Coming Soon to NJ - 12.35 kW Hanwha DUO-G5 + SolarEdge Inverter/Optimizers by GPE

[NJturtlePower]

In my case, since my billing date is also the last day of the month, the person I spoke to advised setting February as the anniversary month, since theoretically February should be more likely to be a deficit generation month and March would be likely to be a surplus month, so I should thus avoid getting cashed out for watthours I'll be using in AC months

So after these exchanges about anniversary trueup dates and realizing my mistake of not taking my billing date in consideration I was a bit nervous and I actually called JCP&L back about 6-hours after my initial request.

The agent checked the system and said it looks like the request was already fulfilled, but that she would put in a request for February and would call me back the next day with the outcome either way. Well that next day passed, as well as the weekend, with no word at which point I figured, oh well it's a done deal, I'm locking in for March FOREVER.

BUT to my complete surprise, I received a call back this Tuesday from the same woman who took my followup request CONFIRMING my official change to February!!!. Really happy that not only they could accommodate my secondary request, but also that somebody actually followed through and got back to me...rare these days, so big thumbs up to JCP&L.

March will most likely be a surplus solar production month for me, so glad I was able to roll my date back and avoid any wholesale credit buyouts.

Last March 2019 I was billed for 784 kWh's and my estimated solar production for that period this year is 1.379MWh which SHOULD start my solar bank off to a good start.

[bcroe]

Certainly optimum trueup is going to depend on the PoCo payment plan, and the time relation
between your usage and generation. If you are trading KWH back and forth for the same $
amount either way, trueup time will not change the annual total.

Here I get nothing for surplus KWH, I pay full rate once my surplus is gone. Since I generate
all my surplus KWH in summer and consume them mostly for heat in winter, my best trueup
time will be just as winter ends and I just start to build another summer surplus. Bruce Roe

[sunpoweredev]

On trueup dates/time of year:

To keep things focused, assume annual PV generation and annual usage stay constant year over year, that is, generation and usage for any billing period is the same for similar billing periods one year to the next. All Jan. usage for example, never changes one year (or maybe even one day) to the next, but is different from Dec. or Feb. That's what most preliminary PV modeling does anyway with annual variations and their effects considered after preliminary sizing is done.

1.) If you have system sized such that annual generation exactly matches annual usage, when trueup takes place in the annual cycle will make no difference. What you gain or lose based on when in the annual cycle any month/month variations in generation or usage may occur, you'll get back or pay for the following year.

2.) If you have a system that generates more in any 365 days than you use in 365 days, and without getting off topic about how economically inefficient and counter productive that is, you'll want any excess generation payments to occur at as close to when the running net excess usage in the 365 day cycle is at, or close to, its maximum. Also, after that trueup, you'll (probably ?) run less excess generation, and/or be in deficit, and either way, getting excess generation payments as close to when they accrue, even though they're a lousy ROI, will get them to you sooner. Basically, you'll have the use of the excess generation payments sooner.
That would put trueup close(r) to, or at the end of the excess generation season.

3.) If you have a system that generates less than you use, you'll want to get the most flexibility and use of what you'll pay at trueup by delaying payment of any net 12 billing period draw from the POCO for as long as possible. Call it an interest free loan. To do that, trueup should be as far into the future from when the most accrued POCO draw (and payment liability) occurs as possible.
That would most likely be at the beginning of the deficit season.

For many, maybe most climates or situations, 2 and 3 above may be at or close to the same times of year.

Regarding #1, my system output is supposed to match my annual consumption, but is averaged out over the year accounting for deficit and excess months, so it makes all the difference in the world when trueup takes places. IIRC by the end of October, I had ~700kWh banked, with my system coming online in early August. Just received this month's bill and I was billed >1000kWh because winter

I just called JCP&L to reset my anniversary to March, so they will get nothing from me

[J.P.M.]

On trueup dates/time of year:

To keep things focused, assume annual PV generation and annual usage stay constant year over year, that is, generation and usage for any billing period is the same for similar billing periods one year to the next. All Jan. usage for example, never changes one year (or maybe even one day) to the next, but is different from Dec. or Feb. That's what most preliminary PV modeling does anyway with annual variations and their effects considered after preliminary sizing is done.

