Solar/powerwalls install in NV

[brucet999]

As for NV energy, they won't let you disconnect from the grid, you have to stay on. So we will end up paying around $20/mo and then get credit for whatever we sell back to them.

Did NVE get a law passed preventing people from going off-Grid?

At my North Lake Tahoe (CA side) cabin, NVE has only one rate structure now matter how much or what time of day one uses power. Is that the same for where you live?

 

[talkingevs]

Did NVE get a law passed preventing people from going off-Grid?

At my North Lake Tahoe (CA side) cabin, NVE has only one rate structure now matter how much or what time of day one uses power. Is that the same for where you live?

I'm not too sure yet. Someone told me they require you get 20% from the grid and then a max of 80% from solar. I haven't confirmed yet directly with NVE. I'm hoping that isn't true but I will need to stay connected to charge my future EVs on off peak hours anyways. As for rates, they offer one rate or on and off peak rates here in southern NV. The standard is $.11/kWh. The peak rating structure has two options with as low as $.04/kwh off peak. So charging a 70kwh battery would only cost around around $3 and I'd only need to charge once a week so I'm looking at $12 + $20 connection fee for the grid....not including credits from net metering. So I'm thinking in the end with a 12-14kwh solar system and 2 powerwalls, my monthly bill with NVE will be next to nothing. But I don't know if they apply credits against the standard connection charge too or just the usage.

 

[brucet999]

I'm not too sure yet. Someone told me they require you get 20% from the grid and then a max of 80% from solar. I haven't confirmed yet directly with NVE. I'm hoping that isn't true but I will need to stay connected to charge my future EVs on off peak hours anyways. As for rates, they offer one rate or on and off peak rates here in southern NV. The standard is $.11/kWh. The peak rating structure has two options with as low as $.04/kwh off peak. So charging a 70kwh battery would only cost around around $3 and I'd only need to charge once a week so I'm looking at $12 + $20 connection fee for the grid....not including credits from net metering. So I'm thinking in the end with a 12-14kwh solar system and 2 powerwalls, my monthly bill with NVE will be next to nothing. But I don't know if they apply credits against the standard connection charge too or just the usage.

Your credits will not offset that $20 per month, I suspect. The PoCos have all built in certain fees that can't be avoided.

I think the 80%, 20% you talk of may be about the effect of selling power at high rates and taking power at low rates times, such that monetarily you come out even with just 80% of kWh usage offset by solar. If NVE is anything like the California companies, they will carry over excess kWh to next year, but any excess monetary credits get wiped away at end of the billing year.

I decided to build 94.5% of estimated usage without any monetary gain over 80%, because I want to "drive on sunshine" as much as possible.

 

[Buster1]

@dano9258 Ive been talking solar with two buddies at work who both have non-Tesla solar systems installed. They installed their systems a few years ago.

The one thing they told me that was surprising to me, and maybe you already know this. But NV Energy analyzes your energy usage for the previous year, and when you go to install solar, they only let you stall a system that coincides with the approximate amount of kW you use typically.

That’s right. They restrict the size of solar you can install.

Basically, they don’t allow (or want) consumers to “produce” excess electricity and send it to the grid.

So my friends, in their homes, they rarely have the solar capacity and generation to sell much (if anything) back to NV Energy. In the cooler months they do as they don’t use much energy to heat or cool the house. But in summer months they use everything generated by solar pretty much every day just to keep the AC in the house going.

Food for thought. You might not have the ability to store much juice in a powerwalls here in NV...just based on how they are running the monopoly.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

@dano9258 Ive been talking solar with two buddies at work who both have non-Tesla solar systems installed. They installed their systems a few years ago.

The one thing they told me that was surprising to me, and maybe you already know this. But NV Energy analyzes your energy usage for the previous year, and when you go to install solar, they only let you stall a system that coincides with the approximate amount of kW you use typically.

That’s right. They restrict the size of solar you can install.

Basically, they don’t allow (or want) consumers to “produce” excess electricity and send it to the grid.

