PGE non electric use charges

I had installed a 2.5kw pv system in July 2011. I have a e-6 net metering system. I get charged $11-$13 per month for non electric use. PGE is charging me for distribution, public purpose programs and generation and sometimes nuclear decommissioning.
I was not aware of these charges when my system was installed. I feel I should not be charged these fees because I supply peak time power to PGE.
Can anyone shed some light on these charges?

Thanks
John
2011 silver Leaf sle

http://www.pge.com/myhome/myaccount/explanationofbill/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has some explanation. Call PG&E?

Unless you have some battery storage system, it seems rather likely you're drawing power from the grid at night.

EVJohn said:

I had installed a 2.5kw pv system in July 2011. I have a e-6 net metering system. I get charged $11-$13 per month for non electric use. PGE is charging me for distribution, public purpose programs and generation and sometimes nuclear decommissioning.
I was not aware of these charges when my system was installed. I feel I should not be charged these fees because I supply peak time power to PGE.
Can anyone shed some light on these charges?

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Those chargers were definitely there before you got your PV system. You just didn't notice. They are all part of your total electrical rate. And trust me when I say that paying those fees is probably cheaper than avoiding them as that would probably mean signing up as a commercial generator and getting paid wholesale electrical rates instead of retail electrical rates.

There is a minimum charge that you can't get away from paying. I don't know what PG&E's minimum is, but SDG&E's is $0.17/day.

You are already being fairly compensated for supplying peak time power to PG&E since you are on the TOU rate and gettng paid full retail rates for your generated electricity. The utility will argue otherwise, but luckily the legislature has written laws allowing consumers to be credited at 100% retail rate for excess generation.

PS - PGE is not the same as PG&E and will be confusing for many people.

E-6 sounds like a PG&E (not PGE = Portland General Electric) rate schedule, John. If so, drees, it is a time of use rate.

As cwerdna and drees both indicated, you are using their transmission lines, and their nighttime generation capacity, so you have to pay their fees just like everyone else does. Since I also have the E-6 rate I realize it is a lot more obvious now than it was when I was on E-1. With E-6 you pay those fees on a monthly basis, while your actual electricity costs are delayed to an annual true-up statement. But the fees were always there, and can't be avoided unless you go off the grid altogether.

Ray

planet4ever said:

E-6 sounds like a PG&E (not PGE = Portland General Electric) rate schedule, John. If so, drees, it is a time of use rate.

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Yep, we don't have anything called E-6 up here in PGE (Portland General Electric) territory. My guess is that he means PG&E.

In some states/areas (maybe Albany, NY)
even if you go totally off-grid, you still pay!

EVJohn said:

I feel I should not be charged these fees because I supply peak time power to PGE.

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Nobody here can do anything about your electric charges. Why not express your feelings directly to PG(&)E?

Sounds like our situation. We got our solar PV array 3 years ago and went with the E6 Time-of-Use plan. It was then that we realized about all the different charges as they were not itemized on the billings prior to going solar. They are charged per day, so the monthly amount varies. Residents are not allowed to go "off-the-grid". I can understand some of the safety and sensibilitiy factors of that. Our array is the same size as yours and was designed to take us down from the expensive tiers of use, not provide us with all our electrical needs and then some. The good thing about that is, if we do pay PG&E for electricity during the year, that $11-$13 per month fee gets adjusted at our annual true-up time and end up to be around $6-$8 per month. Since we got our LEAF though, I wished we had a bigger array. I think that would solve many of our still confusing issues on which PG&E plan is best for us. Some of the forum members have awesome (read: huge) setups drool, drool :lol: Lucky them! One question that many who are curious about our solar or LEAF ask is about electricity costs. I always mention to them about those not-so-known monthly PG&E fees.

My utility company is Pacific Gas and Electric. Sorry for the error.
Thank you, all for your comments and advice.
I am thinking of forming a petition and submit it to the public utility commission. I would hope if enough people complained about this cost and by showing the commission we are providing peak power to help the grid and PG&E they would do away with this cost.

Thanks, John