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abasile said:
SGIP (California's "Self Generation Incentive Program") is a nice try, and it will help stimulate the market for battery-based storage to soak up a small fraction of "off peak" PV generation. However, a longer term solution would be to institute electric rates that are market based in real time, as an alternative to today's fixed TOU periods and rate schedules. That would send the necessary market signals to shift consumption (and battery charging) to periods when there's "excess" renewable generation. This wouldn't be as sweet a deal for consumers as NEM 1.0, of course, but ultimately we'll need a more sustainable plan for adding renewables to the grid.

Texas now has such an offering from a company named "Griddy" :lol: . The 15 minute interval $/KWH pricing is used to calculate your energy cost. Distribution cost is fixed (or not affected by any "plans"). The cost for their service is a fixed ~$10/month subscription charge. They will look at your historical usage and estimate a cost savings for their contract based on (historical) energy costs. In TX, the energy cost component has actually decreased, likely due to nat gas prices being depressed, but not likely to seriously affect the actual savings.

This type of contract could promote limited battery storage, especially for the higher energy users. For me, using only $1200/year energy there is not much economic incentive. However, I'll likely give it a try when my existing contract runs out. Hopefully, by that time I'll have a way to use my old Leaf for energy storage!! :geek:

Are there any energy contracts available in other locations that incentivize peak load shifting, that are similar in principle to the Griddy plan?

Appreciate any inputs as I'd like to look at possible cost saving scenarios that can justify solar/battery installations.

Mark
 
Interesting report from Marktm concerning TX. What I have heard about TX:
State has a more or less "hands off" approach to regulation, gives utilities wide range to offer incentives or not. Many of their utilities discourage residential solar.

They have their own grid, separate from either East coast or West coast grid.
They burn coal for quite a big fraction of their electric generation, but natural gas has replaced some of their coal, have closed some coal generation plants.
Electric usage is high, A/C runs 24/7 for 9 or 10 months of the year, but prices $/kWh are low.
A decade or more ago they invested in major high voltage transmission upgrade which stimulated a boom in wind power, now over 20 GW peak, by far largest of any state.
They have surplus of wind power late at night more frequently than most other states.

Austin, less conservative than rest of state, has some interesting pricing. I believe on some plans electric is free late night.

_
 
Received letter from SCE "Here's how you compare to neighbors" for billing period Aug 23 to Sep 21

"Efficient neighbors" 638 kWh
Me 864 kWh
Av neighbors 1,001 kWh

They rate this as "good" not "great"

The 864 is correct sum over On peak, Mid peak, and Off peak for total consumption, but it ignores generation total of -697 kWh, for net usage of + 167 kWh. My TOU credit for period is -$63, cumulative credit for 8 months -$794, cumulative kWh -211.

So for this letter I only got credit for the power that I consumed "behind the meter"

I did not have my new additional 3.8 kW DC of solar installed this time last year, so my usage is up, but still lots of $ TOU cumulative credit to use up by Feb 2017. I hope to use up much of it this winter by running my heat pump in heat mode, avoiding natural gas.
 
tbleakne said:
Received letter from SCE "Here's how you compare to neighbors" for billing period Aug 23 to Sep 21

"Efficient neighbors" 638 kWh
Me 864 kWh
Av neighbors 1,001 kWh

They rate this as "good" not "great"

The 864 is correct sum over On peak, Mid peak, and Off peak for total consumption, but it ignores generation total of -697 kWh, for net usage of + 167 kWh....

Yes, I've noticed the same thing from the messages I've been receiving from SCE, also. In my case, I think they tell me that I'm in the area of using too much power. But net, I've only used about 1mWh for the past 7 months. I just ignore them, since the messages are inaccurate.
 
tbleakne said:
I did not have my new additional 3.8 kW DC of solar installed this time last year, so my usage is up, but still lots of $ TOU cumulative credit to use up by Feb 2017. I hope to use up much of it this winter by running my heat pump in heat mode, avoiding natural gas.
What kind of heat pump did you end up buying? I have a bid to install an LG air-sourced heat pump system (18000 BTU, 20.5 SEER) with a single air handler for $3600, which includes installing a new 30 amp circuit with over 30 feet of conduit. We would just use it to heat and cool our central living space, not the entire house. (We have a 92% efficient natural gas forced air heater, but no existing AC.)
 
