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  • Changing Anniversary date in NJ

    Long story short I got my system turned on on June 22nd. I had to wait about 7 weeks since my initial install until they swapped my meter to a Net meter.

    I had been looking for some advise in regards to having the option to change the anniversary date to the beginning of March. Likely enough my current production history compared with PWwatts shows that I will be producing 110-120% of my power needs and also after having a new efficient AC installed a few months ago.

    My questions are the following:

    1) Shall I change my Anniversary date to March 1st? It seems this is a one time option and there is no going back.

    2) It seems keeping allot of reserve power might not be worth the 4c or less per KWhr the Electric company pays you. That pretty much less on what they Change you for distribution per KWHR

    3) Do I need to declare the Anniversary date before it occurs? What is the process in New Jersey?

    4) Any good recommendations of using the excess energy? Maybe perhaps getting a portable radiant electric heater in the winter?

    Thanks

    Mike

  • #2
    Hi antiriad,

    Great questions. I'm also in NJ (JCP&L) and recently commissioned my system as well. GPE? Also waiting (only about 3 weeks now) for my Poco meter swap.

    I too was wondering if ti were possible to change my anniversary date. Was also thinking "just before heavy HVAC season" would be best to maximize self consumption and minimize export sell back at "year's end." March or April seemed like it might be best -- but I'm sure someone on this board has experience.

    I have no idea how to go about this in NJ (assuming it's possible) any may vary by Poco. Have you comfirmed the 4 cents per kWH? Is that JCP&L or PSE&G?

    Regrettably, the way the whole US net-metering system is setup, it seems, to advocate maximal consumption to ensure that you make the most of your PV production. Electric radiant energy (perfect for my cold basement), dehumidifiers, electric cars, extra Xmas lights, security / entrance lighting, pool pump, other ideas? Of course at the rate my kids and wife leave the lights and TV's on, I may not have any to spare (-:

    -Jonathan

    Comment


    • #3
      If trueup happens 1X/yr., then, assuming usage and generation don't change drastically year to year, it makes a small difference in when trueup happens. My goal on trueup date was to have it at the end of generation season. Logic: If the system overgenerated over the prior year, I'd have I'd have a small (?) payment from the POCO and no bill, and if undergeneration, paying at the end of a production season after most of the undergeneration has taken place. Then, during and following low generation season into high generation season, I'd get to kite the bill for the use of the power from low generation season all the way through high generation season, not paying for it until low season was long gone. In the end, unless other considerations like SRECs are involved, the only difference the trueup date may have is to allow a POCO customer the ability to delay payment for use by a bit, if an undergenerator, but get payment a bit sooner if an overgenerator. For the small difference a date makes, it's probably more worthwhile to spend the time in proper system design and not oversize than to worry about a date.

      Comment


      • #4
        Hmmm, when I first started thinking about this, I agreed with you (JPM) but the more I've learned and thought about it, at least in the state of NJ, I don't think this is the case.

        Here's why (I think):

        Every month, at the end of month, my Poco (JCPL) compares the production (kWh) value versus the consumption (kWh) value from my bi-directional meter. If production > consumption, the extra kWh get applied to my account (until the once annual anniversary date) as a potential future credit. In months where consumption > production, first any kWh credits on my account (at full retail value -- aka generation and transmission) are applied. If there are sufficient credits, to satisfy the imbalance, my monthly bill is still zero, and the number of kWh credits in the bank are reduced. If all of my credits get used up (or haven't been generated yet) each month I have to pay full retail price (aka generation and transmission) for the remaining deficiency of kWh. But here's the rub, any remaining banked kWh expire on your system anniversary date. And when they do expire, most Poco's in the US only pay you back a wholesale (not retail) price per kWh. So in my case this is like 4 cents versus 16 cents per kWh.

        So, the idea is that you want to set your system anniversary data such that it will correspond to a time of the year where you will have sufficient credits banked to cover all of your high demand times such that you'll be using banked credits to "pay" for the high demand, and that on the anniversary date all/most of your credits will be used up so you're not losing 12 cents per kWh (16-4=12 in my case). If your Poco gives you full retail credit on banked kWh then I agree with you that it shouldn't matter.

        In many discussions, I've seen it proposed that March/April might be best as an anniversary date. But the more I think about it, I'm thinking right at the end of the heavy HVAC season -- aka Oct/November might be better. In this way you would be carrying a lot of banked kWh into the next years Summer HVAC demand season.

        But, I've never actually seen anyone present any data to this effect, or try to overlay a PVWatts histogram with their consumption histogram to see where the balance point(s) hit.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by JSchnee21 View Post
          Hmmm, when I first started thinking about this, I agreed with you (JPM) but the more I've learned and thought about it, at least in the state of NJ, I don't think this is the case.

