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PG&E E-9 cancelled

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I'm about to have solar installed and told the installer I wanted to be on EVA. She strongly suggested though that I go with E-6 since the peak hours of E-6 (1-7pm) match better to peak solar generation times than EV-A (2-9 M-F & 3-7 Sat-Sun.)
I would agree to the peak time with solar, I'm on E-7 which is no longer available and peak is 12 to 6 so with stronger generation during that time I get paid the peak kW charge and in the summer get negative use so all that generation gets applied to my total bill. I did get a second meter for the Tesla so I could get the better off peak rate and take the car off my tiered solar charge.
 
The peak time statement is correct. The total calculation, however, is not so simple. E-6 is tiered and EV-A is not so a large part depends on how much electricity you use (and of course, how much you drive). Further, your tiers are determined by your baseline rate, which varies depending on where in the service territory you live. I am on EV-A and I'm making bank off my 3.3kW system, saving $135 gross last month and only having an $11 bill. Financing cost for the system was $35. My panels face southwest to take maximum advantage of the EV-A rate's later peak windows.

Bottom line is, solar + having an EV is awesome. As far as E-6 or EV-A, that really does depend on your particulars, including energy use, driving amount, and panel azimuth. I would ask your solar consultant to run calcs for you. And if they can't, try getting multiple bids. :)

- K
 
I'm about to have solar installed and told the installer I wanted to be on EVA. She strongly suggested though that I go with E-6 since the peak hours of E-6 (1-7pm) match better to peak solar generation times than EV-A (2-9 M-F & 3-7 Sat-Sun.)
That may be true, but you will be paying a lot more for EV charging off-peak. This is my house with 4.32kW DC solar system and one EV charging. We now have 2 EVs, so we did not go negative dollars at all this summer.

PGE 2015 rate study.jpg


To see my point, look at July for example. E-6 generates a $50.25 credit during Peak hours while EV only generates a $25.03 credit. However, the net charge for that month is only -$6.55 on E-6 but is -$14.09 on EV due to differences in the part peak period and off-peak charging cost.

I see that you are in Fairfield, so Air Conditioning will factor into the difference in a way that it doesn't at my house. I don't have A/C since I would only use it about 10 days per year.

- - - Updated - - -

BTW, I just got my September True-Up statement and it says I'm still on E-9.
 
Great comparison ... thanks for sharing!

That may be true, but you will be paying a lot more for EV charging off-peak. This is my house with 4.32kW DC solar system and one EV charging. We now have 2 EVs, so we did not go negative dollars at all this summer.

To see my point, look at July for example. E-6 generates a $50.25 credit during Peak hours while EV only generates a $25.03 credit. However, the net charge for that month is only -$6.55 on E-6 but is -$14.09 on EV due to differences in the part peak period and off-peak charging cost.

I see that you are in Fairfield, so Air Conditioning will factor into the difference in a way that it doesn't at my house. I don't have A/C since I would only use it about 10 days per year.

BTW, I just got my September True-Up statement and it says I'm still on E-9.
 
PG&E sent a letter to me on October 1 telling me that my rate schedule had been changed from E-9 to EV on August 10. I did not appreciate the late notice. I went to use the rate comparison tool on the PG&E web page but was informed there that it was not available for solar customers. Have some of you observed otherwise?

Instead I wrote my own program to implement the PG&E billing algorithm for E-1, E-6, E-9 and EV to compare. It turns out they were correct, that EV is now the least expensive for me since I have significant consumption during the off-peak hours and I am able to avoid consumption during the peak hours. For the past two years during which I have SmartMeter hourly data, the cost under the current EV tariff is more than I have paid during that time with E-9, but the E-9 tariff has been increased so now it would be more expensive.

By the way, if your solar system is sized so that you wind up consuming on average at least $10 worth of energy each month, then the recent increase from $4 to $10 does not make any difference. Both of those amounts are the "minimum energy charge", so the sum of those monthly minimum charges is subtracted from your true-up energy charge total that you have to pay. If that total was already negative, though, then there is nothing to subtract the minimum from.
 
I had to switch from E1 to E6 now I have two electrics cars (volt + MS) . The EV tariffs do not seem designed for solar (I have 4.7kw) . I had the chance of E7 and turned it down since my wife wanted to run a/c anytime. Now we are only allowed E6 and she can turn on the a/c after 7pm and suffer until then. My total cost this year is track to be about $600, down from a true up of $1200 last year. I think the EV tariffs assume no one home in the day, no a/c when it is hot.
 
We were on E-9 since 1999. The way we fit our lifestyle to it was to run the A/C after midnight (on the few days that we need it) to pull the temperature of the house down to 69 degrees, then we keep the windows closed during the day until the inside and outside temperatures reach parity. On hot days the inside temp may be 78 or so.

We did need a modification to the A/C system to allow this. I think it is called a "head pressure relief valve", or something like that. The purpose is to avoid letting liquified refrigerant flow into the compressor when there is not enough heat to totally evaporate the refrigerant in the inside coil.

With E-9 we would also forgo use of the electric oven on weekdays during the summer period (May 1 to November 1), but we could use the oven on weekends. Now with the EV rate there is peak even on weekends. That is what I dislike most about it.
 
PG&E sent a letter to me on October 1 telling me that my rate schedule had been changed from E-9 to EV on August 10. I did not appreciate the late notice. I went to use the rate comparison tool on the PG&E web page but was informed there that it was not available for solar customers. Have some of you observed otherwise?

