Today, it's hard to make a case for anything better than EV2. However, you have a year. Who knows what PG&E could come up with by that time. I'm sure they will come up with a bunch more confusing choices that somehow earn them more money.
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Help me understand my true-up and strategy for next year
- Thread starter ucmndd
- Start date
You can go buy all the equipment yourself and put it on your roof, pull your own permits etc. People do it. I suppose you could also manufacture your own solar panels too, but I dont know if anyone does that.
This post is very confusing.
What does this mean? What did you spend your money on, was it solar panels?
A lot of people don't install enough solar to cover their actual usage, so if you use electricity from the grid, shouldn't you pay for consuming that power from the grid?
There is a sticky thread on the PG&E annual true-up.California PG&E, ~12kw Solar, 2x Powerwalls, NEM2, EV-A rate plan.
Finished the year with NEM charges of -$586.
$495 of non-bypassable charges, so my true-up bill is $360 after minimum delivery charges.
Is the -$586 in NEM credits just gone? I don’t receive compensation for this in any way?
What should my strategy be for the next year? Seems like I should be trying to reduce NBCs and consume more on site?
This is all so very confusing
When your NEM charges are negative they are reset to $0 at annual true-up. Since your NEM balance was negative you only owe for the NBCs minus the twelve months of MDCs that you already paid. You only get compensation when your exports exceed your imports and your Net Usage was +4560 kWh so you get nothing.
You best strategy is try to minimize your imports while targeting a NEM balance of just under $0. I didn't see anything in this thread that described how you were using your Powerwalls, so I can't make any specific recommendation. If you were using the Charge From Grid option then you should definitely reconsider doing that.
In the end your net imports of 4560 kWh cost you $495.76 minus two PG&E climate credits of $38.39 and $55.17 for net of $402.20 or $0.0882/kWh.
I took this to mean, "Why would anyone spend a lot of money for a solar system when the electric company seems to be getting all the financial benefit? (a.k.a. 'eating the cake ')".
A valid question on the surface - although I don't think there's any way to claim with a straight face that I'm not getting substantial benefit. I mean, I just paid $360 for an entire year of electricity for my home and most of the fuel for my two EVs.
While I of course want to maximize the efficiency of my system and minimize the amount of charges I'm paying the utility, I also understand the value of the grid being there in the first place and have no problem paying my share for maintenance and upkeep. I get far more than I give in the overall calculus of being connected to the grid.
Why do you think that the electric company getting all of the financial benefit and the residential solar customer little to no benefit?
As an example, the OP had imported from the grid at least 12,730 kWh over the course of a year and only paid $495.76. That same amount at the PG&E EV-A Off Peak winter rate of $0.34535 would have been $4,396.31 for the year.
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RKCRLR
Active Member
I'm barely a net producer. Sometimes I'm a net consumer in kWh but a net producer in dollars. I was using TBC and getting hammered with NBCs. Part of the problem with TBC is it will prioritize sending solar to the grid during peak hours instead of self-consuming it. I switched to self-powered about 6 months ago and so far it is working good for my situation. The Netzero app has the ability to do some basic automation. In the winter I set it up to grid charge the Powerwalls if it looks like solar isn't going to get the SoC high enough to make it through the peak hours on the Powerwalls.
aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
Question: Did you figure in the NBC differential into your cost table? For me that seems help it out.
RKCRLR
Active Member
If you are referring to the buy/sell pricing in the Tesla app, yes, I incorporated the NBCs (and then some) into the buy/sell prices. I was always trying to fool the app into working correctly for my situation and if I did get it to work correctly for one thing it would break something else. I think TBC would work good for someone that isn't close to being a net producer.
I didn't make a spreadsheet in Excel or something. I got my bills, saw that my costs were being driven by NBCs, and adjusted appropriately (hopefully).
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aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
Yeah. From a KWhr perspective I am definitely a big consumer. But using TBC and some creative scheduling, I come out less than $100 per month in power costs for a EV, 4k house on a well and all electric, so I don't feel too bad. Export everything has helped here along with FUSC lately.
