PG&E E9-A versus EV-A calculator using PG&E downloaded data

[miimura]

I have done this in XLSX using CSV download. I have entered the proper PG&E rates directly from the tariff documents. However, it is NOT revenue grade and my calculations do vary slightly from actual bills. This can be attributed to things like holidays not treated as weekends, daily meter charges, number of significant digits in downloaded data, etc. However, I've found it to be very close.

The current version concurrently calculates E-1, E-6, E-9A and EV-A. E-7 rates and schedule are in the spreadsheet, but not used. A simple cut and paste would allow you to replace one of the existing calculated rates with E-7.

You can download it from google docs here.

 

[miimura]

Here is a sample of a section of the bill calculation tab for my house in July. I have a 4.32kW solar PV system and I charge a RAV4 EV after midnight.

You can see that with solar the net usage is within the baseline so it's cheaper than EV-A at -$4.16 vs. +$3.00. If you don't have solar then it is very likely that EV-A will be cheaper for you due to the lack of tires and their $0.50+/kWh peak rates. However, the 3.85 cents on E-9A sure is nice for car charging.

 

[gregincal]

Strangely enough, when I did the calculation I got that schedule EV was slightly better than E-9A even though I use less net energy than you (-$22 versus -$18 for E-9A, which is a larger credit to offset the winter months when I'm positive). Having a higher rate during the day can be advantageous if you're generating energy during that time, and the extra credits I got for peak and part-peak more than made up for the extra cost of charging at night. I'm sticking with 6A anyway, because it all comes to just a couple dollars a month either way and my net bill at the end of the year is still going to be about 0.

 

[miimura]

In a year or two everyone will be kicked off E-9 since it was "experimental". People with solar may be better off on E-6 than EV-A, but almost everyone that does not have solar will be better off on EV-A.

 

[miimura]

Here's my YTD comparison. I did not have an EV until the end of April, so in this comparison I've added 13kWh/day to make a better annual model for comparison. I have a 4.32kW DC rated PV solar system.

When November and December are added in, EV-A will probably come out ahead for the full year. My solar was not sized for the EV usage and due to orientation most of my solar generation does not fall in the Summer Peak period. PG&E's extension of Peak to 9pm in E-9 and EV is a little shady because the ISO load curves do not support extending Peak billing that late. I think they're just trying to capture more of peoples' evening usage at the highest rate. E-6 Summer Peak ends at 7pm, which is much more reasonable.

 

[miimura]

Here is my comparison of all the relevant PG&E rate plans for the full year 2013 at my home. I purchased a RAV4 EV at the end of April 2013, so Jan-Apr has a synthetic 13kWh/day added to the Off-Peak actual usage of the rest of my house. I have a 4.32kW DC PV solar system.

Summary of Calculated Annual Energy Charges:
E-1: $1,468.85
E-6: $1,129.21
E-9A: $817.32
EV-A: $837.35

The Schedule E-9 Tariff also still includes this note from August 2012:

Schedule E-9 will be eliminated on the later of the date of a decision in Phase 2 of PG&E’s 2014 General Rate Case, or December 31, 2014. At that time, all Schedule E-9 customers will be migrated to an otherwise available rate schedule.

The updated spreadsheet is available on Google Drive: PGE Electric Rate Calculator_V1.6.xlsx
This version adds the Master Comparison tab shown above and an easy copy-paste from the Bill Calculation tab. It also updates the rates that became effective January 1, 2014. Most rates in Tier 3-5 increased about 1.1 to 1.2 cents/kWh. Winter Peak and Part-Peak in Schedule EV actually went down, but only by 0.2 cents and 0.1 cents/kWh respectively.

 

[Musterion]

The updated spreadsheet is available on Google Drive: PGE Electric Rate Calculator_V1.6.xlsx

@miimura, thanks for this great tool. Do you happen to have an updated version for 2015 or is this still the latest? I think you mentioned in my EV timing chart thread that you were trying to add the daylight savings time correction.

 

[miimura]

@Musterion, I updated it to version 1.6b in August due to the changes to Baseline Quantities. After seeing your message, I realized that I had not updated it since then, so I added more of the Baseline Quantity table in the Bill Calculation tab and also entered all the January 1, 2015 rates. This is now called version 1.7. The Bin Calculation tab is unchanged since V1.6. I have not made any attempt to correct the DST since the Smart Meter data is already skewed in the same erroneous way that PG&E calculates the bill. Leaving it this way should actually result in calculations more similar to PG&E's bills. The problem is pushed onto the rate payer and if you have significant loads that you can schedule, you have to pay attention to the 2 weeks in the Fall and 6 weeks in the Spring that the TOU schedules are offset from real time.

One thing I noticed while I was updating the rates is that they really jacked up E-9 when you compare August 2014 to January 2015. The Winter Off-Peak increased 2.2c/kWh in Tier 1 and 2 and increased by about 12c/kWh in Tier 3, 4, 5. This means that Tier 3 more than doubled from 11c/kWh to 22.7c/kWh. I know they want people to change to Schedule EV, but that's fricking ridiculous. Winter Off-Peak on EV is 10.1c/kWh while EV-A is 28.7c/kWh in Tier 4 and 5. Let me tell you, that's a sure way to get people without solar to flee that rate schedule. In fact, I'm going to have to run my January numbers with these rates and see if I need to change ASAP.

Version 1.7 can be downloaded here: PGE Electric Rate Calculator_V1.7.xlsx

 

[miimura]

Yep, I'm pissed. I just ran my Jan 1 to Jan 31 usage with the new E-9A rates and it's $53 higher than Schedule EV. The big jump happened with the Jan 1, 2015 rate changes. I must say, this is a very underhanded way of getting people off of Schedule E-9A. I have solar, but during the Winter my usage goes up and my solar goes way down. My peak to valley (summer peak kWh/day vs. winter minimum kWh/day) is about 5:1. I will be re-running my past year of usage with these rates to see the full impact before I call to change my plan.

