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PG&E TOU Plans

mrzuzzo said:
No because there is another plan in the works that will change the NEM rules + charge $70 for a connection fee to PG&E. So solar customers will be just as screwed by this rate hike and they are planning to make it retroactive to existing solar customers as well.
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That connection charge sounds ridiculous since my entire electricity and gas bill can be in the $70s. PG&E already charges plenty of fees without any usage.
 
Killroy1999 said:
That connection charge sounds ridiculous since my entire electricity and gas bill can be in the $70s. PG&E already charges plenty of fees without any usage.
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Just STFU and use 30% less resources so you can pay 20% more for them than you are currently.


:x
 
The solar is a bit of scam because they buy excess electricity back from you at a lower rate and then sell it back to you when you need it at a higher rate.
 
Climber said:
That's why you need a battery in your solar system.
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We all need our own generators, water collectors, motion detectors, NEST cameras, castles and moats. Welcome to post-modern civilization. Only thing missing are machine gun arrays. Or "LAZERS."
 
HappyHighwayman said:
The solar is a bit of scam because they buy excess electricity back from you at a lower rate and then sell it back to you when you need it at a higher rate.
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This is absolutely not the case.

Under current NEM they buy it from you at whatever the retail rate is then you buy electricity whenever you need it at the retail rate. So the rate you are paying depends on the plan you are on. They did some tricks to me by modifying my TOU times so my peak has shifted to evenings, but other than that we "pay" and get "paid" retail.

After true-up they should pay you at wholesale rate for all the excess that you generated.
 
mrzuzzo said:
The grid works like a giant battery. I have a battery (mostly for backup) but I can't see it being financially viable. I got it to replace a generator.
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It's not, but even if you have solar, if they shut down power in your area, you are without power along with everybody else, even if you have solar power getting generated, unless you have a battery in the system. At least that's the way all of the systems I've seen work.
 
mrzuzzo said:
This is absolutely not the case.

Under current NEM they buy it from you at whatever the retail rate is then you buy electricity whenever you need it at the retail rate. So the rate you are paying depends on the plan you are on. They did some tricks to me by modifying my TOU times so my peak has shifted to evenings, but other than that we "pay" and get "paid" retail.

After true-up they should pay you at wholesale rate for all the excess that you generated.
Click to expand...

A cheapskate guy in my band got solar a few years back. At the time at least, he claimed that he runs his dishwasher and laundry fairly late at night because the energy is cheaper. I guess he's selling it to them in the day but having to buy at night. I dont know if this is still true and whether having a battery makes a difference, unelss you wire things up so that you are running off-grid at night??? Do people do that, or is a battery not really enough to run a whole house?
 
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mrzuzzo said:
This is absolutely not the case.

Under current NEM they buy it from you at whatever the retail rate is then you buy electricity whenever you need it at the retail rate. So the rate you are paying depends on the plan you are on. They did some tricks to me by modifying my TOU times so my peak has shifted to evenings, but other than that we "pay" and get "paid" retail.

After true-up they should pay you at wholesale rate for all the excess that you generated.
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Thank you for correcting me!

Just sucks PG&E hates it customers. Sucks they privatize profits and spread the pain around. There is no way it should be publicly traded. They paid out BONUSES in the years they were fined billions...so they could "retain talent"...what talent?
 
HappyHighwayman said:
How come you got a free battery ?
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My panels produce surplus from 9am to about 5pm. PG&E is forced to give me credit for that excess, even though there is a glut of solar during that period. TOU updates mean they have a bigger window to charge me double when I start pulling power later in the day. Thing is, ALL consumers are paying that higher rate. Keep in mind, at 3pm PG&E probably pays $.03 per KW but the credits I rack up are worth 10x that

This is a regressive policy because people with money can buy solar and save. If the TOU adjustments cause trouble they can supplement a battery to their system to let them always target the low cost periods. It is a positive in the sense it promotes efficiency and helps flatten the curve. The regressive part is that lower income households will end up covering a good part of the subsidies

I remember hearing someone posting the issue in NV in the past. The power company basically reset their policy to limit the net metering benefit (aka free battery). They were allowed to do so because they were losing money.
 
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I know this is a mostly solar and usage discussion, but I live on the last hill of the Berkeley hills. It's windy 370 days a year, and especially this last few months have been incredible.

What about wind power? It's always blowing. Is it even feasible for residential or too noisy etc. I'd rather have a pole mounted windmill than solar and its maintenance issues.
 
It's really not that regressive. The homeowners are fronting the cost of the generation equipment and taking on the risk of maintaining it - something PG&E seems to fail at doing.

Low-income people have subsidies through PG&E as well, but you're making it sound like they are covering for the solar customers. Let's cancel those as well since PG&E is "losing" money there too, to be fair.
 
Bay Arean said:
I know this is a mostly solar and usage discussion, but I live on the last hill of the Berkeley hills. It's windy 370 days a year, and especially this last few months have been incredible.

What about wind power? It's always blowing. Is it even feasible for residential or too noisy etc. I'd rather have a pole mounted windmill than solar and its maintenance issues.
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They are inventing wobbling things that will generate power.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/bladele...echnology that,undergo beta testing in Europe.

Basically bladeless wind turbines
 
mlm said:
My panels produce surplus from 9am to about 5pm. PG&E is forced to give me credit for that excess, even though there is a glut of solar during that period. TOU updates mean they have a bigger window to charge me double when I start pulling power later in the day. Thing is, ALL consumers are paying that higher rate. Keep in mind, at 3pm PG&E probably pays $.03 per KW but the credits I rack up are worth 10x that

This is a regressive policy because people with money can buy solar and save. If the TOU adjustments cause trouble they can supplement a battery to their system to let them always target the low cost periods. It is a positive in the sense it promotes efficiency and helps flatten the curve. The regressive part is that lower income households will end up covering a good part of the subsidies

I remember hearing someone posting the issue in NV in the past. The power company basically reset their policy to limit the net metering benefit (aka free battery). They were allowed to do so because they were losing money.
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So how did you get a free battery?
 
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