So my friends, in their homes, they rarely have the solar capacity and generation to sell much (if anything) back to NV Energy. In the cooler months they do as they don’t use much energy to heat or cool the house. But in summer months they use everything generated by solar pretty much every day just to keep the AC in the house going.

Food for thought. You might not have the ability to store much juice in a powerwalls here in NV...just based on how they are running the monopoly.

I believe it's this way with most power companies. With Xcel in Colorado, we are limited to our previous year's usage plus 20%. If an electric car is purchased, you can add up to 250 kWh per month to the calculations. We're waiting to hear back if both can be considered since we added two electric cars in the past year and neither of them is reflected in our previous year's usage. 120% would cover most of our usage but not all and we don't want to have to add more panels again next year. It definitely penalizes efficient customers and customers who have large changes in usage.

 

[M Mode]

Tesla Energy says there are no "Tesla Powerwall Certified Installer" licensed in the State of Nevada.

My saga: I have been planning to install a Powerwall system in our new house under construction in North Lake Tahoe (Nevada side) and was initially directed to an "Inside Energy Advisor" based in Las Vegas who I communicated with for a few months starting 6/1/17 before he disappeared. Later, I made a Powerwall Reservation after consulting the electricians on our new house build (12/1/17). I called Tesla explaining our timing was approaching and they told me someone would be contacting me within 30 days. I called them again and they professed that they have no "Tesla Powerwall Certified Installer" licensed in the state of Nevada, and they don't know when they will. Being proactive, I convinced our electrical contractor to apply to TE to become a certified installer. The application was lengthy. That was a couple months ago and my contractor has as yet to hear back from Tesla Energy.

 

[talkingevs]

So I just got done with the design part of the process and am moving into the permitting and HOA approval now. What we have found out:

1) Powerwalls aren't available in NV (at least Las Vegas) until Sept/Oct at the earliest. This means to include it in the solar loan, it has to be a separate split loan (solar system on original 20 year loan and batteries on 10 year loan once available), causing the monthly payment to jump roughly $50/mo for each battery. The other option is to pay cash for the batteries or wait to install solar until the Powerwalls are available.

2) Our home is a brand new build so there is no usage history. It is 3869 sq ft. And NV Energy is limiting our size to 9.79kwh. We wanted a 12 kwh system but they won't allow it. They stated if we end up having too little produced by solar, we would have to show our usage proving that.Luckily all the panels will sit on the southern sloping roof.

3) The system will have 32 panels of 305watts each.

We are putting in our reservation for 2 powerwalls now but might end up cancelling down the road since we will need another loan or cash up front. Total for both will be $12,900 installed with a 30% tax credit on top of that.

We have a plug in hybrid now that has a roughly 8kwh battery so that's why we wanted 2 powerwalls. We also are on the list for a model 3. But since NV energy is capping our system at 9.79kwh, we might have an issue.

Let me know your thoughts or questions. If you see anything incorrect please let me know too. I'm new to this solar stuff but we wanted to be off grid as much possible with electrical.

Oh, NV energy currently pays 95% back on what you give. So I'm also trying to justify the Powerwalls here. Only thing I see is the 95 percent is only gauranteed for 20 years and you are losing 5 percent. But they again, it's free storage in a sense. I plan on doing off peak pricing with the Powerwalls, so I'd use the Powerwalls between 1pm and 7pm and then get discounted power from the grid overnight and off peak hours the system can't support.

 

[Michael_R]

We just had our system turned on Wed. March 28th 2018 We started the process last Sept. and in Oct NV energy paused the battery installs until Jan. We had it installed on Febr 21st, and Inspected by City March 7th and 2 week turn around for NV Energy. We were the second Powerwall installed, but we were the first turned on. The city had some fixes. Now that that Henderson, and City of Las Vegas have approved the install parameters to pass, it should go much faster. I see from the above post battery availablility, may be issue. They needed ours to pass so the system could be replicated. We have a 5.08KW system with 1 powerwall. We have an issue with the powerwall only charging to 57% waiting on a response from Tesla. However we have a 2815 sq foot house, we have been averaging 12 to 13 kwh hours a day for house power, 30 kwh being generated by solar panels, 21.2kwh hours being sent to grid, with 3.8kto battery. Obvious battery is having issues. NV energy is currently paying the 95% with reduction in rates for future customers, in tiers to a cap of 75%. Once the battery is resolved it should cover our power use for the Day in Most cases. We are pulling 3kwh from the grid a day with our low battery contribution.
We had a great install crew, the customer service and sales responses, are hit and miss. Our original sales guy was let go at the beginning of this year, he was on top of everything, lost that when he was let go. Otherwise, everything is working well, except for the Battery. Will update with info as we get it.

