PG&E NEM 2.0

[miimura]

As you may know, PG&E, a major California utility, reached the deployed distributed generation threshold that allowed them to change the Net Metering tariff for new distributed generation interconnections. The limit of 2,409 MW defined in the original NEM tariff was reached on December 15, 2016. People with existing generation facilities that were given permission to operate prior to December 15th are allowed 20 years of service under the original NEM tariff. The new tariff includes an additional application fee of $145 to initiate utility interconnection and there are additional "Non-Bypassable Charges" for every kWh that you draw from the grid. These charges cannot be offset by feed-in net metering credits. This is the language in the tariff related to these charges:

2. NET ENERGY METERING AND BILLING: (Cont’d.)

c. Non-Bypassable Charges

Customers on this tariff must pay the non-bypassable charges specified in D.16-01-044 and Resolution E-4792 in each metered interval for each kilowatt-hour of electricity they consume from the grid.
The relevant non-bypassable charges are Public Purpose Program, Nuclear Decommissioning Charge, Competition Transition Charge, and Department of Water Resources Bond charges (NBCs). These charges may not be reduced by any credits for exports to the grid as calculated in 2.a and 2.b. NBCs shall be assessed only on the kilowatt hours consumed in each metered interval net of exports, except as provided in Special Condition 10.​

The total cost of the components listed above add up to $0.02327/kWh in the Schedule EV tariff effective January 1, 2017. So, if you draw 800kWh/month from the grid, regardless of how much energy you push back into the grid, you would pay an additional $18.62/month compared to NEM 1.0 customers.

I have a spreadsheet that I created to calculate energy charges on the various PG&E residential rate schedules. The spreadsheet is based on logic to sort each SmartMeter interval data point into the various TOU time periods and add them up and apply the rate schedules to the Peak, Part-Peak, and Off-Peak usage totals. In order to calculate the Non-Bypassable Charges, I will also have to total the kWh drawn from the grid separately from the kWh fed into the grid. After I do that, I want to validate my calculation by using someone's actual SmartMeter data and comparing the result to their actual NEM statement. If anyone is willing to supply the data and statement, I would appreciate it. Of course, I would keep the data and account information confidential, or personal information could be redacted prior to sending it to me.

Here is the current spreadsheet without the NEM 2.0 calculations.
PGE Electric Rate Calculator_v1.9.xlsx

 

[Sharkbait]

Glad I'm grandfathered. SCE's limit is even less (2,240 MW), and I can't seem to find out how close they are to hitting the limit. Ya, if you're considering solar, now is the time to buy if you can get in under NEM 1.0. Then again, if I was looking for a new roof for my house, I might also consider EM's solar tiles as well. I'm breaking even at about 1 MW/month, including all my S 75 charging needs. I'd be one those paying another $19/month or so outside NEM 1.0.

 

[Ulmo]

I'm really annoyed. I told my solar installer I am getting an EV, and was going on the EV-A rate plan, but they did the NEM app for our pre-EV rate plan under NEM1. I sent in the correction, but after a few days that app expired and PG&E put us on NEM2 once they made the correction. I'm seeing something like $30/month extra from this on the first bill, so something like $10,000 extra, or more than a third the cost of the solar system.

The theory is that I should pay for grid services. I actually agree. But that's on top of doubled rates to begin with, so I'm not too hot to trot for the theory. Why is mid day solar energy from the utility charged at a peak rate?!

The whole thing is outdated: Diablo Canyon is going away soon, so clean nighttime energy is going away soon (wind and hydro are not yet sufficient to replace a nuclear power plant, although soon it could be within a few decades).

What this all means is I want to double the size of the solar system and get at least 4 PowerWall 2's very soon, as soon as I can afford it. While the EV-A rate plan under NEM2 is OK, I feel like I'm not really fully charging without fossil fuels, since EV-A shoves us into using non-PV energy at night, and it's hard to guarantee they haven't turned on a dirty generator to service me.

PG&E "lost" the upgrade to 200amp service request for three weeks; that would have allowed me to make it in time to get NEM1. Furthermore, they didn't replace the aerial lines; only the mast and mast wires. The Tesla HPWC gives me "wiring error" messages all the time, with voltage drops in dozens of volts just to charge at 48 amps, yet everything on our end looks good. I suspect PG&E didn't really do much of an upgrade of the service.

I don't know if I should hope more people get local on-house generation and storage, or utilities upgrade their infrastructure.

 

[Lloyd]

I'm really annoyed. I told my solar installer I am getting an EV, and was going on the EV-A rate plan, but they did the NEM app for our pre-EV rate plan under NEM1. I sent in the correction, but after a few days that app expired and PG&E put us on NEM2 once they made the correction. I'm seeing something like $30/month extra from this on the first bill, so something like $10,000 extra, or more than a third the cost of the solar system.

The theory is that I should pay for grid services. I actually agree. But that's on top of doubled rates to begin with, so I'm not too hot to trot for the theory. Why is mid day solar energy from the utility charged at a peak rate?!

The whole thing is outdated: Diablo Canyon is going away soon, so clean nighttime energy is going away soon (wind and hydro are not yet sufficient to replace a nuclear power plant, although soon it could be within a few decades).

