Timing of changing to NEM/EV (PG&E)

[wwu123]

I'm in PG&E territory. I don't think they have to wait until the billing cycle boundary. IIRC, when I switched to solar and E6/NEM about two years back, they did keep my billing cycle around the 18th of each month, but they closed off my E1 account with a partial month, and then my first E6/NEM bill was also a partial month. My first NEM true-up was also a little under months, from Nov 24th to Oct 18th. The 2nd NEM year had a full year trueup.

[astroboy]

OK thanks - maybe it is just a mixup. i'll call them and see what they say about it. as i mentioned the prior 2 times i talked to them the bill had not been generated yet so they could only speak in generalities.

[sensij]

So here is some more research on this.

The net metering interconnection agreement asks you to either confirm your existing rate or to switch to a new rate. Specifically, see Section H on page 4

H. Rate
Customer has confirmed their otherwise applicable rate schedule (OAS), establishing how Customer’s monthly usage or net generation will be charged/credited when submitting this Agreement. Further Customer-initiated rate changes are governed in accordance with PG&E’s Electric Rule 12.

Since you chose a new rate, instead of sticking with your existing rate, Electric Rule 12 applies. From that rule, section C:

Changes in rate schedules will take effect starting with the first day of the next Billing Cycle after receipt of the Customer’s request to change the rate schedule or meter change date following receipt of the Customer's request to change the rate schedule, unless (1) the rate schedule states otherwise, (2) an agreement between PG&E and the Customer specifies another date, or (3) the required metering equipment is unavailable. In those cases, the change of schedule will take effect on the date stated in the schedule or agreement, or the date the metering equipment is available.

So, I'm thinking that if you had stayed on E1, your current bill would have become a NEM bill. Since a new rate selection was in the application, it had the effect of delaying the whole transition to the start of the next billing month. Perhaps other PG&E customers who have elected to change rates (or elected to stay on their same rate) at the time the agreement was submitted can confirm.

[astroboy]

interesting. thanks for looking into that. i have those documents but had not gone back to read them. i wonder if clause (2) there is as straightforward as it sounds, though who knows what PGE would require to properly come up with such an agreement. problem is my solar installer initiated all the activity with PGE (which is probably pretty common), so i never thought to dig into this. what's messed up is due to el nino, it took more than 2 months for my roofer to come prepare the roof, so there was a lot of time to interact with PGE had i known this was going to happen.

so had i stayed on E1 i would have captured $ for the 110kwh that i put back into the grid... about $35.

i suppose it won't hurt to call them and ask about it.

[cebury]

I switched to E6 last month and am still waiting for PTO. I switched "early" to avoid having it unavailable to me in case PTO got extended. Probably not helpful but I can let you know how it goes for me.

[ghulands]

Hi,
I have just bought a house in the Bay Area and am planning to put solar on it around April/May next year. If I move to E-6 now, when I get the NEM activated, will PG&E still honor the E-6 rate or will they force me to the replacement of E-6? I couldn't find anything stating E-6 was ending at the end of December, so if someone has a link handy, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Yaryman]

Was I just lucky? The day after the city inspector OK'd my system my installer sent in the PG&E application for solar and E-6. Less than a week later the system was OK'd and I was given permission to turn on the system with E-6 billing. Why does it take others so much longer? I'm not that lucky.

[astroboy]

Hi,
I have just bought a house in the Bay Area and am planning to put solar on it around April/May next year. If I move to E-6 now, when I get the NEM activated, will PG&E still honor the E-6 rate or will they force me to the replacement of E-6? I couldn't find anything stating E-6 was ending at the end of December, so if someone has a link handy, it would be greatly appreciated.

that's a good question - i am not sure if switching to NEM qualifies as a tariff change. as i understand it the language says that if you switch off of a closed rate schedule, you won't be able to switch back. but switching to NEM is independent of the rate schedule. simple answer: buy an EV ... even a plug-in hybrid. the EV schedule is not tiered which is a huge bonus.

by the way with the federal tax credits expiring at the end of 2016, you might want to start earlier than april/may depending on your roof situation, to avoid getting into a time crunch at the end of the year. i needed a new roof and as i mentioned above from the day i signed the contract with the roofer to the day he actually started work, 2 months had gone by, at which time we were scheduling work around rain. it took until early december to get all the paperwork finished (loan). the bay area is insane right now - contractors are working at 100% capacity.

[astroboy]

I switched to E6 last month and am still waiting for PTO. I switched "early" to avoid having it unavailable to me in case PTO got extended. Probably not helpful but I can let you know how it goes for me.

thanks, were you able to activate NEM even though the solar was not ready?

[astroboy]

Was I just lucky? The day after the city inspector OK'd my system my installer sent in the PG&E application for solar and E-6. Less than a week later the system was OK'd and I was given permission to turn on the system with E-6 billing. Why does it take others so much longer? I'm not that lucky.

for me it didn't actually take super long to get all the PGE stuff finished. the main waste of time between the solar being finished and PTO was waiting for PGE to come and replace the meter, which was gating the PTO letter. i think it only took 4-5 days from meter installation to PTO. if you already have a smartmeter, all PGE has to do is reprogram the thing. this can be done remotely but my experience with connecting up my EAGLE would indicate that the process of programming smartmeters is slow and error prone - it took 6 tries to successfully send the commands to the meter to pair with the EAGLE.

[sensij]

that's a good question - i am not sure if switching to NEM qualifies as a tariff change. as i understand it the language says that if you switch off of a closed rate schedule, you won't be able to switch back. but switching to NEM is independent of the rate schedule. simple answer: buy an EV ... even a plug-in hybrid. the EV schedule is not tiered which is a huge bonus.

by the way with the federal tax credits expiring at the end of 2016, you might want to start earlier than april/may depending on your roof situation, to avoid getting into a time crunch at the end of the year. i needed a new roof and as i mentioned above from the day i signed the contract with the roofer to the day he actually started work, 2 months had gone by, at which time we were scheduling work around rain. it took until early december to get all the paperwork finished (loan). the bay area is insane right now - contractors are working at 100% capacity.

Adding NEM is not considered a tariff change that will affect you if you are on a closed tariff.

E-6 is closing at the end of the month. Here is a link to a link.

[cebury]

thanks, were you able to activate NEM even though the solar was not ready?

No, just E6 rate change. NEM doesn't come until you receive PTO for PV.

Mine has been delayed due to mistakes in the application... I've since taken it over and resubmitted everything as the "system owner". I used a third party sales organization so there was a wire crossed in the application details between them and the installer and PG&E just spit it all back out, so I had to start the wait over again.

[ghulands]

Adding NEM is not considered a tariff change that will affect you if you are on a closed tariff.

E-6 is closing at the end of the month. Here is a link to a link.

Thanks for the link.

[astroboy]

cripes - i just realized something. my EAGLE reports that the price/kwh is 16.7c, around the clock. i had mistaken this for a bug in the EAGLE + the partial peak EV rate, but that's actually 17.1c. guess what 16.7c/kwh is? it's tier 1 pricing on E1.

so they kept me on non-NEM E1 until the end of the billing cycle... and then at the beginning of the billing cycle, they didn't transition me to EV (and probably not NEM either...)

what a joke.

[sensij]

My Eagle (in SDG&E land) does not report accurate price info.