 

[Michael_R]

We just had our system turned on Wed. March 28th 2018 We started the process last Sept. and in Oct NV energy paused the battery installs until Jan. We had it installed on Febr 21st, and Inspected by City March 7th and 2 week turn around for NV Energy. We were the second Powerwall installed, but we were the first turned on. The city had some fixes. Now that that Henderson, and City of Las Vegas have approved the install parameters to pass, it should go much faster. I see from the above post battery availablility, may be issue. They needed ours to pass so the system could be replicated. We have a 5.08KW system with 1 powerwall. We have an issue with the powerwall only charging to 57% waiting on a response from Tesla. However we have a 2815 sq foot house, we have been averaging 12 to 13 kwh hours a day for house power, 30 kwh being generated by solar panels, 21.2kwh hours being sent to grid, with 3.8kto battery. Obvious battery is having issues. NV energy is currently paying the 95% with reduction in rates for future customers, in tiers to a cap of 75%. Once the battery is resolved it should cover our power use for the Day in Most cases. We are pulling 3kwh from the grid a day with our low battery contribution.
We had a great install crew, the customer service and sales responses, are hit and miss. Our original sales guy was let go at the beginning of this year, he was on top of everything, lost that when he was let go. Otherwise, everything is working well, except for the Battery. Will update with info as we get it.

We did use Tesla as Installer.

 

[talkingevs]

I'm curious, why did you choose to go with the batteries/Powerwalls rather than just sell to NV energy at 95%? And are your panels installed on the south slope or east/west? If we want the batteries we have to wait until October for everything if we want to include it in the loan. So I'm trying to find positives in having the batteries. We will prolly use just solar in all but the summer months and then need to pull from the grid then.

 

[velocty]

Any updates @dano9258 ? We just bought a house in Summerlin (have a model S) and i have been curious on your progress.

 

[talkingevs]

So we got our system installed 9.7kwh system in late May. We stayed on top of NV energy and we're able to get them to install the meter on Friday. So our system was turned on and we produce roughly 60-65kwh for the day. Our home uses about 80-90kwh right now with this heat so it produces about 70-80% of our homes summer needs. I predict in the winter it will produce around 35-45kwh and that will be about 110-120%. So with that in mind and the fact that NVEnergy pays us 95% of what we produce in credits, we cancelled our powerwall plans for now. The winter excess should pay for our summer issues. Overall couldn't be happier with Tesla energy. The staff was wonderful and everything went smoothly. Only complaint is not being able to get a 12kwh system that we wanted which probably would have been large enough to supply 100% in the summer.....but that was NVEnergy putting the cap in size at 9.7kwh for our size of home and not having any history of usage at the home to use yet.

 

[Ampster]

Given that OP says NVE won't allow disconnecting from the Grid (Did NVE get a law passed forcing people to connect?) there's $20 per month unavoidable cost to net meter, with or without PW, so what would be gained from a PW installation that has an 11% round trip energy loss?

I don't know the specifics in Nevada, but most building codes require some source of energy connection. No doubt that is an artifact of the old monopoly thinking. The building codes don't require you to use it, however and I have always felt that I could do anything behind the meter that was consistent with the building codes. That meant load shifting particularly when one had large differences between peak rates and off peak rates. For a while I was using a hybrid inverter running off a 48 volt battery pack which I am sure had greater than 20% energy loss and I still had a 15 year payback on that equipment. I didn't like the $10 a month SCE was charging but it was a small price to pay for the 2 megaWatts which I consumed above my generation while still having a negative cumulative account balance one year.