What this all means is I want to double the size of the solar system and get at least 4 PowerWall 2's very soon, as soon as I can afford it. While the EV-A rate plan under NEM2 is OK, I feel like I'm not really fully charging without fossil fuels, since EV-A shoves us into using non-PV energy at night, and it's hard to guarantee they haven't turned on a dirty generator to service me.

PG&E "lost" the upgrade to 200amp service request for three weeks; that would have allowed me to make it in time to get NEM1. Furthermore, they didn't replace the aerial lines; only the mast and mast wires. The Tesla HPWC gives me "wiring error" messages all the time, with voltage drops in dozens of volts just to charge at 48 amps, yet everything on our end looks good. I suspect PG&E didn't really do much of an upgrade of the service.

I don't know if I should hope more people get local on-house generation and storage, or utilities upgrade their infrastructure.[/QUOT

Getting closer to naking it more affordable to go off grid! When that happens PG&E will likely convince California to make it illegal to go off grid!!!

 

[miimura]

PG&E "lost" the upgrade to 200amp service request for three weeks; that would have allowed me to make it in time to get NEM1. Furthermore, they didn't replace the aerial lines; only the mast and mast wires. The Tesla HPWC gives me "wiring error" messages all the time, with voltage drops in dozens of volts just to charge at 48 amps, yet everything on our end looks good. I suspect PG&E didn't really do much of an upgrade of the service.

I don't know if I should hope more people get local on-house generation and storage, or utilities upgrade their infrastructure.

If you are getting a significant voltage drop at your meter while charging, PG&E should upgrade more of the wire back to the transformer or upgrade the transformer itself at their cost. You are only responsible for wire to the first pole, not any common infrastructure shared by other customers.

 

[FlatSix911]

I have a spreadsheet that I created to calculate energy charges on the various PG&E residential rate schedules. The spreadsheet is based on logic to sort each SmartMeter interval data point into the various TOU time periods and add them up and apply the rate schedules to the Peak, Part-Peak, and Off-Peak usage totals. In order to calculate the Non-Bypassable Charges, I will also have to total the kWh drawn from the grid separately from the kWh fed into the grid. After I do that, I want to validate my calculation by using someone's actual SmartMeter data and comparing the result to their actual NEM statement. If anyone is willing to supply the data and statement, I would appreciate it. Of course, I would keep the data and account information confidential, or personal information could be redacted prior to sending it to me.

Here is the current spreadsheet without the NEM 2.0 calculations. PGE Electric Rate Calculator_v1.9.xlsx

Let me know what data format you are looking for ... I can share my PG&E download.

 

[Ulmo]

If you are getting a significant voltage drop at your meter while charging, PG&E should upgrade more of the wire back to the transformer or upgrade the transformer itself at their cost. You are only responsible for wire to the first pole, not any common infrastructure shared by other customers.

Should I put in to have, at my responsibility, the wire from the mast to the pole replaced and upgraded? From what I understand, that is PG&E's job to connect. Did my electrician try to work cheap on that one? Who owns that wire?

miimura, you've been an unbelievably good resource for PG&E information. I'm continually amazed how much you know about it.

 

[Ampster]

PG&E put us on NEM2 once they made the correction. I'm seeing something like $30/month extra from this on the first bill, so something like $10,000 extra, or more than a third the cost of the solar system.

Make sure and check which rate you are on. You still have choices.

 

[Ulmo]

Make sure and check which rate you are on. You still have choices.

I'm pretty sure it's locked into EV-A under NEM2. It clearly shows the EV-A rates now.

Edit: Correction: Some type of adjustment happened to the account (I think related to NEM2), and now the rates are no longer available in the daily monitoring usage web site they have (which used to show how much at what rate was charged). Now, I just get usage, not cost, per hour, in the PGE.COM web site.

 

[Ampster]

It is important to distinguish between NEM and rates. They are both called tariffs by the utilities. We don't have a choice on which NEM tariff we are put into. We do have a choice of which Rate we choose. I am on NEM 1.0 and one of the TOU rates with SCE. Last year a rate change was approved and now I have a $10 per month fixed charge. The other thing that may be happening is that any change is usually effective on the start of the next billing cycle. The rate you are on should be clearly stated on your bill and I presume online. If not call and ask.

 

[miimura]

Should I put in to have, at my responsibility, the wire from the mast to the pole replaced and upgraded? From what I understand, that is PG&E's job to connect. Did my electrician try to work cheap on that one? Who owns that wire?

miimura, you've been an unbelievably good resource for PG&E information. I'm continually amazed how much you know about it.

If you have a SmartMeter that displays the voltage and kW (mine does), make notes of the voltage and instantaneous kW at different levels of power draw. Also make a note of the voltage the car displays at the same time. Call them and explain the symptoms you're seeing. After they get the recent outages resolved they will send someone out to look at your service and figure out how to resolve it. You will probably have to be there to demonstrate the voltage drop while charging. If the wire between your house and the pole needs to be upgraded, you will have to pay for it. However, I heard that there is some assistance available if you upgrade your service for the purpose of increasing available EV charging. Ask about that. I'm not sure if it's still available or not. The last time I heard about it in the 2012 time frame, there was up to $2,500 available to offset service upgrade costs.

