So help me understand this new $10 minimum bill with SCE

[sensij]

I suppose you could size your system to offset it. I dont think it would be very practical. Is this $10 charge on top of a grid connection fee?

Yes, at $0.04 / kWh for generation in excess of what is consumed, the $120 would eventually be paid. Not a great way to spend money, in my opinion. There is currently no grid connection fee, although once NEM 2.0 kicks in there might be (early to mid next year for SDG&E, probably late 2016 to early 2017 for PG&E, and mid 2017 for SCE). The $10 minimum bill will probably turn into a fixed connection charge sometime in the 2020's, if my read of the CPUC's deliberations is correct.

[jmgray28]

So a perfectly sized system would have a $120 credit that would zero out the monthly min cost? Here in Connecticut we pay something like $37 a month just to be hooked to the grid, doesnt matter if you use any electricity. I suppose you could size your system to offset it. I dont think it would be very practical. Is this $10 charge on top of a grid connection fee?

[silversaver]

It is 2 different things. Your credit vs min bill.

Your credit calculation is base on 12 months period, but your min bill is charging towards you every month.

Make you life easy. If you are SCE, your monthly bill use to be $1.69 to $2 and now it will be $10 from now every month.

The "min" means regardless any condition, you are going to be paying min $10 or more per month.

[sensij]

Pretend the monthly minimum bill doesn't exist. When you get your true-up, if you owe less than $120, you will be charged the difference to get to $120. So, if your summer credits perfectly offset your winter consumption, you'd have a $120 bill. If your summer credits covered all but $50 of winter consumption, you'd have a $70 charge for monthly minimums + $50 energy charge bringing the total to $120.

The CA climate and reduce your use days (or whatever SCE calls them) will complicate the picture, but the idea is the same.

[josefontao]

So my understanding is that even if the solar system overproduces energy, SCE (and other POCOs) will still charge a minimum of $10.
But what happens to those credits that you accumulate month after month for selling the energy back to the POCO? Do they get wiped out too?

The plan, when i sized my system, was to accumulate just enough credits during the winter month to offset the higher usage in the summer months.

I'm ok if the credits remain but we still pay that $10 minimum, but if the credits get wiped out too, well that would be pretty messed up.