          Here's why (I think):

          Every month, at the end of month, my Poco (JCPL) compares the production (kWh) value versus the consumption (kWh) value from my bi-directional meter. If production > consumption, the extra kWh get applied to my account (until the once annual anniversary date) as a potential future credit. In months where consumption > production, first any kWh credits on my account (at full retail value -- aka generation and transmission) are applied. If there are sufficient credits, to satisfy the imbalance, my monthly bill is still zero, and the number of kWh credits in the bank are reduced. If all of my credits get used up (or haven't been generated yet) each month I have to pay full retail price (aka generation and transmission) for the remaining deficiency of kWh. But here's the rub, any remaining banked kWh expire on your system anniversary date. And when they do expire, most Poco's in the US only pay you back a wholesale (not retail) price per kWh. So in my case this is like 4 cents versus 16 cents per kWh.

          So, the idea is that you want to set your system anniversary data such that it will correspond to a time of the year where you will have sufficient credits banked to cover all of your high demand times such that you'll be using banked credits to "pay" for the high demand, and that on the anniversary date all/most of your credits will be used up so you're not losing 12 cents per kWh (16-4=12 in my case). If your Poco gives you full retail credit on banked kWh then I agree with you that it shouldn't matter.

          In many discussions, I've seen it proposed that March/April might be best as an anniversary date. But the more I think about it, I'm thinking right at the end of the heavy HVAC season -- aka Oct/November might be better. In this way you would be carrying a lot of banked kWh into the next years Summer HVAC demand season.

          But, I've never actually seen anyone present any data to this effect, or try to overlay a PVWatts histogram with their consumption histogram to see where the balance point(s) hit.
          Your situation sounds different than mine. At the end of any analysis, goal is to make the most use of gaming the system and that takes knowledge of how a particular choice of tariff works. If I was under your tariff, I might well come to the same conclusions as you have come to.

          Comment


          • #6
            Unfortunately, I cannot upload the nice Excel worksheet I made (tried xls, xlsx, and csv). Here's a PDF for what its worth.

            But I specifically compared my historical consumption with estimated production by month for each of 12 different anniversary dates (Jan=>Dec). With the goal of not having any months where my net kWh is negative (aka consumption > sum of production and banked kWh to date from the corresponding anniversary) -- since I would have to pay the difference during these months out of pocket at the retail rate.

            In the end, only February and March work for me. I suspect this would be similar for antiriad . If your interested, I can probable email the Excel file to you or try to put it up on GoogleDocs / Dropbox.

            This is a typical production curve for a 12.2kW system facing due South (175) in the Northern hemisphere (using the SolarEdge Site Designer 2 software). I have natural gas heating, so principle electrical demand is Summer (June => Sept) air conditioning.
            Attached Files

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by JSchnee21 View Post
              Unfortunately, I cannot upload the nice Excel worksheet I made (tried xls, xlsx, and csv). Here's a PDF for what its worth.

              But I specifically compared my historical consumption with estimated production by month for each of 12 different anniversary dates (Jan=>Dec). With the goal of not having any months where my net kWh is negative (aka consumption > sum of production and banked kWh to date from the corresponding anniversary) -- since I would have to pay the difference during these months out of pocket at the retail rate.

              In the end, only February and March work for me. I suspect this would be similar for antiriad . If your interested, I can probable email the Excel file to you or try to put it up on GoogleDocs / Dropbox.

              This is a typical production curve for a 12.2kW system facing due South (175) in the Northern hemisphere (using the SolarEdge Site Designer 2 software). I have natural gas heating, so principle electrical demand is Summer (June => Sept) air conditioning.
              Thanx for the offer, but I've probably got similar stuff and I think I understand what your writing even if I can't see the sheets. As long as you get something that's a reasonable facsimile to reality, points in mostly a direction that confirms what's going on, and correctly reflects how the tariff and NEM policies of your POCO wind up billing you, that's probably about as good as necessary. This ain't rocket science.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by JSchnee21 View Post
                Unfortunately, I cannot upload the nice Excel worksheet I made (tried xls, xlsx, and csv). Here's a PDF for what its worth.

                But I specifically compared my historical consumption with estimated production by month for each of 12 different anniversary dates (Jan=>Dec). With the goal of not having any months where my net kWh is negative (aka consumption > sum of production and banked kWh to date from the corresponding anniversary) -- since I would have to pay the difference during these months out of pocket at the retail rate.

                In the end, only February and March work for me. I suspect this would be similar for antiriad . If your interested, I can probable email the Excel file to you or try to put it up on GoogleDocs / Dropbox.

                This is a typical production curve for a 12.2kW system facing due South (175) in the Northern hemisphere (using the SolarEdge Site Designer 2 software). I have natural gas heating, so principle electrical demand is Summer (June => Sept) air conditioning.
                Thanks for posting, this is quite useful(A dropbox Link would be useful). Just looking at the Chart it seems that changing your anniversary date to March 1st or even February 1st makes sense since(as you already pointed) you will be able to store extra KWhrs for March-April-May all the way to Mid June. Then again you might might be able to store some KWhrs in Mid September-October. In my case since my system was turned up on last week of June I only have about 170KWhrs overproduction as of now thanks to my AC running 1/2 of the time it was running last year and also being more efficient.

                I would personally go for March as Anniversary Day since we almost always get some snow storms in February time in NJ and solar production could be severely compromised for a week due to to snow on the Panels.


