PG&E Rate Changes March 1, 2016; New ETOU Rates; E6 TOU option extended

[MarkH180]

Couple interesting links here for anyone exploring solar in PG&E territory, residential rate changes and options for TOU (time-of-use) rates. Kinda complicated, need spread sheets and an hourly usage analysis of one's PG&E usage (interval data export from PG&E website) to sometimes tell which of the various TOU options will be the better choice for someone going solar

....but in general, switching to the E6 TOU existing PG&E time-of-use rate is a good idea for many people planning to go solar before it's phased out as an option on May 3rd of this year -- which you can do even if it's before you go solar -- and since the new ETOU time-of-use rates proposed by PG&E will likely NOT be quite as good for many customers compared to today's option of E6 time-of-use rates.......

1) E-6 TOU rate originally was going to be closed to new customers starting March 1, 2016. Now PG&E customers, whether solar yet or not, can select E6 TOU as their rate up until May 3, 2016.....but if you wait to select a rate after May 3rd, you'll only have options of staying on the E1 standard residential tiered rate, the new ETOU A or B rates -- see # 2, or the EVA electric vehicle rate if you have a plug-in car (also a good rate for solar).

E-6 is good for solar if system is sized large enough since in summer peak hours are 1 - 7pm, many of those hours good solar production hours.
So, even if you're not getting solar installed until after May 3, 2016, it might be worth it via PGE website to switch to E6 NOW in case that ends up being the best rate for you once you go solar, since you WON"T have this option after May 3, and you an always switch away from E6 at any time in the future....

http://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariff...LEC_4797-E.pdf

2) In the second PG&E link, the new increased rates for standard E1 residential rates are shown starting March 1 (Pg 50)....Top tier going up to 37c/kWh from 34c/kWh!!!
--E6 time of use schedule shown on pg 55
--New ETOU A and B rates shown starting on page 80

http://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariff...LEC_4795-E.pdf

The big complaint on new ETOU time of use rates proposed by PG&E / CPUC and coming into effect as a rate choice soon, is that the peak window is 3-8pm or 4-9pm instead of the 1-7pm of E6 TOU, so the window to get peak credits for your solar for exporting is much smaller, and goes until later, so you're paying more to use power later when solar is not producing.
The upside and what makes new ETOU rates not SO terrible, is that in the summer the peak and off peak rates are 40c/kWh and 32c/kWh respectively, so for exporting solar in the summer, it averages out to similar to the E6 peak rate of 34c/kWh 1-7pm. But still not as good as E-6 because you're paying peak rates later into the evening.

AND, it's not good that the new ETOU has a shorter Summer peak season of only 4 months -- June 1 to Sept 30th - instead of E6 TOU 6 months May 1 to October 30th, which is another thing good about going with the current E6 TOU...more months of peak rate hours to export at a higher rate.

One other thing that makes the new ETOU-A not AS bad, is if a solar system sized large enough to leave you with less than Tier 1 baseline usage, or max about 300 kWh/month net used from the utility....because these rates have what's called a "baseline" credit for power used from the utility each month, but only up to baseline amount used in that month.
So any peak amount used in the summer brings the peak rate down from 40c kWh to 28.6c/kWh billed for net usage (that's the 11.6c/kWh baseline credit in play)....and summer off peak goes down from 32.6c/kwh to 21c/kWh (with the 11.6c/kWh credit)

The ETOU B rate -- Summer 35.6c/kWh peak 4-9pm; 25.3c/kWh off peak, but no baseline credits -- is generally better than ETOU A IF you can only have a solar array offsetting a lower amount of your utility usage, since their are no Tiers, you'd avoid going way up into the higher 3 and 4 Tier rates you'd have in a normal rate schedule, again for a solar system that's not able to offset a large enough chunk of your power usage.

[J.P.M.]

Since how much the sun shines and POCO T.O.U. tariffs are largely beyond the control of homeowners, I'd suggest considering annual solar output be calculated in terms of the revenue a residential PV system produces when designing a system, rather than simply annual energy output if T.O.U. tariffs are involved - that is, completely separate from residential usage, at least initially.

That production and revenue can then be reduced by the usage and its cost according to the particulars of how the particular methods and quirks of the T.O.U tariff being considered affect the monthly/annual bill. Then, any/various scenarios can be considered for their effect on the net annual bill to the limits of user chosen life style choices/modifications - like dong laundry at 2 A.M. for example.

