Long story short, mid 2016 PG&E retired the E7 plan I’ve been on for 25+ years, offered me E6 and told me E6 has a limited lifespan, during which PG&E would change the E6 rules in their favor.
I became an unhappy E6 customer. So…. I purchased Solar.
I was under the impression that PG&E would annually “true-up” my KWh solar production against my PG&E KWh consumed. I was wrong.
Solar does not make KWh/electricity, Solar makes Money!
Every KWh Solar sends to the PG&E grid, results in a dollar figure in your “PG&E Piggy Bank”. You then use the money in this bank to pay your PG&E bill. The tally of how far ahead or behind you are, is shown on your monthly Energy Statement. On the annual birthday of your Solar going live, a process called True-up results in the dollar difference banked $ vs consumed $ being manipulated. If you owe PG&E money… pay up. If you still have money in the PG&E bank, tough you lose, you don’t get the amount you are ahead, you get $0.03-4 per KWh you overproduced. Why only $0.03-4, because that is what PG&E on average would have paid for a KWh on the open market.
So just how much is a Solar KWh really worth.
Short answer, the same as if you’d purchased one.
If your PG&E Rate plan costs you per KWh, $0.30 at 3pm on a Wednesday, you’d bank $0.30 for making one KWh at 3pm on a Wednesday.
So where is all this going……
If you choose the incorrect PG&E rate plan not only will you adversely affect the amount you’re paying for PG&E KWh consumed. You can adversely affect the dollars you bank for Solar produced KWh.
So….. Buy low, Sell high.
The PG&E website tools did not permit me the analysis required to make a rate decision. The PG&E tools needed 9 months of steady state Smart Meter usage data. That is, usage data where nothing changed on my account… like going Solar!
I found an IOS (iPad/iPhone) application “My PG&E Toolkit” for $8 that does analyze my data.
You do have to trust the app with your PG&E website login credentials. But after it loaded my history, I was able to analyze usage by day, month, bill, whatever you want.
I found out that for the 5 months prior to going Solar, I overpaid my PG&E bill by 20% due to my incorrect E6 rate plan selection. However if I’d let PG&E put me on the default ETOU-A, I would have overpaid 30%.
I’ve not corrected my selection just yet. E6 is closed to new users and if I leave E6 I can’t come back.
I’m going to wait for one more month of Solar/PG&E usage numbers, before I make my Rate selection.
Oh and the app does not yet take into account Solar NEM (v1 or v2) status. With NEM2.0 a surcharge of $0.02/KWh consumed is charged by PG&E above the rate plan cost. This could swing my numbers by as much as $15-20/month. Even with this margin of error, I believe this app will make my Rate selection easy and obvious.
Some of the PG&E rate plans have frighteningly high KWh costs during their peak hours. So much so that I thought I would never choose one. But selling Solar KWh during these peak times and consuming much of my KWh in the cheap overnight hours, has made these plans very attractive. One EV driving colleague has made the move even without Solar after using the Toolkit.
SUMMARY - Don't leave the money on the table. Take a careful look at how PG&E is billing your usage. EV's consume lots-o-juice and many PG&E plans are structured to deter high consumption.
Hope this helps
Barry
I became an unhappy E6 customer. So…. I purchased Solar.
I was under the impression that PG&E would annually “true-up” my KWh solar production against my PG&E KWh consumed. I was wrong.
Solar does not make KWh/electricity, Solar makes Money!
Every KWh Solar sends to the PG&E grid, results in a dollar figure in your “PG&E Piggy Bank”. You then use the money in this bank to pay your PG&E bill. The tally of how far ahead or behind you are, is shown on your monthly Energy Statement. On the annual birthday of your Solar going live, a process called True-up results in the dollar difference banked $ vs consumed $ being manipulated. If you owe PG&E money… pay up. If you still have money in the PG&E bank, tough you lose, you don’t get the amount you are ahead, you get $0.03-4 per KWh you overproduced. Why only $0.03-4, because that is what PG&E on average would have paid for a KWh on the open market.
So just how much is a Solar KWh really worth.
Short answer, the same as if you’d purchased one.
If your PG&E Rate plan costs you per KWh, $0.30 at 3pm on a Wednesday, you’d bank $0.30 for making one KWh at 3pm on a Wednesday.
So where is all this going……
If you choose the incorrect PG&E rate plan not only will you adversely affect the amount you’re paying for PG&E KWh consumed. You can adversely affect the dollars you bank for Solar produced KWh.
So….. Buy low, Sell high.
The PG&E website tools did not permit me the analysis required to make a rate decision. The PG&E tools needed 9 months of steady state Smart Meter usage data. That is, usage data where nothing changed on my account… like going Solar!
I found an IOS (iPad/iPhone) application “My PG&E Toolkit” for $8 that does analyze my data.
You do have to trust the app with your PG&E website login credentials. But after it loaded my history, I was able to analyze usage by day, month, bill, whatever you want.
I found out that for the 5 months prior to going Solar, I overpaid my PG&E bill by 20% due to my incorrect E6 rate plan selection. However if I’d let PG&E put me on the default ETOU-A, I would have overpaid 30%.
I’ve not corrected my selection just yet. E6 is closed to new users and if I leave E6 I can’t come back.
I’m going to wait for one more month of Solar/PG&E usage numbers, before I make my Rate selection.
Oh and the app does not yet take into account Solar NEM (v1 or v2) status. With NEM2.0 a surcharge of $0.02/KWh consumed is charged by PG&E above the rate plan cost. This could swing my numbers by as much as $15-20/month. Even with this margin of error, I believe this app will make my Rate selection easy and obvious.
Some of the PG&E rate plans have frighteningly high KWh costs during their peak hours. So much so that I thought I would never choose one. But selling Solar KWh during these peak times and consuming much of my KWh in the cheap overnight hours, has made these plans very attractive. One EV driving colleague has made the move even without Solar after using the Toolkit.
SUMMARY - Don't leave the money on the table. Take a careful look at how PG&E is billing your usage. EV's consume lots-o-juice and many PG&E plans are structured to deter high consumption.
Hope this helps
Barry