By the way, E-6 is $214.70 and E-1 is $241.57, just for reference.

 

[NorCalSJ]

miimura, I'm trying to decide the best Rate for me. I'm currently on E-8 and have solar. We are also home during the day so I did not want to go to TOU. Is it possible to add E-8 in your spreadsheet??

 

[miimura]

miimura, I'm trying to decide the best Rate for me. I'm currently on E-8 and have solar. We are also home during the day so I did not want to go to TOU. Is it possible to add E-8 in your spreadsheet??

I had never heard of E-8 before you mentioned it. It is not open to new customers, so I don't think it will benefit many people to include it. The Summer rates are very similar to E-1, but the Winter rates are lower. What I suggest is that you use the spreadsheet to calculate your historical usage and compare that to your actual bills. There will be some discrepancy because your actual bills will be based on the rates at the time of billing and the new calculations will be using today's rates, but if today's calculations show a savings, then you're sure to be better off.

Actually, implementing E-8 is really simple. Just replace the rates in E-1 and forget about Time of Use Binning tab. Just type in the total usage for the month in the mustard colored cell and the tiered calculation will do its thing and show the charge in the Red cell.

 

[NorCalSJ]

thanks miimura, I couldn't figure it out...not the best with the computer. Thanks for the responses...

 

[miimura]

I made a mistake above claiming there was a big rate increase on PG&E E-9A. I was looking at the wrong page and was looking at E-9B. I will update the calculation spreadsheet with the correct rates soon.

 

[miimura]

The corrected spreadsheet, which now includes all six rate tables from 1/1/2014 through 1/1/2015 for E-6, E-9A, EV-A, is posted now on Google Drive here: PGE Electric Rate Calculator_v1.7a.xlsx

 

[FlatSix911]

The corrected spreadsheet, which now includes all six rate tables from 1/1/2014 through 1/1/2015 for E-6, E-9A, EV-A, is posted now on Google Drive here: PGE Electric Rate Calculator_v1.7a.xlsx

Thanks for posting the rate calculator!

 

[Musterion]

miimura, I'm trying to decide the best Rate for me. I'm currently on E-8 and have solar. We are also home during the day so I did not want to go to TOU. Is it possible to add E-8 in your spreadsheet??

Hi NorCalSJ, you should know that PG&E is going to eliminate the time-of-use plans E-7 and E-8 this month and by default switch you to something else (some reports say this might be E-1 which is crazy). If you are on any TOU and on solar, you should now get on E-6. That's because E-6 itself will go away on March 1st, to be replaced by E-TOU-A and E-TOU-B, which analysts have shown is much less friendly to solar producers. If you get on E-6 now, you will be grandfathered until 2020 and always have to option to switch to the E-TOU if you want later, but you can never go back to E-6 after March 1. And if you want to switch, solar companies are advising you make the request one month in advance (which was this past weekend), but others say do it before mid-February. Here is one summary I found useful: New Time of Use (TOU) Rate for Solar Clients -

(PS. You can also get on EV-A if you think it works out better than E-6, but you can always switch to EV rates with an electric car after March 1, but not to E-6).

 

[miimura]

I'm reviving this old thread because I updated the my spreadsheet rate calculator to reflect all the changes that happened at PG&E in 2016. Here is a little summary of the changes that I noticed.

1. New rate plans E-TOU-A and E-TOU-B were implemented starting March 1, 2016. They are not good for EV owners. From what I can tell, for most people they are approximately the same as E-1 but with some penalty for using power from 3-8pm or 4-9pm. They also have their own unique Summer duration and E-TOU-A has its own baseline quantities.
2. E-9 disappeared from the rate tables as of March 1, 2016
3. E-7 disappeared from the rate tables as of January 1, 2017.
4. Tiered rates changed from 5 bands to 3 bands starting August 1, 2016. They are now Baseline, 101%-200%, and over 200%. There used to be tiers at 130% and over 300%.
5. There were 7 different rate periods in effect during 2016, the shortest period was March 1, 2016 to March 23, 2016.

Minimum Charges are nothing new, but they were increased in 2015 for all rate plans to over $10/month and as of March 2016 there is a new Minimum Energy Charges table on NEM statements. I have now accounted for this in my calculations but not rigorously compared it to my NEM statement because a bunch of my Green Button data is not available right now. If your energy charges are higher than the minimum, there is no adjustment, if you are positive, but below the minimum, you are charged the minimum, if you are negative due to self generation, the minimum charge is added to your negative energy charge, decreasing your true-up credit.

All the historical rates for at least 2015 and 2016 are included in the Bill Calculation tab. You can copy and paste the whole blue shaded table for the period of interest to the top of the page and it will be used in the active calculations.

If you find any mistakes in the spreadsheet, please let me know.

PGE Electric Rate Calculator_v1.9.xlsx

I have been reading up on NEM 2.0 and thinking about how to calculate correct NEM charges with it. I will start a new thread for that in either the California sub-forum or the Energy, Environment & Policy sub-forum.

 

[miimura]

I'm reviving this thread once again because someone found an error in my spreadsheet. I was not properly adding the "Additional Off-Peak Usage" cell to the E-TOU plans. I have also updated it for the rates effective 3/1/2017. Shockingly, rates have not changed since then. One significant change that happened on March 1st was that E-1 changed its three baseline usage bands from Baseline/101-200%/200%+ to Baseline/101-400%/400%+.

I still haven't figured out how to calculate NEM 2.0 Non-Bypassable charges. Real bills are nothing like what I estimated from the Tariff.

PGE Electric Rate Calculator_v1.9b.xlsx