I live in Massachusetts and natural gas powers 70% of our electricity generation. With the recent (and one hopes, temporary) increase in natural gas prices, my electricity now costs $0.46 per kWh. With the decline in gas prices compared to last summer, it now costs more to fill the “tank” with electricity rather than equivalent range gasoline. Oh, well. The electricity vs. gasoline savings is not why I bought the car anyway. FWIW, my 8,000 mile average efficiency is 246 wh/mile; stated differently that’s just over 4 miles per kWh.
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Electricity Cost Spikes
- Thread starter MA128
- Start date
I've got a massive solar panel system + powerwalls, and my bill went from $15/month to $70/month with no consumption increases. Some of my friends went from having a $250/month bill to a $700/month bill in the same timeframe, also with no consumption increases.
This is why I went solar; the oil cartels are not going away, they're just going to change their name to the electric cartels. So if you have an option for any power generation on your own, you better start looking soon. I seen it coming years ago.
I’m on a community solar plan because my house isn’t suitable for a meaningful number of panels. My son has a full solar installation with two Tesla PowerWalls. He’s very happy.
My purpose for buying the Tesla and enrolling in community solar was to finance the generation of more renewable energy to reduce fossil fuel usage. I want my grandchildren (and 8 billion other souls, for that matter) to live on a planet that isn’t burning. We all have our reasons!
My purpose for buying the Tesla and enrolling in community solar was to finance the generation of more renewable energy to reduce fossil fuel usage. I want my grandchildren (and 8 billion other souls, for that matter) to live on a planet that isn’t burning. We all have our reasons!
$0.46 per kWh... wow...
I assume you shopped around/compared rates? I'm seeing the average residential electricity rate in Massachusetts (as of January 2023) sitting at $0.30 per kWh.
My rate in Connecticut with Eversource was just south of $0.10 per kWh until they more than doubled it (recently) to $0.24 per kWh. However, when I found out that Eversource intended to do this, I found a different supplier and locked in (for three years) a rate of $0.1379 per kWh.
I assume you shopped around/compared rates? I'm seeing the average residential electricity rate in Massachusetts (as of January 2023) sitting at $0.30 per kWh.
My rate in Connecticut with Eversource was just south of $0.10 per kWh until they more than doubled it (recently) to $0.24 per kWh. However, when I found out that Eversource intended to do this, I found a different supplier and locked in (for three years) a rate of $0.1379 per kWh.
New Jersey. Got solar. They got this thing, "Net Metering".
The electric meter is two meters. One counts up when energy is going out, the other stays still. When energy is coming in, the first stops and the second counts up.
Day one: Start. Meters do their thing. At the end of the month, read the meters. If the Outgoing > Incoming, subtract and that become Surplus. One pays a connection fee, $5.
If Incoming > Outgoing, then Incoming-Outgoing = Amount One Is Billed upon and one pays retail, whatever that is.
Next month, do it again. If Outgoing + Surplus > Incoming, then Surplus = Surplus + (Outgoing - Incoming) and is carried over to the next month.
If (Outgoing + Surplus) < Incoming, then Incoming - (Outgoing + Surplus) = Amount one is billed upon and Surplus goes to Zero.
At the Day 0 date the following year, if there's a surplus, one gets paid wholesale for the amount and the surplus goes to zero to start all over again.
The array on the roof is typically sized so that energy generation is roughly the same as one's usage. Result: What with summer time surpluses carrying through the winter, actual electric charges (other than that $5/month connection fee) are zero, or near-zero. One is allowed to change the Day 0 date to something in the spring, which allows one to accumulate surpluses when the sky is sunny.
There are certainly things wrong with New Jersey, but Net Metering is not one of them.
It's nice not being subject to the vagaries of gas and oil prices.
The electric meter is two meters. One counts up when energy is going out, the other stays still. When energy is coming in, the first stops and the second counts up.
Day one: Start. Meters do their thing. At the end of the month, read the meters. If the Outgoing > Incoming, subtract and that become Surplus. One pays a connection fee, $5.
If Incoming > Outgoing, then Incoming-Outgoing = Amount One Is Billed upon and one pays retail, whatever that is.
Next month, do it again. If Outgoing + Surplus > Incoming, then Surplus = Surplus + (Outgoing - Incoming) and is carried over to the next month.
If (Outgoing + Surplus) < Incoming, then Incoming - (Outgoing + Surplus) = Amount one is billed upon and Surplus goes to Zero.
At the Day 0 date the following year, if there's a surplus, one gets paid wholesale for the amount and the surplus goes to zero to start all over again.
The array on the roof is typically sized so that energy generation is roughly the same as one's usage. Result: What with summer time surpluses carrying through the winter, actual electric charges (other than that $5/month connection fee) are zero, or near-zero. One is allowed to change the Day 0 date to something in the spring, which allows one to accumulate surpluses when the sky is sunny.
There are certainly things wrong with New Jersey, but Net Metering is not one of them.
It's nice not being subject to the vagaries of gas and oil prices.
RayK
Active Member
I too have Net Metering here in CA. However, it is a single meter which runs in both directions. Excess energy (Solar output - power consumed) will cause the meter to run backwards. The meter is also networked so that it can be read remotely.
