URGENT to PG&E E-7 Customers - Rate Shaft Coming

I'm a retired TV engineer on a fixed income. I'm not concerned about a few dollars of electricity cost increase.

 

Right. Because it's not your few dollars, it's ours. As you said on May 20, 2013:


My electricity was averaging $100/month so $1200 per year. Its early days so I don't know how well the predicted savings will pan out but it should get me down to less than $400 for the year...

Electric Rates (where you live) | Page 4 | PriusChat

Post #63

 

Emphasis on "few dollars". No big deal.

 

I was on E9-A rates after I purchased my PiP. 2 years ago PG&E told me E9 rates was being phased out for the new tier-less EV rates. They told me I would be moved to EV-A on Jan 1, 2015. According to PG&E and my own calculations, EV-A rates increase my rates by $300 - $400. I decided to do nothing and see what happens. What happened was by May 2015, I was still on EV-A rates.

So is PG&E dishonest or disloyal? I don't think so. There is no contract saying they have to give me E9 rates. They gave me over 2 years notice that the rate would go away. And even then, they were 5 months late. Netflix and my credit cards only gives me a couple months notice. The new EV rates increase my costs but they do lower costs for those that use more electricity because it has no tiers. I'd think if I had a Volt or Leaf, EV-A rates would be more attractive. Am I being punished for using very little electricity? You could say that but the E9 rates as they were, was unsustainable. They were experimental rates for electric vehicle customers. PG&E clearly under priced E9 rates especially E9-B where you could charge for as little as $0.03/kWh. Maybe they were doing it to get more people to buy BEV. Maybe it was bragging rights to say they are plug in friendly. I don't know, just because the rates are bad for me doesn't mean it's bad for all of their customers.

I'm on E1 now paying $100 more a year than I did on E9-A. E6 would've made it something under a $100. Like California Bear says, a few bucks, whatever. I used to be an obedient customer charging only at night when demand is low. I delayed my dish washing and clothes washing to off-peaks. Now I charge immediately after I get home at 5PM. This is me giving the middle finger to PG&E. Doubt they care because as an electric utility company, I'd hope they concentrate their efforts on the power hogs.

 

I've been tracking E1 compared to my E6 for 3 years and find it would cost about $120/year more on E1. I seldom have any need to charge during Peak time or seldom during Partial-Peak time. So there is no reason to change to E1 but I would consider it under different trip time conditions.

 

PG&E said that they ran a what-if on my account which had been on E9-A (which they could do since they had the smart-meter data), and they said that E6 (Tiered TOU) seemed to be the best for me. I do not have solar. So they switched me to E6. The Tier-1 Off-Peak rate is higher, but there are a lot fewer Peak and Part-Peak hours. In the winter (Nov-April), it's Part-Peak 5-8pm M-F, and otherwise, all Off-Peak.

 

Yea - SCE ran a "what if" on our account - suggesting we"d save money utilizing a separate meter that measured our charging - about 3 years ago. Their conclusion was we'd save a boatload if we installed a separate meter for charging. Based on their findings, we took the time to schedule 3 appointments for contractors to come out and bid the cost of a 2nd meter socket install, including demo, permits, and re-stuco. I'd do the re-paint touch up myself. The 3 prices averaged $1,000. Even without doing the math, saving 10¢ per kWh on the separate meter - the years it would have taken to break even based on the 4kWk - 6kWh a day we charge. Gee thanks for the great money saving advice SoCal Edison. Where do I sign up !!

.

 

I'm NO fan of the CPUC or the CA IOUs (Investor Owned Utilities) whose rates are obvious extortion when you compare to the adjacent PBUs (Public Benefit Utilities), but there has been plenty of notice E7 is going away. It hasn't been available to "new"comers for about the last 10 years.

The IOUs are "regulated" by the CPUC. They are GUARANTEED a rate of return on their investment, and, accounting for IOU expenses tilts very heavily toward "investment" . If you are angry about the IOUs, you need to change the CPUC. Monopolies with a captive customer base charging much more than obvious competitors is hardly the mark of effective regulation.

