Marc's Public Blog - Solar

2012/03/03 Dear PGE We Saved Electricity And You Owe Us $189

π 2012-03-03 01:01 in Solar

*update*: A PG&E employee contacted me after reading this blog, and basically he agreed that the current scheme isn't perfect. He actually said that we're getting creditted a bit too much because the credits do not account for their line transmission charges. I'll admit not fully knowing the gritty details between transmission line charges since I know I do pay a small flat fee for that per month, and by offetting my neighbour's load during high demand sunny hours, I should offload their transmission lines a little bit, but effectively he said that the credits are a little bit too high, which means that you just don't get paid when they get negative.
While I can see his point, I still don't full agree with that someone who makes more electricity than they make isn't compensated for time of use prices at all, but he also pointed out that it's difficult for people with solar to be fully compensated since they do not provide a contract and guarantee of production, like their other providers do.
All in all, it's kind of a mess and the current program isn't ideal, but it is better than nothing.

Dear PG&E,

I was good, I upgraded my server hardware to be more power efficient (old dual P4 Xeon to I3 2100T lower power CPU), spin down hard drives, and reprogrammed my mythtv to suspend and use virtually no power most of the time. This saved about 200W of 24/7 baseload. As a result, our true up bill went from -$38 for the year, to -$110.
So remind me, why is power not worth more when we have to pay for it than when you have to pay us back? Why are all my efforts to save power ending up with a further negative bill rewarded by a flat out $0 that we get back?

For the casual reader, the longer answer is in PGE Trueing Up Encourages Electricity Wasting. Eventually if I ever manage to save enough power, I might get a few dollars back, and PG&E will pocket about $150 of spread.

PG&E, you're supposed to encourage us to save electricity. Is it really smart to antigonize your greener customers with this unfair system?

Here's what you owe us so far:
.
Kwh used in the year Dollars Balance
.
2009-2010 1602 -$39.87
.
2010-2011 1209 -$38.8
.
2011-2012 674 -$110.43
.
.
Total Since Install 3485 -$189.1

And here is the full true up bill for 2011-2012:
.
2011-2012 Total (Kwh) FEB 2012 JAN 2012 DEC 2011 NOV 2011 OCT 2011 SEP 2011 AUG 2011 JUL 2011 JUN 2011 MAY 2011 APR 2011 MAR 2011
.
Summer Peak -752 -8 -14 -99 -153 -204 -171 -103
.
Summer Part Peak -622 -1 -100 -125 -130 -103 -114 -49
.
Summer Off Peak 810 69 195 117 125 164 86 54
.
Winter Peak 304 62 59 68 -2 -22 68 71
.
Winter Off Peak 934 217 132 301 112 24 -80 228
.
Total Kwh 674 279 191 369 170 81 -107 -158 -143 -199 -96 -12 299
.
Total $ -$110.43 $29.49 $20.11 $36.95 $14.85 -$1.75 -$35.68 -$50.11 -$55.62 -$62.67 -$34.76 -$0.28 $29.04

And here is 2010-2011:
.
2010-2011 Total (Kwh) FEB 2011 JAN 2011 DEC 2010 NOV 2010 OCT 2010 SEP 2010 AUG 2010 JUL 2010 JUN 2010 MAY 2010 APR 2010 MAR 2010
.
Summer Peak -762 0 -19 -124 -186 -156 -174 -103
.
Summer Part Peak -572 11 -78 -100 -151 -108 -107 -39
.
Summer Off Peak 1047 95 332 199 188 185 47 1
.
Winter Peak 354 68 78 78 18 -16 57 71
.
Winter Off Peak 1142 113 331 448 163 0 -28 115
.
Total Kwh 1209 181 409 526 287 235 -25 -149 -79 -234 -157 29 186
.
Total $ -$38.80 $17.89 $39.60 $51.27 $26.68 $11.61 -$34.95 -$62.18 -$32.44 -$44.34 -$26.49 $2.30 $12.25

And here is 2009-2010:
.
2009-2010 Total (Kwh) FEB 2010 JAN 2010 DEC 2009 NOV 2009 OCT 2009 SEP 2009 AUG 2009 JUL 2009 JUN 2009 MAY 2009 APR 2009 MAR 2009
.
Summer Peak -725 20 -60 -90 -151 -172 -173 -99
.
Summer Part Peak -531 -1 -60 -106 -112 -119 -113 -20
.
Summer Off Peak 1240 110 284 165 230 257 138 56
.
Winter Peak 301 76 72 77 -1 -9 63 23
.
Winter Off Peak 1317 411 442 422 164 25 -163 16
.
Total Kwh 1602 487 514 499 292 164 -31 -33 -34 -148 -47 -100 39
.
Total $ -$39.87 $32.54 $34.04 $33.45 $20.87 -$1.63 -$19.71 -$8.08 -$45.81 -$55.31 -$25.83 -$8.13 $3.73

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