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I was on the E-27 plan for the last 15 years before solar and just stayed on that when I went to solar where it's peak from 1-8 pm weekdays in the summer and 5-9am and 5-9pm in the winter. You can only change plans once a year. Since SRP won't let you share power banked from on-peak to off-peak and vice-versa, I was banking a ton of off peak that I couldn't possibly use before April when they reset the account to zero (and pay you little cash for the reserve).
I didn't think they would let me change plans with the new rules at SRP but after a call yesterday (because I was grandfathered to the old rules) I am now on Basic E-23 service. Maybe in a really hot July or August I might have to buy a few dollars worth of power but I'm okay with that in order to get away from all of the timed devices and having to skip doing laundry until late at night. Since November I've bought very little on-peak energy but banked about a full months worth of off-peak and it will be much more by the end of April when they zero me out.
My system faces SSE so I could not get the best peak production in the late afternoon like they would prefer for new installs. What really decided it to go to Basic is the confirmation that I will almost always produce more power than I need. My best plan was to move to basic where it's all the same 24 hours a day. It will be nice to not worry about when I do laundry or having to wait until 8 PM to set the A/C down to 80 in the summer so I can sleep. I'll still be frugal with my energy use because my goal will always be to break even but now I can do it without the time of day concern.
If your panels only produce part of the total you require then TOU can be used to your advantage. You want your panels generating as much as possible during the peak hours in the summer and then buy cheaper off-peak power as needed from the utility. This benefits both you and them. That is why they want to force solar users into that specific TOU plan.
I didn't think they would let me change plans with the new rules at SRP but after a call yesterday (because I was grandfathered to the old rules) I am now on Basic E-23 service. Maybe in a really hot July or August I might have to buy a few dollars worth of power but I'm okay with that in order to get away from all of the timed devices and having to skip doing laundry until late at night. Since November I've bought very little on-peak energy but banked about a full months worth of off-peak and it will be much more by the end of April when they zero me out.
My system faces SSE so I could not get the best peak production in the late afternoon like they would prefer for new installs. What really decided it to go to Basic is the confirmation that I will almost always produce more power than I need. My best plan was to move to basic where it's all the same 24 hours a day. It will be nice to not worry about when I do laundry or having to wait until 8 PM to set the A/C down to 80 in the summer so I can sleep. I'll still be frugal with my energy use because my goal will always be to break even but now I can do it without the time of day concern.
If your panels only produce part of the total you require then TOU can be used to your advantage. You want your panels generating as much as possible during the peak hours in the summer and then buy cheaper off-peak power as needed from the utility. This benefits both you and them. That is why they want to force solar users into that specific TOU plan.
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