Second meter in the Bay Area

[Merrill]

I know there are several owners out there that live in the Bay Area that have done a second meter E9b. I'am in the process of doing this and just would like to know the monthly fees that are charged for this second meter. I know the cost for the electricity, but know there are meter fees etc. any info would be appreciated.

 

[ken830]

I don't see any extra fees on my bill... There might be a daily minimum that I seem to recall reading about somewhere?

 

[tdiggity]

How many miles did you drive for that energy? About 2000 miles? The price in tier 3 is so high compared to the baseline.

 

[ken830]

How many miles did you drive for that energy? About 2000 miles?

I don't have accurate records, but it is probably about 1,700-1,800 miles... My wife drives about 70 miles each day, and we do some weekend driving too...

The price in tier 3 is so high compared to the baseline.

No kidding... That's a seriously steep step. And the peak rate is insane... That's why people on TOU have a valid reason to not want the new 4.5 firmware behavior of drawing ANY power from the shore unless it follows the scheduled charging rules... Peak baseline rate is 664% of the the off-peak baseline rate.

 

[kjl]

I don't have the meter, but I did some research when I was getting my garage set up. From the various PG&E people I talked to, there was a large upfront cost to installing the second meter, but no monthly fee. I could be wrong.

In regards to the 3rd tier being so high, I called SolarCity and am getting panels put on the roof. For $500, I'm getting 12 panels put in, which is supposed to generate ~4600 kWh a year, which should be enough to fully cover the car (and then some), which should keep me comfortably within tier 2 all the time. I'm going to pay SolarCity... uh, I think about 17 or 18 cents a kWh, which is higher than PG&E tiers 1 and 2, but significantly cheaper than PG&E tier 3. So it's a win for sustainable energy and a win for my wallet, too.

Something to look into...

 

[ken830]

In regards to the 3rd tier being so high, I called SolarCity and am getting panels put on the roof. For $500, I'm getting 12 panels put in, which is supposed to generate ~4600 kWh a year, which should be enough to fully cover the car (and then some), which should keep me comfortably within tier 2 all the time. I'm going to pay SolarCity... uh, I think about 17 or 18 cents a kWh, which is higher than PG&E tiers 1 and 2, but significantly cheaper than PG&E tier 3. So it's a win for sustainable energy and a win for my wallet, too.

The new PG&E Schedule EV-A and EV-B are non-tiered TOU plans... I think the thread on that say that it's going to be like $0.10xx per kWh (off-peak). That would beat your SolarCity plan by a lot.

I just requested a consultation from SolarCity today, so I'll see how that goes... Our PG&E bill for electricity used to be around $30/mo so we never looked into solar.

 

[rcc]

Check into the fully prepaid Solar City option. For us, the total cost that way was 9.9 cents per KwH.

 

[Merrill]

Thanks for the info, I was told by PG&E that when the E9b goes to EVB the off peak will be at .09 per kWh. They will eliminate the tiers, so if you can keep you use in the off peak time which is midnight to 7am you will get the .09 rate. Should not be a problem for me to do that. For me being on E7 TOU, which I will keep for the house and having the second meter for the car will keep me from the higher tiers that would have been charged if I charge on the house meter. The cost to do the second meter will pay off in a couple of years.

 

[pimp-boy]

Ken830, thanks for showing the example of your bill. Looking at how many miles I drive (roughly 2,000 mi/mo), when I receive my 1st bill, it looks like I will be paying an arm and leg if yours is already $119 charging at off peak times too for 1 MONTH. I think you stated in another thread it took you 6 mo to receive your first bill. It's been 3 mo., and I haven't received anything. Gas on my Prius (45 MPG) for roughly your miles is $147 assuming $3.90/gallon. I'm gonna get bitch slapped by my wife as I used "gas savings" as one of the incentives for getting it. $hit! Maybe the EV rate will work out better rather than EV-B since it is flat rate (non tiered) for people that charge alot in 1 month.

I don't have accurate records, but it is probably about 1,700-1,800 miles... My wife drives about 70 miles each day, and we do some weekend driving too...




No kidding... That's a seriously steep step. And the peak rate is insane... That's why people on TOU have a valid reason to not want the new 4.5 firmware behavior of drawing ANY power from the shore unless it follows the scheduled charging rules... Peak baseline rate is 664% of the the off-peak baseline rate.

 

[hans]

As an experiment I started charging at a public ChargePoint station near my work. Part of my motivation was to show the city that the 4 EV chargers were getting used, but it also was an interesting electric pricing trial. $1/hr of 30A charging works out to something like 14 cents per kWh. I was able to offset most of my higher tiered usage from home over to the ChargePoint station. For me it's not a lot of money but for some other people it could make a more substantial difference.

