California Electrical Grid Sources

On our current PG&E rate plan for the 6 "summer" months, during peak hours and in the second of two tiers, we are charged 45.7 cents/kWh.

We picked this plan intentionally, however, as we over generate during this time so we actually get credited at that rate. Saves us ~$1000 a year.

It's pretty easy to charge our two cars at night and run the pool pump, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, whole house fan, etc on the cheaper off hours.

 

We are grandfathered in to the E-6 rate plan which is the best for solar users with a decent sized system with electric vehicles.

We pay as "little" as 17.9 cents/kWh for off peak in the first tier in the summer and 18.4 cents/kWh for off peak in the first tier in the winter. Off peak jumps up about 8-9 cents/kWh for the second tier.

Even though these base rates are expensive, we consume most of our electricity on the off peak hours and sell lots of excess back on the pricier peak hours.

So it is possible to be a net grid consumer by a significant margin, but owe nothing except the connectivity charge.

 

Having a hard time figuring out their tariff page on this. Lots of math depending on specific location and baseline kWh allocation.

Most people are on the E1 rate plan by default who have no solar. No daily time of use, but tiered and summer and winter rates. In our area, that's and unbundled rate of 13.8 cents/kWh for the first tier in the summer and 11.2 cents/kWh for the first tier in the winter.

With all charges it looks like about $0.21 /kWh for the first couple hundred kWh then $0.28/kWh for the next few hundred, then quickly gets to $0.43/kWh.

So in your scenario, maybe only about $40-45 / month. But remember, this is California and you will need the AC in the summer unless you live near the coast or way up in the mountains. My neighbors who have no solar have told me they typically pay ~$600-1000 each for the two hottest summer months. Houses range maybe 2200-3200 sq ft.

 

It's that time of year again, so here's the annual update on the California Electrical Grid.

Another great year for California, continuing to lead in grid greening. Please note that for 2018, we came off a record rainfall 2017 year which briefly inflated hydro sources.



2018 California Electrical Grid Source data:

Total System Electric Generation

Highlights comparing 2018 to 2017:
(note units are percent total system power)

-coal mix is decreasing and only 3.30% (vast majority remains imported)
-natural gas use increased after being down for 3 consecutive years, now 34.91% of the power mix
-nuclear remains nearly stable, at 9.05%
-large hydro decreased from 14.7% to 10.68% (2017 had record rainfalls within CA)
-non-large hydro renewables grew and continue to climb rapidly, continuing a long trend, with a year-over-year 2.36% increase in the share of total power mix, to a current level of 31.36%
-wind continues to grow with new accelerating gains following some years of slowing increases, now 11.46%, up from 9.4%, briefly retaking the renewable lead from solar which took the lead for the first time in 2017
-solar (1 MW and larger facilities) increased to 11.40% (10.2% last year)
-small hydro fell as with large hydro as 2017 had a temporary burst with record rainfall that winter/spring
-still, the impact of solar above is greatly underestimated as “behind the meter” (BTM) home solar is not measured as only units generating 1MW or greater are counted; “BTM residential solar generation was estimated to be 13,582 GWh, a 20 percent increase from 2017”; therefore California probably gets ~17% total system electric generation from all sources of solar PV
-California total system electric generation was down 2 percent from 2017 and a major factors cited wereenergy efficiency programs and residential installs of BTM residential solar PV systems that directly displaced utility-supplied generation.
-California's non CO2 emitting electric generation categories (nuclear, large hydroelectric, and renewables) accounted for 53 percent of its generation, compared to 56 percent in 2017. As a result, in-state generation dropped by 6 percent (11,494 GWh) to 194,842 GWh. This decrease was due, in part, to reduced generation from hydroelectric power plants as dry conditions returned to the state. Net imports increased by 6 percent (4,944 GWh) to 90,648 GWh, partially offsetting the decline.

 

Report came out even later this year (released earlier this month); here's the annual update on the California Electrical Grid.


2019 California Electrical Grid Source data:

2019 Total System Electric Generation


Highlights comparing 2019 to 2018:
(note units are percent total system power)

-coal mix continues to decrease and only 2.96% (vast majority remains imported)
-natural gas use resumed its decrease (was downtrending but spiked to 34.91% of power mix in 2018), now down to 34.23%
-nuclear remains nearly stable, at 8.98%; almost 2/3 of this is from the Diablo Canyon in-state plant, currently scheduled to be decommissioned in 2025
-large hydro increased from 10.68% to 14.62%
-non-large hydro renewables grew and continue to climb, continuing a long trend, although slowing the rate from the prior year, to a current level of 31.70%
-this was mostly due to a decrease in annual wind production, down from 11.46% to 10.17%; in 2018 wind briefly retook the renewable lead from solar; solar had taken the lead for the first time in 2017 and has now resumed the lead
-solar (1 MW and larger facilities) continued to grow robustly, increased to 12.28% (11.40% in 2018)
-still, the impact of 1+ MW solar is greatly underestimated as “behind the meter” (BTM) home solar is not measured as only units generating 1MW+ are counted; for some reason, there was no update in this report - the 2018 report noted “BTM residential solar generation was estimated to be 13,582 GWh, a 20 percent increase from 2017”; at that time California probably received ~17% total system electric generation from all sources of solar PV, higher now
-California total system electric generation continues its downward trend, down 2.7 percent, or 7,784 GWh, from 2018; previously major factors cited were energy efficiency programs and residential installs of BTM residential solar PV systems that directly displaced utility-supplied generation.
-California's non-carbon dioxide emitting electric generation categories (nuclear, large hydroelectric, and renewables) accounted for 57 percent of its generation, compared to 55 percent in 2018. As a result, in-state generation increased by 3 percent (5,633 GWh) to 200,475 GWh. This increase was due, in large part, to increased generation from in-state large hydroelectric power plants, up 11,049 GWh (50 percent) from 2018. The gain from hydroelectric generation was offset by a 15 percent decrease in net imports to 77,229 GWh, down 13,418 GWh from 90,647 GWh in 2018.