PG&E Rate Schedules: "Home Charging" (EV2-A) Goes Live vs. Others

[mblakele]

Interesting discussion of NBCs that I was not aware of. I'm on EV-A with PG&E under NEM 2.0. I had been charging my EVs religiously during off-peak hours but have naturally accrued a fair amount of NBCs. Would I have a lower total true-up if I instead charged my EV during peak solar production, regardless of the prevailing EV rate? What if the rate of charge exceeds the rate of solar generation by my panels?

I haven't done the math on that: I've stuck to charging at off-peak EV-A NEM2 rates, but in the daytime whenever possible to maximize self-consumption. I still try to avoid drawing from the grid on-peak.

As I understand it, NEM2 charges NBCs in hourly increments; so you're safe enough self-consuming all your hourly production in the first 15-min of an hour. So I'd expect significant grid draw at peak 50-odd cents/kWh would quickly overwhelm the cost of NBCs overnight. But you could run some month-by-month experiments and let us know what you find.

 

[ChrisJ]

We're on EV-A and got Powerwalls in April. We've not been driving much due to covid, so I've been charging the car from solar during weekend off peak rather than waiting till overnight and paying NBCs.

It's turned into a bit of a game as I check the app and then ramp up amperage on the car as the sun gets stronger and the panels produce more but without going over. I can usually top up the car to a decent level by the 3pm cut over to peak rate. I wish the app would allow me to tweak amperage remotely, the game would be so much easier

 

[EVortex]

We're on EV-A and got Powerwalls in April. We've not been driving much due to covid, so I've been charging the car from solar during weekend off peak rather than waiting till overnight and paying NBCs.

It's turned into a bit of a game as I check the app and then ramp up amperage on the car as the sun gets stronger and the panels produce more but without going over. I can usually top up the car to a decent level by the 3pm cut over to peak rate. I wish the app would allow me to tweak amperage remotely, the game would be so much easier

Would be nice if the app could coordinate this automatically for you.

 

[miimura]

Interesting discussion of NBCs that I was not aware of. I'm on EV-A with PG&E under NEM 2.0. I had been charging my EVs religiously during off-peak hours but have naturally accrued a fair amount of NBCs. Would I have a lower total true-up if I instead charged my EV during peak solar production, regardless of the prevailing EV rate? What if the rate of charge exceeds the rate of solar generation by my panels?

You should check the actual cost of the NBCs you're paying. I am on NEM 1, so I don't see that billing. My impression is that it's a couple cents per kWh at most. So, the TOU costs of moving your charging to another rate period are far greater than the NBCs. The only way to reduce your NBCs and your total billable cost is to self-consume during Off-Peak, as described above. On EV-A that's only on weekends. Once you're pushed into EV2, it's much easier because Off-Peak goes from midnight to 3pm every day.

 

[ChrisJ]

Would be nice if the app could coordinate this automatically for you.

Good point

 

[miimura]

Would be nice if the app could coordinate this automatically for you.

Tesla could easily provide a "surplus solar" charging mode for any customer that has Tesla solar with consumption monitoring or Powerwalls. The data is already there, they would just have to pass the available power to the car every minute or so.

 

[iceman747]

You should check the actual cost of the NBCs you're paying. I am on NEM 1, so I don't see that billing. My impression is that it's a couple cents per kWh at most. So, the TOU costs of moving your charging to another rate period are far greater than the NBCs. The only way to reduce your NBCs and your total billable cost is to self-consume during Off-Peak, as described above. On EV-A that's only on weekends. Once you're pushed into EV2, it's much easier because Off-Peak goes from midnight to 3pm every day.

Yes it's just a couple cents/kwh. Great suggestion about self consuming off peak in weekends. Easy thing to do. Thanks!

 

[goldengate]

I just received another letter from PG&E telling me I'm being migrated (against my will) to EV-2A which is a terrible deal for those of us with solar generation. My annual bill will go from $500 to $1500 according to their estimator, though I hope to offset some of that by shifting charging times since the estimator doesn't account for that. My husband just bought a Range Rover Sport PHEV with a laughable 30 miles of range which seems to need to charge ALL THE TIME so perhaps EV-2A will benefit us.

 

[astrorob]

well one thing i found out is that having a CPAP machine qualifies you for medical baseline. i'm not actually sure how that would work with NEM/NEM2 and TOU but they are supposed to "give" you 500kwh per month if you have medical baseline. additionally due to covid they are letting people self-certify that they have a medical necessity. it might only be good for a year though at which point you will need a doctor's signature.

that might help a little bit with the transition to EV2-A if you qualify for medical baseline.

 

[miimura]

well one thing i found out is that having a CPAP machine qualifies you for medical baseline. i'm not actually sure how that would work with NEM/NEM2 and TOU but they are supposed to "give" you 500kwh per month if you have medical baseline. additionally due to covid they are letting people self-certify that they have a medical necessity. it might only be good for a year though at which point you will need a doctor's signature.

that might help a little bit with the transition to EV2-A if you qualify for medical baseline.