 

[kjl]

The new PG&E Schedule EV-A and EV-B are non-tiered TOU plans... I think the thread on that say that it's going to be like $0.10xx per kWh (off-peak). That would beat your SolarCity plan by a lot..

Ouch - do you have a link to the EV-A rate schedule? I'm unable to find it on PG&E's website. If that's true I might reconsider my panels installed.

Then again, I guess if I have the extra cash, maybe it's not such a bad idea to stick some solar cells on there for my eco-feel-goods.


I'm currently on E-9, which is so damned complicated - TOU and tiered.

 

[Merrill]

Right now PG&E has E9a and E9b, the b is second meter. They are changing this to EVa and EVb sometime this summer. So for current rates use the E9.

 

[hans]

Ouch - do you have a link to the EV-A rate schedule? I'm unable to find it on PG&E's website. If that's true I might reconsider my panels installed.

Then again, I guess if I have the extra cash, maybe it's not such a bad idea to stick some solar cells on there for my eco-feel-goods.


I'm currently on EV-9, which is so damned complicated - TOU and tiered.

Keep in mind that your panels produce power during peak times NOT off-peak so they will be offsetting a rate much higher than $0.10 per kWh.
When you have a sufficiently large PV installation you actually want the peak rate to be higher because PG&E is paying you that rate, not the other way around.

 

[Merrill]

Agree with Hans, I did not have the room for enough panels to take care of all my electricity (I'm all electric), so the credit of the max generation during peak (for me 12 to 6pm) means PG&E is paying me the high rate. So this helps with the monthly bill, my solar panels take care of 40% of my kWh but 70% of my bill.

 

[ken830]

Ken830, thanks for showing the example of your bill. Looking at how many miles I drive (roughly 2,000 mi/mo), when I receive my 1st bill, it looks like I will be paying an arm and leg if yours is already $119 charging at off peak times too for 1 MONTH. I think you stated in another thread it took you 6 mo to receive your first bill. It's been 3 mo., and I haven't received anything. Gas on my Prius (45 MPG) for roughly your miles is $147 assuming $3.90/gallon. I'm gonna get bitch slapped by my wife as I used "gas savings" as one of the incentives for getting it. $hit! Maybe the EV rate will work out better rather than EV-B since it is flat rate (non tiered) for people that charge alot in 1 month.

Well... My current bill works out to 14.6 cents per kWh... So the EV-B rate will certainly cut that down.. .Assuming 10.xx-cents per kWh, that would cut the $119 down to about $85, which is much better... The Model S replaced a too-small-for-our-family 4-Cyl Accord Coupe, which was using about $350+ of gasoline doing roughly the same number of miles in a month. So the savings is still there, is still significant, and will be more significant soon.

Ouch - do you have a link to the EV-A rate schedule? I'm unable to find it on PG&E's website. If that's true I might reconsider my panels installed.

Then again, I guess if I have the extra cash, maybe it's not such a bad idea to stick some solar cells on there for my eco-feel-goods.


I'm currently on EV-9, which is so damned complicated - TOU and tiered.

The EV-A/B rate schedule is nowhere to be found, but there's a thread around with the proposed rates...

I'm also having SolarCity come out to consult to see if I can lower my monthly costs even more... Hope those guys know their stuff, cause it's too complicated with TOU, and tiered, and the new EV-B rates, and separate meter, and net metering. Way too complicated for those online calculators to calculate potential savings. Like... Does anyone know if net metering spans multiple meters? Can I generate on one meter and use the credit to buy back on another?

 

[Merrill]

I have net metering on my house on the no longer available E7 TOU, when I hook up the second meter which will be on E9b that meter will not be attached to the solar system. But the rate even at .010 per kWh is much better for me in that right now with the added use from charging pushes me into the 4th and 5th tiers. Also with the new EVb their will be no tiers, so you pay a bit more but it stays at that .010 rate no matter how much you use. I agree that the whole system with PG&E is very complicated and you need to analyze your options based on your own situation. You just cannot make a decision on which ways is best for you until you analyze all your options. Hope this helps.

 

[garfield]

Ouch - do you have a link to the EV-A rate schedule? I'm unable to find it on PG&E's website. If that's true I might reconsider my panels installed.

http://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_4231-E.pdf
See the bottom of page 6 of the pdf.

Total Energy Rates ($ per kWh)	PEAK	PART-PEAK	OFF-PEAK
Summer Usage	$0.37615	$0.20558	$0.09790
Winter Usage	$0.26916	$0.16425	$0.10031