                Here is what my System Production would look like using PVWATTS as a reference for Data: http://tinypic.com/r/1ot6ax/9

                Thanks again for sharing this useful Info.
                Last edited by antiriad; 07-12-2017, 10:36 AM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Hi Antiriad,

                  Thanks, my pleasure. It was fun and I was wondering the same thing. See if this dropbox link works for you:

                  https://www.dropbox.com/s/jzr128eqqe...Date.xlsx?dl=0

                  My firewall at work is blocking your PVWATTS link, but I'll check it out at home.

                  Yes, I'm thinking March-ish. I agree managing the snow (and Christmas light demand which is not in my current usage profile for Dec/Jan) is pushing me away from Feb. My solar company, Green Power Energy in Annandale, NJ also recommended March/April. They said you can just contact your Poco to request the change in the Fall.

                  -Jonathan

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by antiriad View Post

                    Thanks for posting, this is quite useful(A dropbox Link would be useful). Just looking at the Chart it seems that changing your anniversary date to March 1st or even February 1st makes sense since(as you already pointed) you will be able to store extra KWhrs for March-April-May all the way to Mid June. Then again you might might be able to store some KWhrs in Mid September-October. In my case since my system was turned up on last week of June I only have about 170KWhrs overproduction as of now thanks to my AC running 1/2 of the time it was running last year and also being more efficient.

                    I would personally go for March as Anniversary Day since we almost always get some snow storms in February time in NJ and solar production could be severely compromised for a week due to to snow on the Panels.


                    Here is what my System Production would look like using PVWATTS as a reference for Data: http://tinypic.com/r/1ot6ax/9

                    Thanks again for sharing this useful Info.
                    Whatever you do, I'd suggest making sure you understand the POCO policies you'll be working under.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      New to this forum. I had my system installed in Deptford Nj last year, came online in August 2016. My anniversary month was automatically set to this July so I saw that PSEG Trued up my account, over 1900 kwh's. Normal purchase cost of each Kwh is 18 - 19 cents with the non delivery part around 13 cents. The wholesale price they give is 3 cents / kwh (OUCH). Spoke to them today, they will "return" those Kwh to my account as a full credit & allow me a 1 time reset of my month. This year I hit the lowest "banked" Kwh's of 90 at the end of January so I will set that as my anniversary month. February I generated an excess of 241 Kwh and it went up from there through June. July thru Sept and Dec/Jan I use more than I generate so I don't want to "cash out" now. I am looking into buying a plug in hybrid car so I will start using those excess hours. From what I see they true up at the end of the anniversary month so they should take the Feb 1 reading then true up my account. Does this sound right to you?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Welcome Indept,

                        Yes, for those of us with fairly normal usage patterns (more electric consumption over the summer months due to air conditioning) which more or less aligns with the solar insolation / PV production curves (aka more production April - Sept), early spring is often the best time to set the system anniversary date. This is generally the month of March, but individual production and usage patterns may shift this by a month or two (aka Feb - April).

                        It sounds like you have sufficient historical data to make a good call. But your principle is exactly right. You want to set your anniversary month such that you "cache" sufficient kWh in the Spring to "ride out" the summer months and the rest of the year to keep your net kWh balance in the black. But then, obviously, you want to have "spent down" all/most of your kWh net metering credits right before your anniversary date (as the wholesale conversion is painful).

                        Are you managing your NJ SREC generation and sale in GATS yourself, or is your install handling this. Be sure to sell your 2015/16/17 SREC credits before the prices fall even further.

                        Also, if you think you might run the risk of falling into the red in any one month from time to time (especially after your get the EV), be sure to shop around for the best generation cost per kWh from your PoCo or 3rd party supplier. I'm seeing ~7 to 8 cents per kWh for generation from 3rd party suppliers for ~12-36 month contracts in most cases. My township has an aggregate energy purchase agreement I can opt into (as a resident) which will be 7.6 cents per kWh (generation) starting this Dec for the next 24 months.

                        Best,
                        Jonathan

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Thank you for the reply Jonathan. As far as SREC's I decided to use SRECTrade to sell my credits. they charge 7% commission and I am not tied to them but I don't have the time now to track prices so it's working for me right now. Have you seen any indication of how far prices will drop? It doesn't surprise me with all of the companies out there offering "free" leases in exchange for your roof space and here in Deptford there is an old landfill, long closed, that is covered with acres of panels pumping out energy. I bought my system so I do reap the benefits and am enjoying $2.43 monthly electric bills.When you mentioned 7.6 cents per Kwh generation are you talking about your cost to purchase or is that a higher wholesale rate for you to true up with?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            There is a bill that passed the NJ Senate and is now in the NJ Assembly that would increase the solar carve-out in NJ which in theory should increase the SREC prices: https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A3918/2016/

                            I'm sure it will be forever before this gets signed into law.

                            I'm personally going to use http://www.njsrec.com/ as they seem to be have the best prices around. Waiting for my system to get approved in GATS.
                            https://pvoutput.org/list.jsp?userid=59404

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