Solar and metering options. (Time of use versus standard)

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goatea

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
10
I'm about a month into my FEE lease. Great so far. I'm also getting solar from Solar City. We're in LA, so LADWP offers up to $2000 rebate for your car charger. The thing is, they require a time of use metering option (or second separate meter for the car) to qualify. Maybe it's my mistrust of bureaucracy but I wonder why they're pushing time of use so much? Do they stand to earn more money off of us that way? Between the hours of 1-5pm, we're talking 21 cents a kWh versus 13. Part of me wants to keep the same metering structure we have now (tiered system) under the adage of, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Any thoughts on this?

Mike
 
Mike,

I don't expect they're looking for more money from the deal. LADWP is just trying to push as many load sources as possible away from peak hours and their incentive is charging cheaper rates using a TOU rate structure and the EVSE credit.

I'm with SCE on a residential TOU plan (no separate meter) with a recent 4 kWh solar install (October 2012). I consume about 13-15 kWh to recharge my FFE 5 days per week and another 10 kWh across the weekend. My solar generates about 10-12 kWh daily now and will peak at 18-20 kWh in Summer. My FFE energy usage is about half my daily usage but that half is charged at the lowest rate with TOU. One benefit of the TOU plan I'm seeing but hadn't considered is that SCE is paying me for the solar at the TOU rates. This means that between 10-6 when I'm generating and don't show any usage due to the solar, I'm also being credited for the energy I generate at the higher usage rates.

When I was making this decision before adding solar, SCE had a web calculator that allowed you to enter your information about previous usage and adding in the expected EV usage. It compared the tiered rate plans with the TOU plans and unless I went to a separate meter, the standard TOU plan was cheaper than tiered by about $20-30/mo. My "before solar" estimate with TOU was $180/mo, and now "with solar" I'm seeing $80/mo in winter and I expect that to improve in Summer months down to as low as $50 as long as I keep the A/C at reasonable levels.

All this to say, do the math if you can and see how it would work with you and make your decision from there.

Tim
 
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