Instead I wrote my own program to implement the PG&E billing algorithm for E-1, E-6, E-9 and EV to compare. It turns out they were correct, that EV is now the least expensive for me since I have significant consumption during the off-peak hours and I am able to avoid consumption during the peak hours. For the past two years during which I have SmartMeter hourly data, the cost under the current EV tariff is more than I have paid during that time with E-9, but the E-9 tariff has been increased so now it would be more expensive.

By the way, if your solar system is sized so that you wind up consuming on average at least $10 worth of energy each month, then the recent increase from $4 to $10 does not make any difference. Both of those amounts are the "minimum energy charge", so the sum of those monthly minimum charges is subtracted from your true-up energy charge total that you have to pay. If that total was already negative, though, then there is nothing to subtract the minimum from.
I was on Solar and E-9 since I got my first EV in April 2013. I recently called because with a 2nd EV and our small solar system, the tiered rates on E-9 were going to cost us significantly more than Schedule EV this Winter. I was not kicked off E-9 and when I called, the woman who answered the phone at the Solar Service Center said I was already on an EV rate plan. I told her, no, I want THE EV rate plan, not E-9.

My combined Gas & Electric bill for October 2015 shows $10.18 for "NEMS B Net Energy Metering Service". It used to be something like $4.43. Just to be clear, this is on the bill that you have to pay every month, not the NEM True-Up statement. Therefore, it is impossible to be a "minimum energy charge".
 
My combined Gas & Electric bill for October 2015 shows $10.18 for "NEMS B Net Energy Metering Service". It used to be something like $4.43. Just to be clear, this is on the bill that you have to pay every month, not the NEM True-Up statement. Therefore, it is impossible to be a "minimum energy charge".

I am not sure why PG&E made the change to double it, Mine also is now around $10 and was $4. Makes no sense since in the end I owe $600 and they deduct all these small monthly payments from it.
 
My combined Gas & Electric bill for October 2015 shows $10.18 for "NEMS B Net Energy Metering Service". It used to be something like $4.43. Just to be clear, this is on the bill that you have to pay every month, not the NEM True-Up statement. Therefore, it is impossible to be a "minimum energy charge".

I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion. If you read the tariff documents themselves, you'll see that charge is listed like this: "Total Minimum Charge Rate ($ per meter per day) $0.32854". And if you look at the calculation on the true-up bill, you will see that the sum of the $4 or $10 monthly charges is subtracted from the total energy charge for the year because the small amount that you pay each month is part of the energy charge. In January 2002, PG&E failed to subtract this minimum energy charge from the total energy charge on my true-up bill. After I argued with them, they came to realize that their billing calculations were incorrect and they had to issue revised bills for all of the NEM customers. Note that Nigel16494 also observed that the small monthly payments are subtracted from the true-up total:

I am not sure why PG&E made the change to double it, Mine also is now around $10 and was $4. Makes no sense since in the end I owe $600 and they deduct all these small monthly payments from it.

As I said before, if you are a net consumer of electricity and consume at least $120 per year, then the fact that the minimum was raised from $4 to $10 makes no difference to you because it will be subtracted from what you owe on the true-up bill. However, if you consume less than that, or are a net producer with a credit for the year, then the increase does mean you are paying more. PG&E says this is to cover the cost of maintaining your grid connection.
 
I have to give props here to the two posters above. I never noticed that the billed true-up amount was less than the sum of the energy charges that had been accumulating during the year. I think it's interesting that it took solar users for the utility to bump up these minimum charges. There are light users that had been using mechanical meters that have small loads that are not sufficient to make the meter spin that would have been paying these minimum charges as well. Yet, the utility never saw fit to charge them enough to "maintain their grid connection". Although I suppose a solar user that has 400 amp service and might draw 20 or 30 kW peak would cost a lot more to service than someone with a meter that only ever draws 20 or 30 W.

Anyway, thanks for setting me straight. These billing intricacies are strange sometimes.
 
Yikes, I am on an older E-7 schedule and it seems very favorable. I hope they don't do the same and move me to a new plan. I was told by PG&E that I would not be changed to a new plan and that I should leep my E-7.

GG
 
Get solar and free yourself of PG&E, they will continue raising your rates with smiles on their faces. Our PG&E bill averaged $717.00 a month (house is 100% electric), we refinanced the house and installed solar. Our PG&E bill is $0.00 per month. The new house payment is about $217.00 a month more than the old house payment for a net $500.00 per month savings, and that does not take into account tax deductions, added value to the home, nor that it's hedged against inflation.

We acted as our own contractor and installed a 25 kw in less than 90 days from start to finish.

FWIW, I should note that I have no bad feelings for the PG&E employees, they (most of them, but that's a whole separate story) do a great job and many put their lives in danger repairing and maintaining power lines for all of us - often times during the worst of conditions.
 
Get solar and free yourself of PG&E, they will continue raising your rates with smiles on their faces. Our PG&E bill averaged $717.00 a month (house is 100% electric), we refinanced the house and installed solar. Our PG&E bill is $0.00 per month. The new house payment is about $217.00 a month more than the old house payment for a net $500.00 per month savings, and that does not take into account tax deductions, added value to the home, nor that it's hedged against inflation.

We acted as our own contractor and installed a 25 kw in less than 90 days from start to finish.

FWIW, I should note that I have no bad feelings for the PG&E employees, they (most of them, but that's a whole separate story) do a great job and many put their lives in danger repairing and maintaining power lines for all of us - often times during the worst of conditions.

Good for you for reducing your carbon footprint! Are you completing off-grid with batteries? Or are you on a net-metering program?

- K