Having been at this for a few years, I've learned that, for me only, optimizing a system size and estimated long term least cost/most cost effectiveness under a T.O.U. pricing scheme is more involved than when working with a simple tiered rate.

Easiest for me to start with the concept of a PV system as a revenue producer, and then deduct payments to the POCO for any usage as that T.O.U. tariff mandates, allowing me to eat the elephant one bite at a time.

[sensij]

There is some nice information here, thanks for posting. A couple comments:

1) The idea that new NEM customers *must* take TOU after May 3, 2016 is new to me, and is not supported by anything I can find in either of the linked documents. Although this might be roughly true for SDG&E customers, because the NEM 1.0 cap is expected to be reached around then, PG&E progress toward the cap has been slower and it should not be reached until much later in the year. As I understand it, the requirement to take a TOU tariff should only apply to those who interconnect under the recently approved NEM 1.1, which comes into play after the cap or July 1, 2017 deadline is reached.

2) According to the linked advice letters, the hours assigned to peak and off-peak for E-6 will only be locked until 2020. At that point, they will begin to transition to whatever definition has been developed and applied to the TOU plans that are in effect at that time.

3) The letters also mention a change to the calculation of the minimum bill. It will be interesting to see how it works out, because many systems that are sized to 100% offset or something close to it will be subject to this calculation. PG&E has done a relatively good job in the past of documenting how the calculation works, so hopefully that will continue going forward. In any case, $10 continues to be the minimum for non-CARE customers, which should remain true for a few more years.

4) With respect to calculating the cost-effectiveness of E-6, the approach suggested by J.P.M. is a good start, but ultimately incomplete. E-6 has a baseline component that can not be calculated independently of consumption, and attempts to do so may result in incorrect conclusions. The method of calculation is described in another thread (too lazy to link at the moment), but it is definitely one of the more complicated plans out there right now. As as the bill guarantees remain in effect (protecting customers from choosing a TOU plan that results in a higher bill than they would otherwise have had), there is some merit to the suggestion of just getting on E-6 before it closes, and finding out later if it really is best.

[solardreamer]

One comment regarding TOU rate plans for solar owners, if you have solar *and* EV charging at night regularly then the EV-A rate plan is likely the better choice since the off-peak rates are still much lower than E-6 or ETOU even with the new rate changes.

It seems PG&E is changing rates more frequently. There was just a rate change on Jan 1. I hope it does not become a trend. On the other hand, it does mean the payback period for my solar is getting shorter.

Couple interesting links here for anyone exploring solar in PG&E territory, residential rate changes and options for TOU (time-of-use) rates. Kinda complicated, need
spread sheets and an hourly usage analysis of one's PG&E usage (interval data export from PG&E website) to sometimes tell which of the various TOU options
will be the better choice for someone going solar

....but in general, switching to the E6 TOU existing PG&E time-of-use rate is a good idea for many people
planning to go solar before it's phased out as an option on May 3rd of this year -- which you can do even if it's before you go solar -- because after May 3, 2016 if
you go solar it's MANDATORY that you go to a time-of-use rate with PG&E, and the new ETOU time-of-use rates proposed by PG&E will likely NOT be quite as good
for many customers compared to today's option of E6 time-of-use rates.......

1) E-6 TOU rate originally was going to be closed to new customers starting March 1, 2016. Now PG&E customers, whether solar yet or not, can select E6 TOU as their
rate up until May 3, 2016.....but if you wait to select a TOU rate after May 3rd, you'll only have options of the new ETOU A or B rates -- see # 2.
E-6 is good for solar if system is sized large enough since in summer peak hours are 1 - 7pm, many of those hours solar net exporting at the peak rate of 34c/kWh
So, even if you're not getting solar installed until after May 3, 2016, it might be worth it via PGE website to switch to E6 NOW in case that ends up being the best
rate for you once you go solar, since you WON"T have this option after May 3, and you an always switch away from E6 at any time in the future....

https://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_4797-E.pdf

2) In the second PG&E link, the new increased rates for standard E1 residential rates are shown starting March 1 (Pg 50)....Top tier going up to 37c/kWh from 34c/kWh!!!
--E6 time of use schedule shown on pg 55
--New ETOU A and B rates shown starting on page 80

https://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_4795-E.pdf

The big complaint on new time of use rates proposed by PG&E / CPUC is that the peak window is 3-8pm or 4-9pm instead of the 1-7pm of E6 TOU, so the window to
get peak credits for your solar if it's exporting is much smaller, and it goes later so you're paying more to use power later when solar is not producing.
The upside and what makes new ETOU rates not SO terrible, is that in the summer the peak and off peak rates are 40c/kWh and 32c/kWh respectively, so for exporting
solar in the summer, it averages out to similar to E6 peak rate of 34c/kWh 1-7pm. But still not as good as E-6 because you're paying peak rates later into the evening.