1.) If you have system sized such that annual generation exactly matches annual usage, when trueup takes place in the annual cycle will make no difference. What you gain or lose based on when in the annual cycle any month/month variations in generation or usage may occur, you'll get back or pay for the following year.

2.) If you have a system that generates more in any 365 days than you use in 365 days, and without getting off topic about how economically inefficient and counter productive that is, you'll want any excess generation payments to occur at as close to when the running net excess usage in the 365 day cycle is at, or close to, its maximum. Also, after that trueup, you'll (probably ?) run less excess generation, and/or be in deficit, and either way, getting excess generation payments as close to when they accrue, even though they're a lousy ROI, will get them to you sooner. Basically, you'll have the use of the excess generation payments sooner.
That would put trueup close(r) to, or at the end of the excess generation season.

3.) If you have a system that generates less than you use, you'll want to get the most flexibility and use of what you'll pay at trueup by delaying payment of any net 12 billing period draw from the POCO for as long as possible. Call it an interest free loan. To do that, trueup should be as far into the future from when the most accrued POCO draw (and payment liability) occurs as possible.
That would most likely be at the beginning of the deficit season.

For many, maybe most climates or situations, 2 and 3 above may be at or close to the same times of year.

[sunpoweredev]

Hey, did you happen to reset your solar anniversary yet?

I just called JCP&L at the GPE provided number of 800-662-3115 and at the prompt was transferred to billing.

I stated I was calling to "change my solar interconnection month for purposes of net metering", and the agent was clearly aware of the nature of my call. She asked what month I would like and I stated March as recommended.

I'm assuming this annual solar review takes place on your typical meter reading date, but I don't know for a fact....maybe some of our local veteran members can confirm. I'm guessing March would mean at the end of the Feb. reading date to include the full March statement period.....

Anyways, I was given an official notification case number for reference and it seems like that's it, no other notification via mail or such as far as I was told. The request is sent to the appropriate department and the change is made.

Not yet. Since I'd have to actually speak to a live person I'm putting it off for as long as I can lol. Too accustomed to handling things online nowadays. I will call soon. My billing cycle ends early in the month, between the 2nd and 5th (not sure why it's not the same every month..) so when I call I can just say March.

I just reported December production, at just a bit over 1/3 my November production lol. Had a couple perfectly cloudless day here in the last week after my panels were completely cleared of ice and snow. Best case in late December is around 30kWh a day for me. Compare that to August which generated 1.7MWh for the month and a max of 76kWh a day. I'm usually not a summer person but now summer can't come soon enough.

Happy new year to all!

[JSchnee21]

Capture.JPG

[JSchnee21]

Looks like I missed the party, but I just wanted to chime in that originally, I too, had planned to set my Anniversary to March as GPE has recommended. But the more I looked at my usage and production patterns, it actually made more sense for me to set mine to Dec 31/Jan 1st. In my case, since my home is all natural gas, my main electric usage is HVAC April-October.

In 2019 my array offset approx 91% of my usage (System Production:12.34 MWh; Consumption:13.53 MWh).

Generally Feb-June I make more than I use. And in July-Jan, I use more than I make. I start banking MWh in Feb through June, that then carry me through October-ish. By Nov, all my banked credits are used up. Usually in Feb, I start banking for the next Summer.

If your arrays are inclined more than mine (mine's only 20%) then you'd make even more production in Winter than I do.

If I had set my Anniversary to March or April I would have missed that winter/early Spring production. Granted, it's not a lot of production, but I'd hate to "through it away" at wholesale rates.

[azdave]

Our annual reset is fixed at the fiscal year-end for my utility (April 30th) and there is no option to change it. That time of year is when we have the biggest reserve of the entire year (3000 kWh on average) and it's just as we enter the heavy summer cooling season. I would much rather use the banked energy than get wholesale value for it. By being mindful of the thermostat in the summer, we do make it though the entire year with no net billable energy but it would be nice to set the A/C a notch lower June-August.

