SDG&E Minimum Charge Adjustment Changed May 1st

[slinthicum]

Helps explain why I'm thankful for a true-up date that is in late January. Rather than over-produce, in December I start using electric space heaters resulting in reducing natural gas used for heating, and closely monitor use to eliminate the over-production. I don't know if it is possible, but you might want to see if you can change your true-up date and follow my suggestion.

[580guru]

I know this post is over a year old but my experience with my true-up bill for July 2024 and my call to SDGE billing might shed some light on what's going on.
I had a $3.15 credit balance from the previous month charges and was expecting to see some $50-60 after tru-up as I'm on NEM 2 EV-TOU2 and had overproduction of about 1100KWh for the year. First thing I saw was the wholesale rate for the payoff was only $0.0085 so my Excess generation credit was a whopping $9!
Additionally, there was a $51 minimum charge adjustment for this bill-- so I called to find out what new screw tool they're using on me. The solar billing specialist explained that because they had implemented some new billing system awhile back that for the few months this winter where I thought I had used enough Kwh to avoid being charged the minimum billing fee, at the end of the trueup they get to go back and add in the minimum billing charges for those months! So, instead of the ~$50 credit I was counting on to start off the new year--I owe them rat bastards $43! I can hardly wait for the next screwing.

[J.P.M.]

If it's an error it's an error in my favor as my bill is missing the $11.20 minimum charge (32 days @$0.35 per day). I just don't want to take the effort to point out a potential error to SDG&E when it might cost me money.

Thank you. Understood. I was not entirely surprised to find that the folks I've talked to at SDG & E are aware of this forum.

[RichardCullip]

NOMB, but aside from the idea that the small $ amount might not be worth the effort, why ?
FWIW, it might just be an error of some sort. Stranger things have happened.

If it's an error it's an error in my favor as my bill is missing the $11.20 minimum charge (32 days @$0.35 per day). I just don't want to take the effort to point out a potential error to SDG&E when it might cost me money.

[J.P.M.]

I've been hesitant to contact SDG&E for an explanation....

NOMB, but aside from the idea that the small $ amount might not be worth the effort, why ?
FWIW, it might just be an error of some sort. Stranger things have happened. They goofed up my reading a few years ago and used the schedule DR-SES (the std. T.O.U. schedule for residential w/a PV system), but I'm on tiered rates, schedule DR and NEM 1.0.
More FWIW, my Jan. 2023 bill was spot including the part of the bill with the 12/21/2022 rate increase.

[RichardCullip]

The rate sheets are more than a bit cryptic and a real PITA, but they have all the info needed (or will point you to where to find it) to calculate an SDG & E bill to within a penny or two. Been doing it for years.

.

I also have been doing it within a penny or two since moving to SDG&E territory in 2012. That is until my Dec 12th bill. For some unknown reason SDG&E did not apply a minimum charge adjustment so my bill for 32 days of service was only $8.43 The minimum charge adjustment line item is missing from my bill so I was effectively charged for just NBCs ($7.29), wildfire fund ($2.41) with a DWR Bond charge adjustment (-$1.27). I've been hesitant to contact SDG&E for an explanation....

[J.P.M.]

I I am not a net producer in most of days Dec so I only have 0.99 minimum charge in Dec. (not sure how to break the 0.99 to 3 days, then it's 0.33 per day).

FWIW:
120/yr. is/was the minimum charge.
$120/yr./365 days/yr. = $0.32877/day.

See the 3d from the last text entry under the Net Energy Metering Summary of your bill. The Jan. billing still showed the $0.32877 min. daily charge. I believe that was an error/oversight, because...........

As of 01/01/2023 that was raised to $0.38/day for some rate schedules such as DR, DR-SES and DR-TOU-2 (but not DR-TOU-5, probably because it already has a $16.00/mo. base charge). See tariff sheets for particulars. Google "SDG & E + current and effective tariffs" for details.

The rate sheets are more than a bit cryptic and a real PITA, but they have all the info needed (or will point you to where to find it) to calculate an SDG & E bill to within a penny or two. Been doing it for years.

Welcome to the real way to figure out a bill.

[zephyrn]

I got trueup in Dec last year and saw $73.44 minimum charge adjustment in the whole year. It added up since last May to Nov, the 7 month that SDGE started charge minimum without considering NBC. During those 7 months, I was net producer in most of days. I am not a net producer in most of days Dec so I only have 0.99 minimum charge in Dec. (not sure how to break the 0.99 to 3 days, then it's 0.33 per day).
I went to the same strategy to shift charging my PacHy during daylight instead of midnight to minimize NBC.

[CharlieEscCA]

FYI, when NBC started not counting against minimum adjustment, and my negative remaining credit got high enough where I felt safe, I started plugging out two plug in hybrid whenever we got home (daytime) and turned off overnight scheduled charging to reduce NBC - charge while I generate solar). My wife's van uses 11.7 kWh for her 29 mile range, and my car uses 7.8 kWh for my 34 mile range. For the last year, we did about 20,000 miles with about $700 of purchased gas. Helps the now retired budget expense wise.

[CharlieEscCA]

There's more craziness going on with the Minimum Charge Adjustment calculation. I just got my final bill of the 12 month true up period. I have a $25.92 Minimum Charge Adjustment for this single bill period - what's with that? There were 24 days in the period where daily minimum was $0.35, and nine days (January 2023) with daily minimum $0.38.

Min Charge Jan Bill.png

So is there a true up on the Minimum Charge adjustment?

Min Charge Full Year.png


I called the SDGE NEM department and the person's response was more or less this should have been a $127.xx amount for the year - to which I told him Non Bypassable charges counted against that until May 1, 2022.

Bottom line, not able to really make sense of this, and after two calls and 45 minutes, I think I'll just stop trying to figure it out.

FYI, here was the totals at my May 2022 bill - I was trying to see if I could figure out what was going on between May 1 and Jan 9 if the full daily min charge of .35 / .38 was applied. But again, nothing makes sense.

May Bill.png

Perhaps when others get a true up, they can post what happened on their bill.

[zephyrn]

Hello zephyrn and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

I would advise you not to include more then one web link in your post or to modify it right after posting. The Anti Spam software will send it to moderation and will have to be approved before it can be read.

Thanks for the note. I removed one link from my post.

[SunEagle]

Hello zephyrn and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

I would advise you not to include more then one web link in your post or to modify it right after posting. The Anti Spam software will send it to moderation and will have to be approved before it can be read.

[zephyrn]

I just created an account and can post now. This post triggered me to investigate why my SDGE bill have had increased minimum charge since May. I called SDGE and got an answer. There is a reddit discussion about it. https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comme...tion_resulted/
In short, SDGE changed the calculation method of min charge since May. They quoted a CPUC doc.

[ybitz]

I got my May bill and noticed this exact same thing about NBC not counting towards Minimum Charge Adjustment. I called SDGE and talked to their solar billing department and they were just as confused as I was in explaining the bill to me, and it wasn't until I read this post that it made sense. Was this change on May 1st publicized? I can't find any info about this online. Was this something that CPUC had authorized?

[Ampster]

SDG&E obscures that fact as they have recently changed that line item on their bills to read "Wildfire Fund Charge"

I think I have two wildrire funds with PG&E since they went into Bankruptcy recently because of wildfilre liabilities.. None of the details show on the bills and one has to drill down to the unbundled tarrifs to actually see the details The DRW Bond charge goes back to 2002 and I saw some reference that it did not apply to certain tiers for SDG&E, We are also paying for Nuclear decommissioning. The bond charge should be in its final years if I remember correctly,