tbleakne said:
Received letter from SCE "Here's how you compare to neighbors" for billing period Aug 23 to Sep 21

"Efficient neighbors" 638 kWh
Me 864 kWh
Av neighbors 1,001 kWh

They rate this as "good" not "great"

The 864 is correct sum over On peak, Mid peak, and Off peak for total consumption, but it ignores generation total of -697 kWh, for net usage of + 167 kWh. My TOU credit for period is -$63, cumulative credit for 8 months -$794, cumulative kWh -211.

So for this letter I only got credit for the power that I consumed "behind the meter"

I did not have my new additional 3.8 kW DC of solar installed this time last year, so my usage is up, but still lots of $ TOU cumulative credit to use up by Feb 2017. I hope to use up much of it this winter by running my heat pump in heat mode, avoiding natural gas.
Those letters mean nothing to solar homes or those with EVs.
Just intended for those on schedule B trying to save a buck.

I never do understand why the utility wants us to conserve.
Is not solar the ultimate in conservation but they get all upset at net metering. Lame.
And then they go and promote EVs. WTH.
 
smkettner said:
I never do understand why the utility wants us to conserve.
Is not solar the ultimate in conservation but they get all upset at net metering. Lame.
And then they go and promote EVs. WTH.

They don't want us to conserve. But they are required to promote conservation and spending designated conservation funds on these measurements and e-mail system allows them to claim they are doing something while they really aren't accomplishing much. But they will still try to thwart it every chance they can get away with, hence their making it difficult to do solar. And yes, they promote EVs, because that will boost consumption, especially if they can deter solar.
 
Another good example of them doing everything they can to delay and deter - I submitted my approved application for their $450 rebate for EVs back in July and still no rebate check. Somehow, they claim it takes them 90 days from approval to issue a payment. Wonder how they would react if I told them it would take me 90 days to issue them their bill payment?
 
Same here. Got $900 total in rebates for both of our EVs after a few months. This was a pleasant surprise, as neither of our EVs was what I'd call cheap - we'd still be driving our used Prius most of the time if no EVs were available to buy.

Also, I agree that the utilities would actually prefer that we buy lots of energy from them. Many SCE folks, even those who may be climate change skeptics, are rooting for EVs for this reason.
 
The $450 check came earlier this week, and the end of this week is a a full 4 months after submitting the application. So they do honor the rebate, which I appreciate. But the excess delay is annoying. So if you apply for it, be aware it will take time.
 
abasile said:
What kind of heat pump did you end up buying? I have a bid to install an LG air-sourced heat pump system (18000 BTU, 20.5 SEER) with a single air handler for $3600, which includes installing a new 30 amp circuit with over 30 feet of conduit. We would just use it to heat and cool our central living space, not the entire house. (We have a 92% efficient natural gas forced air heater, but no existing AC.)
I have a 3-room Mitsubishi Multi-zone system, 3KW total, 3 rooms (1 air handler/room), 6K BTU for each of 2 small rooms, 1 bedroom and 1 office. 18K BTU for living room with high ceilings. The small rooms work fine, but I should have put in 24K BTU in the living room.

Sorry for delay in replying. The price you were quoted seems good. It is hard to get bids below $3K per room, even if there are obvious economies of scale. Multi-zone systems can actually cost more per room, which makes no sense to me, and I hate taking up space outside with multiple compressors. A friend of mine has researched heat pump systems carefully. He can see good prices for the whole system online without installation, and he is very willing to pay normal labor rates, but he hates to pay contractors 2 to 1 markups for the units themselves as part of a package price. So far, that means he has no system.

In any case you will love the efficiency with the "inverter" compressors, the same type of motor as in our EVs. I like the LG brand. My LG solar panels are great. I am thinking about getting a new refrigerator, and LG models have inverter compressors. Perhaps other brands do as well, but LG calls it out as a feature
 
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