SCE Capped My Export

[slinthicum]

I appreciate the "search feature" as it provides a way to gain insight into a specific question I'm thinking about, without creating a new thread.

[J.P.M.]

There is also the good vibes of helping reduce the climate crisis. Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m an American with a huge house, a pool, EVs, take vacations via a jet plane and almost every reason we have a climate crisis. Still, I feel better….

NOMB, but some would call that cognitive dissonance.

[Ward L]

I was on the tiered rate and I was advised to switch to the TOU tariff to improve my solar return. I see now u get 4 cents, or less, per kWh completely independent of whatever tariff you are on.

I understand the cost of over sizing your solar system. I still got a 7.2 year payback, which is about 6.5% tax free ROR. I also will add a second EV in a year. There is also the good vibes of helping reduce the climate crisis. Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m an American with a huge house, a pool, EVs, take vacations via a jet plane and almost every reason we have a climate crisis. Still, I feel better….

[J.P.M.]

What Ward L The solution, ironically could be to change consumption, as counter intuitive as that may sound.

Well, that may be about the only solution left after oversizing an array. One other one (albeit after the fact) might be to be aware of how the rate/tariff game is run by the POCO before oversizing an array or a system, or at least knowing what some of the consequences - including financial - of oversizing an array might be.

If by changing consumption you mean increasing it to burn up the excess production, that could have been avoided with a little up front homework/education. Seems to me to miss the point of getting PV to save on electric bills.

[Ampster]

What Ward L is referring to is the low payout rate for excess production. This is standard for most California NEM agreements. If I recall the rate is based on wholesale electric rate which is about $0.04 cents per kWh.

You do not need to wait for your true up to estimate what it is. Just do the math based on excess kWhs. It is different than the production cap but the dollar result may be that you do not get value for over production. The solution, ironically could be to change consumption, as counter intuitive as that may sound.

[Ward L]

An update: I have been on TOU-A rate which allowed me to export electricity at a very high retail price/value. When my 12 month period was complete, I had over $1,000 in energy credits. Of course I didn't get the $1,000 check in the mail. Like all of this rate stuff, it is hard to say how much I got back since it was spread out over 3 months, but it was maybe $100. Recently, SCE said I had to switch from TOU-A to another tariff. When I looked at the choices it showed how much of my 12-month energy charge I would forfeit under each tariff. Bingo! The TOU-A tariff had me forfeiting the most accumulated energy charge (I forgot what the numbers were and now they are not available online)! All of the TOU tariff offers showed me forfeiting power and money I had sent back to the grid. I chose the tiered rate plan as it appeared to be the lowest cost plan for me. I was on a tiered plan for several years and switched to a TOU-A plan which was going to earn me more energy credits. Looks like the TOU energy credits do somehow get capped when it comes time to pay out the 12-month "relevant period" energy credits. I will be interesting to see if the tiered tariff pays out more. The crazy part is I won't find out until the end of my relevant period in May, 7 months away and it will be May 2023 before I have a full year of tiered rate plan! Whatever!

[azdave]

I wouldn't bet against such an event happening down the road.

Yup. Just like Demand Fees in Arizona used to only be applied to commercial accounts, you will now find them on residential bills as well.

[J.P.M.]

The message printed on the SCE bill is a mistake on their part. It was meant for businesses/commercial not residentials. I e-mailed my solar company representative, and they called SCE to verify. Silly SCE.. trying to cap our net generation...

I wouldn't bet against such an event happening down the road.

[willowpeak]

The message printed on the SCE bill is a mistake on their part. It was meant for businesses/commercial not residentials. I e-mailed my solar company representative, and they called SCE to verify. Silly SCE.. trying to cap our net generation...

[J.P.M.]

I called SCE and after 21 minutes of waiting to talk to the person that knew the answer, it required another 3 minutes to tell me the message on my bill was an error. All the bill numbers are correct and the only error is the "export is limited" statement. She said everyone on NEM at SCE got the same incorrect message. I asked if my export of electricity was limited in any way and she said no. Oopsie by SCE!

Thanks for the follow up. That really sounded weird to me.

But I would suggest your call does validate my opinion that even if it's a PITA, going to the source is the best way/place to get the correct answer.

As to where the screwup came from, maybe someone outside the organization is screwing with SCE's head as well as its users - a hack of some sort.

[eastside970]

Like some others, after a long wait and multiple tries, I too got through to the solar department at SCE and the guy confirmed that the message on the bill was done in error by SCE. Interesting because clearly they had this message created for something and I suspect it was one more attempt by SCE to reduce the amount of credit a customer can accumulate in any given defined period. I tend to have large credits due to living alone and controlling my electrical use, even though I never have my house uncomfortable to live in. This means I buy no electricity from SCE and the funding, despite the size, is all going toward SCE paying me and not the other way. I don't see where the utility can survive this unless they figure a way to bank and resell the power to other power providers across the country. SCE is simply a middle man and do not produce power, they buy it and resell it to the southern California communities. This business model is not sustainable if every new house (and many older homes) install solar.

[Ampster]

.. It is pretty clear what the future holds..

Yes, as mentioned earlier with SGIP grants they already have that in the PTO wording. My strategy is to do more self consumption to avoid running into that in the future. I don't have an SGIP grant but I am installing a hybrid inverter with more solar panels behind the meter to allow me to do more load shifting. I can limit my export to the kW allowed in my PTO and use the extra solar capacity to serve the house loads and charge the batteries. As an additional benefit I will have a reliable and quiet backup to get me through the frequent power outages in Northern California.

[BigJimmy626]

I called SCE and after 21 minutes of waiting to talk to the person that knew the answer, it required another 3 minutes to tell me the message on my bill was an error. All the bill numbers are correct and the only error is the "export is limited" statement. She said everyone on NEM at SCE got the same incorrect message. I asked if my export of electricity was limited in any way and she said no. Oopsie by SCE!

hahahahahaha! I swear... but if this "accidently" got put on a bill.. I am sure the wording will be put there at some point in the future... It is pretty clear what the future holds..

Thanks for the follow up!

[Ward L]

I called SCE and after 21 minutes of waiting to talk to the person that knew the answer, it required another 3 minutes to tell me the message on my bill was an error. All the bill numbers are correct and the only error is the "export is limited" statement. She said everyone on NEM at SCE got the same incorrect message. I asked if my export of electricity was limited in any way and she said no. Oopsie by SCE!

[Ampster]

I guess I need to start charging the Tesla's during they day......

That is what I have concluded based on the erosion of NEM benfits over the past few years, I am referring to Non Bypassible Charges. The challenge is modulating the Tesla charging based on the output of the solar panels.