As IOU rate plans change, the optimization changes. People in high E-1 tiers (PG&E) with money and space found it cheaper to install their own solar electric. The solar generation incentives are also changing next year. One could argue that forcing utilities to pay (credit) retail rates for power sent back to the grid was overly generous to residential solar buyers. The utilities certainly can't
count on that capacity being online when they need it.

In any system with inefficiencies, clever parties with the ability, exploit them.

Since there's little ability to switch electric providers like you can switch DVD-by-mail companies, a long notice period is needed, but the utilities with some help from EPRI are better equipped to win the game than ratepayers.

Maybe the next escape for trapped electric users is fuel cells? V2G?

 

Thanks for all the input guys. I'm mulling the installation of a PV system when I re-do my roof next year. I hear that the tax credit is ending after 2016 so might as well take advantage. I was told that because I only have a 100A breaker, that the max system I can build is 4kW, unless I wanted to pay a lot of money to redo some mains wiring. The quote I got was $25K for roof and $20K for 4kW PV system (house is ~1350 sq/ft). Any thoughts or comments?

 

Take your main service panel size up to a 200 amp if at all financially possible.

 

I was told that a 4kW system (16 panels) was all I need for a 70% PV system and the existing 100A breaker is sufficient. Otherwise I need to tear through concrete and re-do the wiring underneath (the PG&E line in underground in my area). Is there a good reason why I should go through all that effort and expenditure? I will do it if the ROI is there, or if there are good performance reasons to do so.

 

It depends if you will purchase a BEV in the future and how fast you need to charge. I went through the quoting process for solar and in the end decided against it. They sized the system for my current usage. That could change drastically when I purchase a BEV. Solar technology is still advancing at a rapid pace while decreasing in price that I decided to wait.

 

We were on a 100amp main & every contractor who put in a pv bid insisted it was necessary to increase our main panel. (ymmv) Our incoming underground power didn't need to be replaced - & it seems unusual that the original builder wouldn't provide a decent incoming size for a future upgrage. Anyway - even a small pv system will require a double breaker spot. Slightly bigger & the system will need 4 slots in the service panel. I'd consider getting at least a couple more bids/opinions.

 

If you have PG&E, the E-6 rate plan (common for solar generation customers) closes in March. PG&E has up to a month to process your net metering agreement, so perhaps you want to have your system installed by Feb (??). You should be grandfathered on the E-6 plan for 5 years. I don't know what happens if you switch to E-6 first, and then commission your solar electric later, but there are also changes coming to the net metering scheme (summer 2016) which will be much less generous for solar generation.

How big a system to get depends... In my case, I got a system only large enough to offset the "expensive" kWH (peak and part-peak on EV-A). With this analysis, off-peak kWH are only worth about 10c each, so much harder to repay the cost of the solar. (Other kWH are 22-42c each). Some folks want "the meter to spin backwards" there are plenty of solar installer who will oblige.

As the rules and rate plans change, so does the optimization.

 

The NEC says you can backfeed a panel up to 20% of the rated capacity. So if your existing panel is 100A, you can backfeed from the solar system up to 20A. This works out to be a maximum of 4.6 kW.

 

Mine is 2.08 kW on a 100A panel. Two of the three quotes I got required me to replace the panel with a newer one before they'd start work, just due to age. The third (SolarCity) told me that if I needed a panel replacement, they'd cover it under their quote. Their quote was also the lowest of the bunch. They ended up just using my existing panel. But if you do end up needing to replace the panel, a 200A one isn't a bad idea - that's what we were planning on.

In terms of ROI, you get the most benefit from keeping yourself out of the higher tiers, assuming you're also on PG&E, so 70% is probably a good level. We went for 100%, because we wanted to; it certainly won't be saving us money over 70%. Especially now that PG&E has a $10/month minimum charge - so you'll want to make sure that using 30% of your energy will cost you at least $10/month, assuming that you're aiming for the best ROI.

 

For us, we have a 125A main panel that feeds a sub-panel that powers the rest of the house/garage. Solar is wired into the main panel, which also has the meter in it. When we moved into our house 16 years ago, it still had the original 60-amp fuse box with 120V-only service. First thing we changed was the fuse-box, put in the sub-panel, and get 240V service going. That upgrade has paid off rather well...