swedge
Member
"Too much solar" does sound oxymoronic. But to get there I'd need a bigger roof, a bigger capital budget, and a chain saw to remove my neighbor's trees. I do wish that I'd opted for 2 PowerWalls back when SGIP was paying for them...I am reading.
Since solar is so law this time of the year, and I use so much with my heat pumps, I set my storage at 70%, and still have a hard time getting the PW's back to 100%. I do get them to used for the 4 to 9 high cost period.
I have now just plugged the EV in during the day, and charge before 4. Whether I do this, or charge after 10pm, all seems the same since the cost is equal.
What is SO nice about having way too much solar is I do not need to spend anytime trying to save a few pennies. I just want it easy for my wife to just drive the tesla, and I want the house warm for her and my Dad. With my excess solar, its a piece of cake to meet these objectives.
I am wondering agin about your "net generator" situation. Check me on this: As long as your NEM balance is negative at true-up, it does not affect your cost. So, the amount of credit/cost of further exports/imports does not matter. Does this mean that you are somewhat immune to time-of-use pricing? I suppose it would be possible to erode away your negative balance by importing too much during peak when much of the export it at off peak. But if you have plenty of excess credit, you could charge your car at 4:30 pm because in the end it won't cost any more than charging at midnight. Very strange if true.
Likewise, your net exports appear to be NSC credited at the same rate regardless of time of day. So excess at 1 or 2 pm is just as valuable as 4 to 9 pm.
Like you said, all that solar does keep it simple. Once you've digested the complexity of the pricing system...
I find it odd that the NEM2 and TOU rate rules do create incentives for us smaller producers to use our systems so as to export during peak and import during off peak, thus helping to level out the overall demand vs time curve on the grid. But for net generators, those incentives appear to be somewhat nulled out. Strange.
It really does seem like the point of all the edges and complexity in the rates are more to obfuscate than to optimize. Perhaps it is just that the CPUC is the real audience, and PG&E is merely providing excuses for charging more at certain times, their only real goal being charging more.
Anyway, I think that some time back I gave you some faulty advice, sorry about that. Still, NBCs are charged on all your imports, even though the retail price is rendered irrelevant because of your negative net balance. So, perhaps PowerWall's Export Everything, Grid Charging, and Charge on Solar features may not be beneficial for you if at true-up your NEM (aka "cumulated energy charges and credits") balance is going to be below zero.