Building Reserve and Using KWH

[bcroe]

?? So, you saying you should be paid for your transmission portion of the power also? Are you a standby volunteer lineman to repair/replace that 7000-volt wire between your house and the neighbors if something happens to it?

I never said any such thing. Go read it again. Bruce Roe

[Mike 134]

Before I moved my bill was often less than $20. That was mostly paying for the connect
costs, nobody said being frugal was bad. Now there is no money exchanged for my Net
Metering credits. My generation does not go to the power station and back out, it is made
when sun is hottest so it just goes down the street to run neighbors air conditioning. It
helps Po Co efficiency with some load leveling. My neighbors PAY FOR IT JUST AS THOUGH
THE PO CO HAD GENERATED IT. Months later at times of lower demand, I take back the kWh
credit THAT MY NEIGHBORS ALREADY PAID FOR IN FULL. This is actually beneficial to the
Po Co. I am not buying a lot of kWh, same as the OK situation in my previous house.

All the excuses for not allowing this are just a smokescreen to the truth. Bruce Roe

?? So, you saying you should be paid for your transmission portion of the power also? Are you a standby volunteer lineman to repair/replace that 7000-volt wire between your house and the neighbors if something happens to it?

[bcroe]

Today even not using any kWh my bill to connect is over $20, I am not complaining
about that. The previous owner left me a darkness security light the Po Co maintains
on their pole, which was about $10 a month. Lately it is up to almost $20, but I do not
want to erect a pole and have to mow around it to do it myself. Without Net Metering
there would be even less advantage to doing it myself, as I would still be buying the
power or need batteries to run it (one of those).

My operation would change if everyone on the street had solar on my scale, because
I would no longer be just sending energy down the street. Then our energy would need
to travel some distance to a user. Bruce Roe

[azdave]

That net metering deal you got from the local REMC was too good to be true from the get go. I guess those good old boys finally woke up.

A business model I never did understand why pay me for distribution when all I furnish is the supply?

In 2014, our utility was not reaching their mandated renewable energy goals so they offered generous Net Metering contracts, practically begging homeowners to go solar before the end of the year. I was lucky to have been one who signed up at the right time and got a 20-year net metering contract. At about 4 years into my agreement, they tried to cancel all their customer's net metering agreements and force all RE customers into a much worse deal. Fortunately for me, a judge ruled they could not legally void the contracts so they backed down. We still pay a monthly base fee that just increased by 33% in January (that base fee is higher for RE customers of course).

My utility will very certainly force me into the current, less beneficial RE plans that have incentives to steer you into self-consumption and home energy storage but assign heavy penalties, including new demand fees, if you pull from the grid during peak hours.

[bcroe]

Before I moved my bill was often less than $20. That was mostly paying for the connect
costs, nobody said being frugal was bad. Now there is no money exchanged for my Net
Metering credits. My generation does not go to the power station and back out, it is made
when sun is hottest so it just goes down the street to run neighbors air conditioning. It
helps Po Co efficiency with some load leveling. My neighbors PAY FOR IT JUST AS THOUGH
THE PO CO HAD GENERATED IT. Months later at times of lower demand, I take back the kWh
credit THAT MY NEIGHBORS ALREADY PAID FOR IN FULL. This is actually beneficial to the
Po Co. I am not buying a lot of kWh, same as the OK situation in my previous house.

All the excuses for not allowing this are just a smokescreen to the truth. Bruce Roe

[Mike 134]

I have to check and see what the expiration date is for my agreement with Com Ed. Like you I'm grandfathered for one to one on the KWH price. A business model I never did understand why pay me for distribution when all I furnish is the supply?

[bcroe]

It's Com Ed, the deal is exactly what I think it ought to be. It is entirely justified IF the total
users does not grow too big to overwhelm the grid. Of course now they realize this could
be more than a SUPPORTING GREEN stunt, they want to get rid of it. I can show this is
justified and degrading changes ARE NOT, they are playing a shell game with stuff that
sounds good but wrong. Bruce Roe

[Mike 134]

I
The other thing is anticipation of the Po Co refusing to renew my Net Metering contract in
2033,

Do you have ComEd?

[DanS26]

That net metering deal you got from the local REMC was too good to be true from the get go. I guess those good old boys finally woke up. At least you were able to pay for your system a couple of times over if not more.