Medical Baseline only matters for rate plans that have tiers. EV-A and EV2-A don't have tiers, so you get no benefit from it. The only thing that Medical Baseline will help is to help you qualify for Powerwall SGIP Equity Resiliency rebate.

 

[astrorob]

bummer, OK. wasn't sure. yeah my motivation for applying was mainly to at least tick the box for equity resiliency. but i have no idea if tesla energy would be able to apply for that since 1) they are tesla energy and 2) they are over the regular SGIP developer cap.

 

[miimura]

bummer, OK. wasn't sure. yeah my motivation for applying was mainly to at least tick the box for equity resiliency. but i have no idea if tesla energy would be able to apply for that since 1) they are tesla energy and 2) they are over the regular SGIP developer cap.

It is a totally separate cap, AFAIK. However, that doesn't mean that Tesla will do it for you. There are several NorCal installers that will help you harvest that rebate and get you nearly free PWs if you qualify for Equity Resiliency.

 

[astrorob]

It is a totally separate cap, AFAIK. However, that doesn't mean that Tesla will do it for you. There are several NorCal installers that will help you harvest that rebate and get you nearly free PWs if you qualify for Equity Resiliency.

yeah, that's kind of what i meant by #1 in my post. anything off the normal flow (and sometimes even the normal flow) is like pulling teeth with tesla energy. anyway my understanding is that all of the equity resiliency money has been allocated and unless the state puts more money in, it's already over. but i suppose that shouldn't stop anyone from filing the paperwork.

semper solaris is pushing this FREE!!!111 powerwall thing but i feel like it's a tad disingenuous as there's no guarantee at this point that anyone will see equity resilience SGIP money (and isn't this plan also done by lottery?)

for my part i'm almost 9 months into it with tesla energy and they are supposed to show up in early july to do the main panel upgrade and powerwall installation, so i think i'll just roll with it. if they can do the equity resilience application, great.

 

[miimura]

for my part i'm almost 9 months into it with tesla energy and they are supposed to show up in early july to do the main panel upgrade and powerwall installation, so i think i'll just roll with it. if they can do the equity resilience application, great.

What is your additional qualification for Equity Resilience beside the Medical Baseline? Do you have a well or are you located in a Tier 2 Fire Zone? Did you expeience two PSPS events?

 

[astrorob]

What is your additional qualification for Equity Resilience beside the Medical Baseline? Do you have a well or are you located in a Tier 2 Fire Zone? Did you expeience two PSPS events?

2x PSPS last fall.

 

[goldengate]

I was just migrated to this rate from the EV-A rate and wow, what a differerence... from 2-3 in the after noon last week PG&E would pay me about $1.80 for that hour... now on EV2-A? Thirty cents! Definitely going to have to look into a powerwall.

 

[bmah]

If I’m being migrated forcibly from EV-A to EV2-A, how can I find out the day of the cut-over? In other words what day do I need to change my Powerwall settings (EV charging was already after midnight). I don’t have a high degree of confidence that the PG&E Web site would reflect any rate plan changes in a timely manner, but to be fair this is based on no evidence whatsoever. I’d like to hear others’ experiences.

Thanks,

Bruce.

 

[miimura]

If I’m being migrated forcibly from EV-A to EV2-A, how can I find out the day of the cut-over? In other words what day do I need to change my Powerwall settings (EV charging was already after midnight). I don’t have a high degree of confidence that the PG&E Web site would reflect any rate plan changes in a timely manner, but to be fair this is based on no evidence whatsoever. I’d like to hear others’ experiences.

Thanks,

Bruce.

The only way I have found to see online what rate plan is in effect on that day is to look at the Rate Comparison tool. Back in November when I was forced over, this did work for me. In any case, it will happen on your normal billing cycle date.

 

[bmah]

The only way I have found to see online what rate plan is in effect on that day is to look at the Rate Comparison tool. Back in November when I was forced over, this did work for me. In any case, it will happen on your normal billing cycle date.

Thanks, that’s helpful! The letter I got made it sound like the cut-over might be possibly in the middle of the rate period, but what you wrote makes more sense.

Bruce.

 

[mblakele]

If I’m being migrated forcibly from EV-A to EV2-A, how can I find out the day of the cut-over? In other words what day do I need to change my Powerwall settings (EV charging was already after midnight). I don’t have a high degree of confidence that the PG&E Web site would reflect any rate plan changes in a timely manner, but to be fair this is based on no evidence whatsoever. I’d like to hear others’ experiences.

Thanks,

Bruce.

I'd call and ask. My impression is that the data in the opower-based tools lags by a day or so.

Anyway PG&E doesn't always make rate changes smoothly. When I first switched to EV-A in 2016, some parts of PG&E picked up the new rate plan and some didn't. My next couple of bills were wrong; it took a couple months and some time on the phone with PG&E to correct.