AND, the new ETOU not good that Summer peak season is only 4 months -- June 1 to Sept 30th - instead of E6 TOU 6 months May 1 to October 30th, which is another thing good about going with the current E6 TOU

One thing that makes the new ETOU A not AS bad is if your solar is sized large enough to leave you with less than Tier 1 baseline usage, or max about 300 kWh/month net
used from the utility....because these rates have what's called a "baseline" credit for power used from the utility each month, but only up to baseline amount used in that month.
So any peak amount used in the summer brings rate down from 40c kWh to 28.6c/kWh billed for net usage (that's the 11.6c/kWh baseline credit in play)....and summer off peak goes down from 32.6c/kwh to 21c/kWh (with the 11.6c/kWh credit)

The ETOU B rate -- Summer 35.6c/kWh peak 4-9pm; 25.3c/kWh off peak, but no baseline credits -- is generally better than ETOU A IF you can only have a solar array offsetting a lower amount of your utility usage, since their are no Tiers, you'd avoid going way up into the higher 3 and 4 Tier rates you'd have in a normal rate schedule, again for a solar system that's not able to
offset a large enough chunk of your power usage.

[cebury]

One comment regarding TOU rate plans for solar owners, if you have solar *and* EV charging at night regularly then the EV-A rate plan is likely the better choice since the off-peak rates are still much lower than E-6 or ETOU even with the new rate changes.

It seems PG&E is changing rates more frequently. There was just a rate change on Jan 1. I hope it does not become a trend. On the other hand, it does mean the payback period for my solar is getting shorter.

One thing I've learned from analyzing the handful of family/friends GreenButton usage and how solar would impact the payments based on the available rate plans is that my generalizations were quickly disproven, even without obvious factors. The "it just depends" disclaimer applied more so than I expected. We have an EV used daily but E6 is much better than EV plan for us and e1 was only 6% more. In reality, it's a smaller EV and the commute is only 3mi one way. Our "EV used daily" is different than a tesla owners commute 45mi one way like my brothers. The mere fact of running our AC more during daytime hours in summer changed the entire profile.

Guess I'll need to look into these new plans soon.

And if you look I think pge changed just the nonTOU res electric rate plans 5 times in 2014 and 3 times in 2015. It's already set to change again mar 1, fun fun.

[solardreamer]

Your situation does not benefit much from nightly charging which is why I said "EV charging at night regularly". Your situation can probably get away with charging less than once a week. What is the EV percentage of your total monthly electric consumption? I assume it's very low. Mine is 30-40% so EV-A is much better.

One thing I've learned from analyzing the handful of family/friends GreenButton usage and how solar would impact the payments based on the available rate plans is that my generalizations were quickly disproven, even without obvious factors. The "it just depends" disclaimer applied more so than I expected. We have an EV used daily but E6 is much better than EV plan for us and e1 was only 6% more. In reality, it's a smaller EV and the commute is only 3mi one way. Our "EV used daily" is different than a tesla owners commute 45mi one way like my brothers. The mere fact of running our AC more during daytime hours in summer changed the entire profile.

Guess I'll need to look into these new plans soon.

And if you look I think pge changed res electric rate plans 5 times in 2014 and 3 times in 2015.

[J.P.M.]

One thing I've learned from analyzing the handful of family/friends GreenButton usage and how solar would impact the payments based on the available rate plans is that my generalizations were quickly disproven, even without obvious factors. The "it just depends" disclaimer applied more so than I expected. We have an EV used daily but E6 is much better than EV plan for us and e1 was only 6% more. In reality, it's a smaller EV and the commute is only 3mi one way. Our "EV used daily" is different than a tesla owners commute 45mi one way like my brothers. The mere fact of running our AC more during daytime hours in summer changed the entire profile.

Guess I'll need to look into these new plans soon.

And if you look I think pge changed just the nonTOU res electric rate plans 5 times in 2014 and 3 times in 2015. It's already set to change again mar 1, fun fun.