Most REMC's are moving to net billing where they buy your excess production at wholesale and then make you pay retail to buy it back at night. In any case you got the early adopter benefits.

[bcroe]

In truth my tree line north of the arrays has slowly been retreating from age and trimming. I
am slowly forming an idea of another generation of panels and mounts, which would more
favor the northern sun and accommodate the larger celled panels. The current panels have
all been doing fine since 2013, one had to be swapped after a tree bent it. DC wiring has been
a problem with running high power many hours of every sunny day, but lately all those which
I had described have been fine.

The other thing is anticipation of the Po Co refusing to renew my Net Metering contract in
2033, so I have been looking at ways to more directly use my generation. Using the secondary
water heater element to absorb some energy and keep inverters out of clipping is a serious
consideration, if it plays out I might even have 2 of those lifetime tanks. Direct DC feed of
heat pumps might be possible, which also bypasses inverter losses. Some that connect to
solar panels already do this. With the house running pretty well and gutters + metal roof, I
am very much interested in some of the most efficient windows to replace these awful single
pane. Probably some multilayer with bird glass, a custom order for sure. But running without
Net Metering certainly will cause much less efficient use of facilities. Batteries are not on my
list, they cannot solve my summer to winter energy storage.

With the 2020 heavy 4/0 cable burial out to the inverter shed, the original 4 gauge feed could
be used to bring panel DC power to the house. Right now it just helps with the inverter AC
output. Need to learn to use the latest high power silicon carbide transistors. The Vampire
load chase never ends, these toroid transformers can really help. Bruce Roe

[SunEagle]

Thank you for the info Bruce. too bad about the solar cell size. Hope that doesn't hurt your system during a panel replacement

[bcroe]

14 May first time this year the 15 kw AC inverter plant delivered 150 kWh. I often
have seen the inverters in hard clipping for 8 hours straight, but those hours
never seemed to get any longer even longest day in June. I think I have figured
out why that is. The sun may rise and set nearly straight E and W around March,
but then the sun keeps moving to rise and set farther north, which means my
S facing panels are nearly cut off then. My E and W facing panels only see about
15 degrees max off for sun rise and set, BUT my trees in the north are shading the
panels at those times. To get the longest possible summer day would require
relying more on E W panels and cutting more trees.

Technology moves on, and I no longer can get new panels with 6in sq PV cells for
spares in my system. Had been using 60 or 72 cell panels, same width.
Bruce Roe

[solar pete]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the update, all seems to be going quite well. Good tip re the height of the ground mount system in areas that get snow, cheers.

[bcroe]

I constantly see pictures of solar panels and heat pumps mounted barely clear
of the ground. That works IF YOU NEVER GET SNOW. If the snow fall and drifting
is not enough, snow sliding off can build up a huge pile blocking it.

Reserve energy did maintain a positive slope til mid Nov. Then it started dropping
primarily because the sun went away. But by 1 Dec I still had 13,300 kWh for winter,
maybe a record here. Our reward for global warming is Arctic air sweeping down
here for some awfully long, cold winters. But the heat pumps deal with it, no action
from me required. Bruce Roe

[bcroe]

Rollover.jpg

The solar system builds up kWh reserve in Net Metering, starting in April.
I use a minimal amount in summer, so most generation then goes to the
reserve. It generally tops out at the beginning of Nov, then begins dropping
as generation decreases and heating use increases. There is quite a bit
left over on the next reset in April, seems to be increasing. This though I
suspect the actual panels are loosing a bit of capability every year. Good
reason to over panel.

Here is a list of reserve beginning Nov each year, primarily controlled by
the weather. With comments.
2013 3,339 incomplete starting year
2014 12,389 1st complete year
2015 12,389
2016 12,919
2017 13,947
2018 13,991
2019 12,116 E facing panels added
2020 13,448 heavy intra building cable reduces losses
2021 13,665
2022 11,478 fires smoke?
2023 13,824
2024 14,067
2025 14,605

Lately it seems to be rising, I suppose due to warmer weather? Also last year
and 2025, the peak seems to occur later, more like 15 Nov. This is easily seen
on my bi directional, spinning disk kWh meter. Bruce Roe