Assuming you're talking to me. Um. Fixed, except that there's break points where (I think) as the billable kW-hr's gets bigger, the rate goes up or something. Not sure if the meter I've got supports that.
Given that I'm not paying anything, or not much, it hardly makes a difference, though.
Ha. When the solar first went in, the installers, the bureaucracy in the state government, and the local utility were supposed to get together and get a Net Metering meter installed on the side of the house. It got a bit confused, but PSE&G didn't get told. So, yes indeedy, I can report that a Standard Mechanical Electric Meter does in fact run backwards when the sun is shining. (I'm a EE, as it happens, and, out of curiosity, I looked up how the little induction motor works in the meter. Yep, it does that, and is just as accurate going forwards as backwards
.)After a few months of this a month came when (no surprise) the panels generated more energy over the month than received from PSE&G. So, the meter reading was less when the electric company guy came by. I then got a bill for something like $20,000: PSE&G's systems had figured that I had run the meter all the 'way around and back again, which is a heck of a lot of energy.
A call to the company got a, "That can't be right!" from the rep (solar was newish back then), followed by calls within PSE&G's hierarchy, ending up with the supervisor in charge of meter installations. Who chuckled some and had a crew come out and swap the meter the next day. Followed by some math that straightened up the billing mess to everybody's satisfaction.
Net metering is great - until the day that too many people are on solar. Someone has to pay for maintaining the transmission and distribution structure - even if you use it only one day a year. Net metering the generation portion of your bill makes sense but the T&D should not be credited. Net metering as it is currently structured shifts T&D cost to everyone who does not have a solar panel system on their roof; in essence a regressive tax. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe in renewable energy and ending the use of fossil fuels. I just think the rate structure should be equitable.
Um. There is that, "$4.95" connectivity fee I pay every month. I've been presuming that that pays T&D costs.
See your point, though. Not sure how all the economics works, especially at night. On the other hand, daytime solar panel sure helps with air conditioning, which the power companies don't have to install peaker plants for.
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
In WA the rate structure for net metering IS equitable. In fact, it is tilted toward those who do NOT produce their own power.
I pay 53¢/day "minimum charge" for what you call T&D. A customer without solar pays 10¢/day. So I pay over 5 times what a non-solar customer pays for T&D. In the 5 months/year that I have to actually buy electricity with my net-meter credit, I still pay the the 53¢/day, because my credit ONLY applies to the electricity I buy. Also, if I produce more than I use over the 12-months before the Apr 1 credit reset, I lose any accumulated credit.
Every year until 2026, the T&D charge for the non-solar customer goes up, and the rate per kWh goes down a bit, but the max T&D rate in 2026 will be 48¢/day - still 5¢/day less than what I am paying now. As I understand it, I will be locked in to the 53¢/day T&D forever, because of my net-metering contract.
Bottom line is that I still subsidize those who do not have solar panels, and will do so until I die or move.
I pay 53¢/day "minimum charge" for what you call T&D. A customer without solar pays 10¢/day. So I pay over 5 times what a non-solar customer pays for T&D. In the 5 months/year that I have to actually buy electricity with my net-meter credit, I still pay the the 53¢/day, because my credit ONLY applies to the electricity I buy. Also, if I produce more than I use over the 12-months before the Apr 1 credit reset, I lose any accumulated credit.
Every year until 2026, the T&D charge for the non-solar customer goes up, and the rate per kWh goes down a bit, but the max T&D rate in 2026 will be 48¢/day - still 5¢/day less than what I am paying now. As I understand it, I will be locked in to the 53¢/day T&D forever, because of my net-metering contract.
Bottom line is that I still subsidize those who do not have solar panels, and will do so until I die or move.
Same issue here. I'm with National Grid and trying to figure out a trustworthy supplier to go with. As others have said, I've heard nothing but horror stories about 3rd party suppliers, but with the doubling of my electric bill, it's time to consider.
I'd say the only positive is that these rates are on par with super-charger rates so I won't fret charging there....
My utilities locked in high prices for natural gas. Hopefully that wasn't too long term because the price of natural gas cratered from where it was at.
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Time to shop around for new electricity plans?
We also partially rely on gas for electricity generation in NJ, but my fixed rates haven't budget from $0.139 (generation + delivery) since prior years.
Gas prices are not going to drop to pre-war levels, as long as Russian gas remains off the market. Europe has to bid up the price of the remaining global supplies, and that effects our marginal rates in the US. Gas is a global commodity.
Figure - years more of the same.
Yeah, but if you can pay less, why pay more?
Shop around, and avoid the fake over-charging "green" electricity plans!
Bingo!
That's just a blow below the belt - you are in NV, the original poster is in MA. Two completely different solar exposure climates, with completely different economics.
You bragging about cheap solar options in NV is akin to me bragging about cheap ocean-shore weekend trips and cheap water bills in NJ.
I’m in NH and also have fixed rate. BTW, I haven’t paid much attention but suspect that I may have been taken off the variable rate at some point. I’m around 22 cents. Eversource I think can offer variable but you have to sign up and commit for a year. Anyone else with Eversource changed to variable rate (when we all charge our cars)?
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