TOU-C or TOU-D for Solar without PWs?

[NorCalSlrUser]

I expect to have slight over production, so it may not matter.

How does the net metering work, is it based on dollar amount or per bucket only?

For example since TOU-C has higher summer rates when production is better it could make sense to use that to offset the higher winter usage. But if the winter usage is mostly peak - can that be offset with the non-peak summer production?

This is for PGE. https://www.pge.com/pge_global/comm...-work/Residential-Rates-Plan-Pricing-2020.pdf

 

[hayhayday]

its just dollar credits, c was better for me in most senarios I tested since solar offsets some of the summer peak where d hardly does and the winter rates are almost the same peak\ off peak. The Pge rate estimator in your account can give you an estimate of both plans costs if you just got solar you can try pge wattplan to forcast bill on various plans with planned system.

 

[wwu123]

It's going to be different for each household which is better. But note peak and off-peak are completely different for the two plans and one should look at the actual price and not just the periods.

E.g. when you talk about winter peaj usage, peak rates on TOU-C are substantially lower than off-peak on TOU-D. At least til you get past baseline. And I gesstimate in winter you'd have to be a heavy net user, 3X baseline quantities, to make up for that much higher off-peak rate on D vs C's Tier 2.

D's lack of tiers is partially offset by higher rates, which favors heavy net users.

 

[Ampster]

How does the net metering work, is it based on dollar amount or per bucket only?

The bills show kWhs per each rate bucket but once the dollars are calculated it rolls forward as a sum, irrespective of which bucket it came from. Kwhs are also accumulated as a total. Thus I can get credit at $0.50 /kWh and draw it down at $0.15 /kWh.
I am a heavy off peak user, so as @wwu123 said, it is beneficial for me to pick a plan with big differentials.

 

[astrorob]

how much history do you have with a smartmeter on PGE? they do have a tool which can estimate your cost under different rate schedules but of course you probably need a full year of data for them to do the analysis.

i'm on NEM1 so the analysis was a lot more straightforward and i have 5 years of data so i was able to write a program to simulate the costs. but you could just take an average summer day and and average winter day and compute the net cost under the different plans to get an idea of what night be better for you, if you can't use PGE's tool for whatever reason.

 

[Ampster]

how much history do you have with a smartmeter on PGE?

I have had 20 years of history with SCE TOU rates and 3 years with PG&E.
It is not the meter that has been the challenge. It is the lack of effective tools to do the analysis of rates. I had done some complicated spreadsheets in the past. Now I know the ranking will be driven by my significant off peak consumption. I now can pretty much predict that the tariff with the biggest differential and the least expensive off peak rate will give me the optimum return regardless if it is PG&E or SCE.

 

[NorCalSlrUser]

Thanks for all suggestions, I didn't know the wattplan can check the various rates. It says C and D are about the same only the $10 minimum charge and a true-up of $70-80 while E2VA, my current rate is a true-up of $700. I gave it full access to PGE bill.

@hayhayday - on the TOU-C do they credit you at the higher rate if you export more than the baseline?

I was thinking to get the TOU-D based on the peak period being shorter, but now I am thinking TOU-C is better since as pointed out, even the peak rates of that are less than the off peak rates of TOU-D and with solar, I should not exceed the baseline even in winter, well maybe by a little bit.

 

[hayhayday]

My net usage \ net export is almost always less than baseline as I have low usage and only 5kw system so it washes but the amount over should get the full rate. I rarely use AC in summer the higher summer rates allow me to use ~9mwh per year and generate 8mwh per year and still have no electric charges, D would cost me about $600 at true up.

 

[Ampster]

I didn't know the wattplan can check the various rates.

I had never heard of Wattplan so I gave it a try. Apparently it does not work for existing solar customers.

 

[miimura]

My net usage \ net export is almost always less than baseline as I have low usage and only 5kw system so it washes but the amount over should get the full rate. I rarely use AC in summer the higher summer rates allow me to use ~9mwh per year and generate 8mwh per year and still have no electric charges, D would cost me about $600 at true up.

When I used to be on E-9A, I think I exported more than baseline at times and it was always credited at the Baseline rate.

 

[wwu123]

As I recall, at least on NEM1, you can get credited at Tier2 rates above baseline, it's done at a monthly level and gets complicated with TOU. Basically your monthly baseline is divided into TOU period buckets proportionally to your absolute usage in each TOU.

For example, if your monthly baseline is 30kwh, and your peak usage was -3 kwh and your off-peak was +33 kwh, your peak baseline would be 3/(3+33)*30kwh. Your off-peak baseline would be 33/(3+33)*30kwh. Any negative values past their baseline would be credited at Tier2 for the TOU period.