I recently received my first PG&E bill after receiving Permission To Operate my Powerwall system. I received a "Black and White Bill" on letter size paper and my regular "Blue Bill" showed that my Service Agreement ID was closed. The service dates of the two bills overlapped, so it looked like I was being double charged. I called the PG&E Solar Customer Service center for explanation. Here is what I found out.
1. When PG&E officially activates your Powerwall when you get PTO, you are changed to the NEM-MT tariff. This tariff is not compatible with the general billing system that generates the Blue Bills. All billing on accounts with Powerwall will be billed on the system that generates the Black and White bills for the foreseeable future. If you had solar more than a year or two ago, you are familiar with these old Black and White bills. The bill calculation rules are actually the same, so I find this a little ridiculous.
2. Because you are transferred to the other billing system, a True-Up is forced and you must settle up your partial year of energy charges.
3. The main billing system is not smart enough to automatically truncate the billing period to when the old Service Agreement was closed. They will have to issue adjustments to back out the charges on the bill after the PTO date, including any CCA charges. Then they will issue a new bill for the second part of the billing period and transfer the charges from the already issued Black and White bill.
4. There are two versions of the Black and White Bill. People normally receive the Summary version which is one sheet, front and back. However, the Summary version does not include any detail about CCA generation charges. I requested the Detailed version for the bill already issued and as the default going forward. The supervisor indicated that these are usually 10 to 12 pages. These Black and White bills are always sent by postal mail because they don't have a way to view or download them from the PG&E web site. That is supposedly being worked on.
So, while these issues are disappointing, they are not at all surprising and really have no financial impact. It just takes a few months to get the billing straightened out. In that respect, it's no different than a new solar PTO.
1. When PG&E officially activates your Powerwall when you get PTO, you are changed to the NEM-MT tariff. This tariff is not compatible with the general billing system that generates the Blue Bills. All billing on accounts with Powerwall will be billed on the system that generates the Black and White bills for the foreseeable future. If you had solar more than a year or two ago, you are familiar with these old Black and White bills. The bill calculation rules are actually the same, so I find this a little ridiculous.
2. Because you are transferred to the other billing system, a True-Up is forced and you must settle up your partial year of energy charges.
3. The main billing system is not smart enough to automatically truncate the billing period to when the old Service Agreement was closed. They will have to issue adjustments to back out the charges on the bill after the PTO date, including any CCA charges. Then they will issue a new bill for the second part of the billing period and transfer the charges from the already issued Black and White bill.
4. There are two versions of the Black and White Bill. People normally receive the Summary version which is one sheet, front and back. However, the Summary version does not include any detail about CCA generation charges. I requested the Detailed version for the bill already issued and as the default going forward. The supervisor indicated that these are usually 10 to 12 pages. These Black and White bills are always sent by postal mail because they don't have a way to view or download them from the PG&E web site. That is supposedly being worked on.
So, while these issues are disappointing, they are not at all surprising and really have no financial impact. It just takes a few months to get the billing straightened out. In that respect, it's no different than a new solar PTO.