solar installed in the next week. I'm new to this but do I have this right...in the old plan, they gave you a 1:1 credit up to what you used in a month and the customer charge was $20 (not recoverable). In the new plan, they give us a lower, retail rate credit up to what we use in a month and the customer charge is $25 (recoverable). I'm planning on getting 2 PowerWalls but am missing the grandfather timelines by less than a week after over 6 months of waiting. I wish they communicated this change a bit better - still not seeing anything on their website about what happens after Wednesday.

Don't know if you saw, but they finally updated their website with the new information. It's awful! Basically, they'll be buying energy back from us at almost 1/3 of the cost that they will be charging us to use. So you either need enough PowerWalls to store all your excess energy to use at night or only install a tiny system where you will never use more than you produce during the daytime. This change is ridiculous! Even those who are currently grandfathered into the old plan will be forced to change to this in a few years.
https://support.coserv.com/hc/en-us...9-Distributed-Generation-DG-Rate-with-Buyback

 

[TBrownTX]

I wish I could switch to Tesla Energy.