FWIW, I've got a fair amount of respect for someone who can objectively criticize their own work, modify it and move forward. I've found that rate analysis and necessary "what if/when maybe" scenarios often do not initially play well together until I stumble across some assumption(s) I made that don't flush when compared to actual bills. Sometimes I'll start w/ an existing bill and back calculate it, looking for clues to where I messed up.

[MarkH180]

There is some nice information here, thanks for posting. A couple comments:
1) The idea that new NEM customers *must* take TOU after May 3, 2016 is new to me, and is not supported by anything I can find in either of the linked documents. Although this might be roughly true for SDG&E customers, because the NEM 1.0 cap is expected to be reached around then, PG&E progress toward the cap has been slower and it should not be reached until much later in the year. As I understand it, the requirement to take a TOU tariff should only apply to those who interconnect under the recently approved NEM 1.1, which comes into play after the cap or July 1, 2017 deadline is reached.
.

Good correction Solar Dreamer and good clarification: for homeowners in the process of investigating solar and those who have already gone solar:

--New customers going solar in PG&E territory are only required to go on a TOU (time-of-use) rate schedule after PGE reaches the NEM 1.0 cap or Jan 1, 2017, whichever is sooner
(Correcting my error.....you are right that it is NOT true that NEM customers must take TOU after May 3, 2016).

Summary of these items here on page 3 of the CPUC "DECISION ADOPTING SUCCESSOR TO NET ENERGY METERING TARIFF"
http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDoc.../157960987.PDF

--PGE tracks their progress as to how close they are to the NEM 1.0 "CAP" before they'll switch over to the new NEM program at the link below, the point at which TOU rates will be *required* for new NEM customers.
It shows that there are 536 MW left of new solar capacity before they reach the cap....We can only guesstimate since for January PG&E received 65 MW of new solar NEM applications, that
the NEM cap might be reached in 9-10 months from now, or sooner if the rate of new applications accelerates. Or NEM will automatically kick in Jan 1, 2017 if cap hasn't been reached by then.
http://www.pge.com/en/mybusiness/sav...ing/index.page

What does this mean for current or future solar homeowners? :

1) Long term, it's a bonus if you can get installed and interconnected with PG&E before they reach the NEM 1.0 CAP (sometime later this year most likely).
A very rough idea is that a solar customer in the new NEM program will probably pay an extra $5 to $10/mo in new "non-bypassable fees", which is not a huge deal, but a nice bonus if you can avoid those fees for many years to come if you go solar before the NEM change. There will also be a one-time $75 to $150 charge to become a NEM solar customer as part of the application process. Given solar company lead times get longer sometimes 6 weeks+, (and much longer lead times for the big lease companies) , and demand gets higher in the "sunny" months (human nature when the sun's out!), if you can get to a comfortable decision point before the change, you'll be better off.

2) TOU (time-of-use) rates in general
a) E6 TOU is a good rate option for MANY people who go solar....Since this rate is being phased out altogether on May 3, 2016, whether you've gone solar already or not, or even if you're not planning to go solar for another year, it's good to go to PG&E website below and see the effect if you want to switch over to E6 before the May 3rd date. actually pretty accurate displaying annual cost for your home depending on which rate you choose (E6 Time-Of-Use being one of the options)

http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/saveene...ans/index.page

If you create or login to your own PG&E account, the page will display all the rate options available to you now as a PG&E customer and it's actually pretty accurate displaying what the annual cost of each rate plan option would be to you. Try it it's fun! ha, ha. The estimated cost for each rate option for your particular home is based on your last 12 months of actual usage, factoring in your usage level in 15-minute intervals Smart Meter data. For some people it actually works out that even without solar, based on their last 12-month usage pattern, they may pay a little LESS to PG&E if they choose E6 TOU plan instead of the standard E1 plan which is based only on how much total power you use in the month, the more power you use, the more per kWh they charge you during the month, without different rates for what time of day you use the power.

