Official Southern California Edison thread

[KeiJidosha]

"SCE says investors need bigger profits because of fire risks"

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi- ... story.html

"Southern California Edison says it needs higher profits to keep attracting investment following a series of deadly fires sparked by utility-owned electrical equipment that have sent utility stock prices tumbling. Edison doesn’t face as much financial risk as its Northern California counterpart, PG&E. But Pedro Pizarro, president of Edison’s parent company, recently said his utility could be one big fire away from bankruptcy."

Also

"Edison CEO talks wildfires, climate change and the utility’s vanishing monopoly"

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi- ... story.html

I'm guessing my delivery charges will be increasing.

[Boomer23]

Fascinating articles. Thanks.

I didn’t realize that the utilities were specifically constrained on the percentage of gain they are allowed to offer to investors.

One of my first thoughts is that Edison and the other two huge POUs are already going to see a large increase in revenue from the coming forced shift of customer rates into the new TOU plans with Peak rates in the evenings. At least the customers who have solar roofs are going to see a major increase in annual utility cost when those plans take effect. I’m probably seeing this particular aspect through the lens of a customer with a solar roof, though.

But I assume that Edison has already taken those increased revenues into account when they did their math and came up with a request for further rate increases to cover perceived investor risk.

As the first article that you linked to states, though, Edison’s pending request is largely designed to pressure the state into shielding the utilities from financial responsibility for damage from fires until the utilities can upgrade their infrastructure to be less prone to spark fires.

What can we customers do to shield ourselves from being fleeced in order to protect a utility that operates equipment that isn’t yet adequate to provide protection from accidentally sparking fires in extreme weather situations? Probably add more solar and home battery storage. But those solutions also carry a high capital cost to our household budgets.

[KeiJidosha]

I see two potential results. Higher delivery charges could improve the ROI of solar and storage. And if the grid is less dependable because it is preemptively partially disabled during events (wind, earthquake, etc) that might produce a spark, off-grid backup may be more useful or even essential in effected areas.

There is a major upgrade of overhead wiring going on in our area. There is a fleet of hundreds of utility trucks updating the overhead wiring, insulation, and disconnects. Originally I thought grid stability, risk mitigation, or both had stimulated the update, but the scope is impressive.

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2018/ ... 454991002/

"The latest approval follows a green light by a division of the California Public Utilities Commission on the transmission line solution. The lines, coupled with a green energy project, is expected to meet the power needs in Ventura County. Electricity needs near Goleta could still be met by a small power plant and Edison will accept bids for gas-fired projects in Santa Barbara County.

Earlier this month Edison began accepting bids for a battery storage or solar project to meet the power needs not met by the transmission lines. The deadline for those bids closes in June. "

[smkettner]

Investors do not need a bigger return to accept risk. They can sell the stock if too risky.

I can see passing through the costs of maintaining the facilities to avoid fires. What the utilities need is not so much an exemption from liability but an exemption from additional environmental restrictions to clearing the fire risk.

[Valdemar]

My grandfathered TOU-D-A rate is set to expire end of this month. I ran some quick calcs using my usage data for the last 12 months and I'm looking at about $1k energy cost bump for the year on the new rates. One less incentive to drive an EV. Oh well...

[smkettner]

My grandfathered TOU-D-A rate is set to expire end of this month. I ran some quick calcs using my usage data for the last 12 months and I'm looking at about $1k energy cost bump for the year on the new rates. One less incentive to drive an EV. Oh well...

What rate plan are you going to? How do you verify rate expiration?

I am also on TOU-D-A-SDP

[Boomer23]

I looked ahead to this juncture and decided to add more solar panels to combat this change. I wasn’t quick enough to get the new array installed before the end of 2019, so I’ll have to be happy with the current 26% federal credit instead of the 30% I would have gotten last year, but as you say, Oh Well.

I also penciled out adding batteries, but the solar project had a much better return.

Unfortunately, adding more solar will bump me from NEM 1.0 to NEM 2.0, which carries with it some “Non-Bypassable Charges” of about 2.5 cents per kWh for every kWh SCE sends me, regardless of whether I sent it to them first.

So I’m planning to switch to TOU-D-Prime and charge my cars during the day “behind the meter” to avoid as many NBCs as possible. This is workable because Prime’s daytime rates are the same as the nighttime rates, and there are no lucrative high Peak daytime solar rates that I’ll be forgoing by using power during solar Peak.

With this plan, I should be able to keep my annual costs down to something like $350, but of course I had to pay a net nine or ten grand for the extra solar. There’s no free lunch,

After I decided to add the additional solar, I got recruited into a program through SCE to add a Tesla Powerwall battery as part of a trial project to determine whether community distributed batteries can help mitigate power needs during shortages instead of building another natural gas peaker plant. That battery should allow me to shave off some of the Peak usage costs during Prime’s Peak evening hours and save me a bit more each year. But again, I have to pay for part of the battery after rebates and tax credits. This program is only available in parts of central Orange County, I think. I’m in Irvine. The whole battery project is moving slowly due to inability to get permits during the virus thing.

[JeremyW]

Moved into a new place recently, and switched to TOU-D-Prime thinking I would come out ahead of domestic tiered rates with two EVs. My spark has been charged ONCE since we moved in. At least I've got the two EVSEs installed with a new 125A main. Original service was only 60A!

Hope to get solar installed sometime this year. Wife says A/C first.

[Boomer23]

Smart man, Jeremy.

Happy wife, happy life.

[smkettner]

From SCE:

We currently plan to close these grandfathered rate plans and move customers to the lowest-cost TOU rate plan available in late 2020. Some customers with grandfathered solar generating facilities may be allowed to stay on longer, depending on the date their solar system was activated.

https://www.sce.com/residential/rates/s ... rate-plans

Amazing how the increase in utility solar has changed these TOU plans.
Just the early evening (4pm to 9pm) is at high cost. Those overnight rates are now most of the day.

Not going to get as much for solar production. On the plus side I don't have to super chill my house overnight to coast through the high daytime rates. Just need to coast 4 to 9 then let it rip and get to sleep by 10 pm. Five hour battery looks very encouraging.