[bcroe]

My reset is end of March. I could have used end of April, because I might need the
reserve from the previous summer to heat a couple buildings. However I have
been able to generate just enough energy to avoid buying any every April so far.
Bruce Roe

[jordgubbe]

In my case, since my billing date is also the last day of the month, the person I spoke to advised setting February as the anniversary month, since theoretically February should be more likely to be a deficit generation month and March would be likely to be a surplus month, so I should thus avoid getting cashed out for watthours I'll be using in AC months

[NJturtlePower]

That's correct. My billing cycle is on the 16th of each month so my anniversary date with JCP&L is March 16th.

Thanks for the data point!

My cycle ends about the last day of the month (30th or so) so I guess technically I could have used Feb. as my reset to capture all of March in my NEW solar year, but I doubt it'll matter much. As I understand, as long as you're using up all of your solar bank BEFORE the next solar year you won't be getting paid out either way so considering the low production of Dec-Feb I'm sure it won't be an issue in my case.

[macaddict]

I'm assuming this annual solar review takes place on your typical meter reading date, but I don't know for a fact....maybe some of our local veteran members can confirm.

That's correct. My billing cycle is on the 16th of each month so my anniversary date with JCP&L is March 16th.

[NJturtlePower]

I might as well call JCP&L now and reset my anniversary to March. Should it be on March 1st or April 1st? I'm guessing March 1st.

Hey, did you happen to reset your solar anniversary yet?

I just called JCP&L at the GPE provided number of 800-662-3115 and at the prompt was transferred to billing.

I stated I was calling to "change my solar interconnection month for purposes of net metering", and the agent was clearly aware of the nature of my call. She asked what month I would like and I stated March as recommended.

I'm assuming this annual solar review takes place on your typical meter reading date, but I don't know for a fact....maybe some of our local veteran members can confirm. I'm guessing March would mean at the end of the Feb. reading date to include the full March statement period.....

Anyways, I was given an official notification case number for reference and it seems like that's it, no other notification via mail or such as far as I was told. The request is sent to the appropriate department and the change is made.

[J.P.M.]

Looks like today is the last actually sunny day for December here in central NJ! PVWatts had estimated about 497kWh for this month and I'm probably on pace to only get to 325 or 350kWh if lucky (currently at 267kWh for the month). In November my production was 612kWh against PVWatts estimate of 567kWh.

For January the estimate says 576kWh and for Feb its 705kWh which I am having a hard time believing will get anywhere close to, especially Feb of only 28 days! Or maybe there is a higher concentration historically of clear days then and the days slightly longer then.

As the PVWatts help screens state, actual system production over any 30 day period will probably be ~ +/- 30 % of what the model comes up with.

FWIW, if I modify the PVWatts system loss parameter so that the model exactly matches my system's total output since 10/17/13, the (actual running 31 day system output)/(PVWatts modeled 31 day output for the same period) has max. and min. values of +30.23 % and -35.56%. The population std. dev. is 9.75 %.

The running 365 day actual totals are +5.30 % and -3.93 % of the PVWatts 365 day total, std. dev. is 2.22 %.

Your results will be different, but the ~ +/- 30% variation between model and actual over any 30 day period is to be expected.

Models are for system design. A model cannot predict system performance with any more reliability than the weather can be predicted more than a few days ahead.

For the same reasons that climate is easier to rely on than weather for long term planning, the longer the period of analysis, the closer and probably more accurate a model will get to a rough estimate of a system's output.

[njdealguy]

Looks like today is the last actually sunny day for December here in central NJ! PVWatts had estimated about 497kWh for this month and I'm probably on pace to only get to 325 or 350kWh if lucky (currently at 267kWh for the month). In November my production was 612kWh against PVWatts estimate of 567kWh.

For January the estimate says 576kWh and for Feb its 705kWh which I am having a hard time believing will get anywhere close to, especially Feb of only 28 days! Or maybe there is a higher concentration historically of clear days then and the days slightly longer then.