3) So your choices at this time in PG&E territory (going solar or not) are / summary / my interpretation / opinion:

a) Staying on E1 residential tiered rate, E6 time-of-use rate, and soon new time-of-use rates ETOU rates will be rolled out sometime March 1st or later as additional options for a homeowner. For most people going solar, the E6 TOU works out to be a little better than these new ETOU rates or the standard E1 tiered residential rate, which is why it's good to consider your possibility of switching to E6 TOU before it completely gets phased out on May 3rd. Also, as others are mentioned, the PG&E EVA plug-in electric vehicle rate is very beneficial for people who have or get a plug-in electric or hybrid car and it works VERY well with solar, even better than E6 TOU for most people, since there are no tiers, based only on peak vs. off-peak TOU usage. Good to know you have that as option if you get a plug-in car, you can switch to or stay on this EVA rate if you have a plug-in and go solar at some point.

b) If you go solar after PG&E reaches the NEM 1.0 Cap, let's say roughly 9-10 months from now or could be a little sooner, you'll pay very roughly $5 to $10/mo in extra fees compared to todays NEM program in CA, and, you must go on to one of the new PG&E ETOU rates coming out as time-of-use options shortly. Or you'll be able to stay on your E6 TOU if you're already on it (option to get on E6 closing May 3, 2016), and you'll be able to stay on the E6 TOU for 5 yrs through 2022, when even then it will be phased out and completely replaced by the new TOU solar rates at that time......


Clear as mud, right?

[brainplanet]

As someone who is going solar with PG&E in the next couple months, I just want to thank you for bringing this to my attention!

[J.P.M.]

4) With respect to calculating the cost-effectiveness of E-6, the approach suggested by J.P.M. is a good start, but ultimately incomplete.

Of course it's incomplete. Never meant to imply otherwise, which is why I added the "at least initially" part, and why what I wrote was meant as a serving suggestion and not a 7 course meal where elephant is the main course.

[Steve C]

I know it's been mentioned in prior posts, but PGE customers choosing to go to the TOU program Have the option to switch back if the program proves not to be as economical as they had hoped. Not trying it just seems silly.

[J.P.M.]

I know it's been mentioned in prior posts, but PGE customers choosing to go to the TOU program Have the option to switch back if the program proves not to be as economical as they had hoped. Not trying it just seems silly.

True, but part of this conversation is about ways, means and hassles of finding the best rate plan. Because one seems to be more economical than whatever plan someone was on does not make it the most economical plan. I'm not sure continuous plan switching or fishing is allowed. If so, fine. If not, some homework will be necessary for optimization.

[Yaryman]

True, but part of this conversation is about ways, means and hassles of finding the best rate plan. Because one seems to be more economical than whatever plan someone was on does not make it the most economical plan. I'm not sure continuous plan switching or fishing is allowed. If so, fine. If not, some homework will be necessary for optimization.

You can sign up for PG&E E-6 and then opt out later. You can't get back in.

Logic tells us, if PG&E won't let you back in E-6, then E-6 is most likely advantageous for the customer.

[J.P.M.]

You can sign up for PG&E E-6 and then opt out later. You can't get back in.

Logic tells us, if PG&E won't let you back in E-6, then E-6 is most likely advantageous for the customer.

If I read their website correctly, advantageous or not, E-6 is closing 03/01/2016 as allowed by the CPUC and rate reform. That's why you won't get back in. If you make the cutoff, Once you're in E-6, you can stay until 2022 w/ some changes to the peak times that shift to later in the day, similar to the new TOU plans.

Like the other CA IOU POCOs, PG & E's tariffs ETOU - A or ETOU-B shift peak times to later in the day for reasons that look like a screw job to residential solar, and from the POCO's view, their way of sending "price signals" to customers in an attempt to help load leveling, etc.

In the recent rate reform, Solar interests got a lot of what they wanted. IMO, the sneaky part t - that was not talked about much - was the unclear future and lack of guidance about T.O.U time periods either for duration or location on a clock. I'm OK with shifting times around as an aid to load management, but that could conceivably cause a shift to a peak time of, say, 5 P.M. to 11 P.M, I'd also note that since among the POCO's stated reason(s) for T.O.U. time shifting is to send "price signals", with no mention of larger credits to solar users for excess generation during what (were) peak times, thus allowing POCO's to deny any claims by solar interests that POCO's are out to screw them.

In any case, the current, or now old, and in any case changing net metering arrangement is something the POCO's would rather not have at all for good reasons or bad, depending on your view, and will do what's needed to maximize their profitability as best they can. It's nothing personal - it's just business.

[DanKegel]

Shifting peak period an hour later past sunset adds incentive for an hour of load reduction and/or storage. Eventually this will lead to TOU/battery status smarts in new dryers, water heaters, and HVAC systems, designed to transparently shift load to when power is cheap from the house's point of view. What a glorious, connected, fragile, hackable future!