SDG&E Net Metering TOU Plans

[J.P.M.]

If you want to make an informed choice it'll take a bit of work and it will always be an estimate based on projecting prior use onto future use and how rates and schedules will change in the future.

The easiest/easiest way to get as good a guess as possible without a lot of work is to use the SDG & E website and trust them and their methods to get a good result. See their website for details. They probably do something with their algorithms similar to what I've done but are a bit sketchy about sharing intermediate results.

The method I've developed gives a lot more information. Abstract: The steps I use involve spreadsheets, the green button SDG & E prior usage date, PVWatts and the tariff sheets as published by SDG & E.

I've got the method dialed in pretty good. Details if you want them, but be warned it's not for the feint of heart. Not conceptually difficult but to do it right forces people to learn more about electric rates, POCO pricing policy and other POCO minutia and their usage than they probably want to know.

FWIW, I compared my results with what SDG & E suggested and we came to the same conclusion. For me that conclusion is, at this time changing to any T.O.U. plan would cost me $$. So, I'm on good old tiered rates schedule DR.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

[RichardCullip]

PugPower - I got my PTO from SDG&E in April 2019. Following the suggestion of my install company (San Diego County Solar) I chose the TOU-DR plan. They were able to evaluate my historic electric use from the Green Button data I gave them and ran my usage and expected solar production thru various SDG&E rate plans. Their conclusion was that the TOU-DR plan was best for my situation. At 12 LG335 panels with a SolarEdge invertor my system is smaller than yours. So far the system performance is running ~15% above the forecasted performance and my SDG&E bill is accumulating at the minimum monthly rate ($0.338 per day). About half of my bill is the NBC charges and the other half is the Minimum Monthly Charge. My Off-Peak and Super-Off Peak solar production more than offsets the On-Peak demand that I pull from the grid so I am currently accumulating more credits than I am using. This was an intentional design decision as I anticipate purchasing an electric vehicle in 2020 and wanted the spare solar capacity to cover the increase in future demand.

[SunEagle]

Hello PugPower and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

I can't help you with your questions but I can say that I am happy I don't pay more than $0.11/kWh for my electricity. I wish you luck with your new system and hope you get set up on the best plan you can.

[PugPower]

I took the plunge and purchased a 6.7kw system for my roof consisting of 20 LG 335w panels with optimizers and a SolarEdge SE6000H inverter. Just passed the city inspection yesterday and am waiting for the PTO from SDG&E. I am still on a tiered rate structure so I have to pick a TOU plan or they will automatically move me to the default DR-SES rate for solar users. After reviewing all the plans and doing some research it seems to me that the TOU-DR plan is better for net-metering solar customers without battery than the DR-SES plan. The TOU-DR plan only has three time periods: On-Peak $0.46, Off-Peak $0.40, & Super Off-Peak $0.35 and since the difference between on-peak and off-peak is only $.06 it seems to be more cost effective than the DR-SES plan in which the difference between On-Peak $0.54 and Off-Peak $0.30 is about $0.24. Using the TOU-DR plan you would have to generate less during off-peak to off-set your on-peak use when you are pulling from the grid compared to the DR-SES plan. Also the TOU-DR plan is tiered, so if you stay in the 1st tier the prices will actually be about $0.10 less. If the system offsets 100%+ of your use the prices per kwh shouldn't really matter, it's more about trying to get the least differential between on and off peak prices.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?