 

[Ulmo]

Miimura, thank you.

So this month's non-bypassable NEM2 charges are $40, or $14,400 over the life of the solar system, for one clerical error by the solar company. The sooner we can disconnect from the grid, the better; I'm quite frankly tired of PG&E's constant crap, and I've only been dealing with them for three months.

 

[mblakele]

Here is the current spreadsheet without the NEM 2.0 calculations.
PGE Electric Rate Calculator_v1.9.xlsx

Thanks, that looks useful. I'll take a closer look myself, but have you given any thought to how this model would change for NEM2? The biggest change seems to be NBC — and that affects EV owners disproportionately because we tend to have low ratios of self-consumption. Is that right? Anything else in the spreadsheet model that might need attention for NEM2?

Tangential to NEM2, I have a hunch that the solar estimates I've seen are over-estimating self-consumption because they aren't accounting for EV charging patterns. In my case they're estimating 12% in summer and up to 60% in winter. But looking at my billing history I think I'd see less than 10% self-consumption in winter, and less than 5% in summer. That's because a good chunk of my usage is EV charging for my commute, which happens overnight. In winter another good chunk is electric heat, and that also tends to happen when solar production is low.

 

[miimura]

Thanks, that looks useful. I'll take a closer look myself, but have you given any thought to how this model would change for NEM2? The biggest change seems to be NBC — and that affects EV owners disproportionately because we tend to have low ratios of self-consumption. Is that right? Anything else in the spreadsheet model that might need attention for NEM2?

Tangential to NEM2, I have a hunch that the solar estimates I've seen are over-estimating self-consumption because they aren't accounting for EV charging patterns. In my case they're estimating 12% in summer and up to 60% in winter. But looking at my billing history I think I'd see less than 10% self-consumption in winter, and less than 5% in summer. That's because a good chunk of my usage is EV charging for my commute, which happens overnight. In winter another good chunk is electric heat, and that also tends to happen when solar production is low.

Yes, I have thought about it. I need to make a completely new binning column which is independent of the TOU periods that sums up the energy that you take from the grid. Basically, it's an IF statement for positive values. You will have to pay the NBCs on that total.

 

[Blup85]

I'm not sure if this info is legit or not, but it claims that even though KW sold back to grid is lowered, total bill cost goes down by 2-5% on average?
We will see, I'm expecting my annual true up bill to go down by switching to EV tarriff compared to E-6 even after adding the Tesla.. ( I switched to EV rate schedule in DEC of 16, but am still under NEM 1) The rate PGE charges during peak hour is insane, something like 55 cents a KW, and I try to not use as little power during that time so my PV array is selling to the grid as much as possible, (I have my home automation turn off kegerators, pool pumps, and a couple other things)

Investigating the Effect of California’s NEM 2.0 on Solar Savings

 

[miimura]

I'm not sure if this info is legit or not, but it claims that even though KW sold back to grid is lowered, total bill cost goes down by 2-5% on average?
We will see, I'm expecting my annual true up bill to go down by switching to EV tarriff compared to E-6 even after adding the Tesla.. ( I switched to EV rate schedule in DEC of 16, but am still under NEM 1) The rate PGE charges during peak hour is insane, something like 55 cents a KW, and I try to not use as little power during that time so my PV array is selling to the grid as much as possible, (I have my home automation turn off kegerators, pool pumps, and a couple other things)

Investigating the Effect of California’s NEM 2.0 on Solar Savings

Their analysis methodology is not explained very well. In addition, their conclusion will almost certainly not apply to customers who charge an EV off-peak on the EV rate plan. The EV charging use case exaggerates the grid draw and the accompanying NBCs.

 

[Blup85]

Well crap, I hope I didn't screw myself by ditching the E-6 SCHEDULE. But when I ran some simulations in excel, the EV plan was better than E-6 due to my time of energy use (watering lawn for 4 hours a night during summer).

 

[SageBrush]

Am I right in thinking that this utility plan will mostly shave arbitrage opportunities ?

 

[tracksyde]

Glad I'm grandfathered. SCE's limit is even less (2,240 MW), and I can't seem to find out how close they are to hitting the limit.

Here

Scroll down to "Net Energy Metering Cap Data" and click the "View Report"

As of March 6 2017, SCE still has 462MW left to go before they hit the 5% threshold.

There are currently 217,915 NEM installations and pending/in-queue applications (waiting for interconnection)

Not included in these numbers are 4,414 pending NEM requests (a total of 288.8 MW). Pending request are those that require additional applicant actions, such as final building inspection.

But I think I also read that if they dont hit the cap by July 1, then they can switch to NEM 2.0. But it looks like they'll hit the cap, probably by May or so.

 

[FlatSix911]

Well crap, I hope I didn't screw myself by ditching the E-6 SCHEDULE. But when I ran some simulations in excel, the EV plan was better than E-6 due to my time of energy use (watering lawn for 4 hours a night during summer).

I ran the numbers and found that E-6 was better than EV-A/B due to the peak rate with solar production