Posted on 01/29/2022 7:34:33 AM PST by Brian Griffin
Here are some of my thoughts on the billing of electricity with respect to homeowners with solar panel installations. The topic is complex. My suggestions are intended to be possible improvements and not perfections.
There are a number of components that could go into the computation of a solar panel homeowner's bill: the capital cost of the related non-solar backup capacity, the cost of the utility lines dedicated to the customer, the cost to collect payment, the fuel cost of the electricity and credit for the electricity supplied to the grid by the customer.
A CUSTOMER'S USAGE-BASED SHARE of the CAPITAL COST of the NON-SOLAR BACKUP CAPACITY
The capital cost of the non-solar backup capacity runs for many years and the utility will normally pay monthly for it, as should its customers with solar panel installations that utilize it.
The capital cost of the non-solar backup capacity should be determined when there is a high demand for this capacity on a utility wide basis for customers with solar panel installations. The peak demand for a utility might be in January, but other high demand months should be considered in computing the customer's bill since the customer may game the system in January by being frugal but use far more capacity in December, February and March when the utility's non-solar backup capacity is also in high demand. Other high demand months might be July, August and September.
The capital cost of the non-solar backup capacity might be made in the customer's peak demand month among the past fifteen billing months that are also high backup demand months, or it might be weighted among all high backup demand months in the past fifteen.
My suggested lookback period of 15 months is longer than 12 months since the highest demand month may change from year to year. It is possible for January and February for a year to be warmer than normal but the preceding December much colder than normal.
An April 2024 bill might well include the customer's usage share of the capital cost of the non-solar backup capacity based on high demand in January 2024, or February 2023.
Year-round winter month usage-based utility billing is not unprecedented. I used to live in Fairfax County, Virginia and each of my quarterly sewer charges was based on my last winter water usage amount, when people were least likely to use water for lawns and landscape plants.
COST of the UTILITY LINES to the CUSTOMER
I live in a house with 100 feet of lot frontage and utility line and about 70 feet of service drop. I live in a part of Florida where each side of the street has a utility line for post-hurricane reliability.
There is a cost to maintaining these lines, which the utility would want to receive monthly income for. The amount might be fixed utility wide for residential customers, actual line length based or zoning density based.
COST to COLLECT CUSTOMER PAYMENT
The main cost for my house is having someone come read my meter monthly. I get billed by e-mail and payment comes out of my checking account.
In my area, I get billed a monthly customer charge that was $7.50/month the last time I checked. Some of this may cover utility line maintenance.
COMPENSATION for the ELECTRICITY SUPPLIED to the GRID by the CUSTOMER
I would first like to mention that charging customers for the solar panels on their roofs is absurd.
Black-out plagued California needs all the electricity generating capacity it can get. Californians should not fully rely on utility-supplied and large investor-supplied solar power investment given massive investor losses related to Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison.
Bear in mind that a large, well-insulated house built in 2021 may use less electricity than a modest house built many decades ago. The large house might have many more solar panels than the modest house, but its demand for non-solar backup electricity may often be less.
The solar panel capacity of a house is a far cruder and less accurate measure of a house's need (and appropriate basis of charging) for non-solar backup electricity than the utility's highly accurate monthly meter readings.
There is then the matter of determining how much the customer should be paid (or credited) for the customer's electricity supplied to the grid.
Leftist governments run by officials that believe as Al Gore does would not want homeowners to stop installing solar panels that can supply excess electricity their neighborhood merely because natural gas electricity might be a penny cheaper per kilowatt-hour(kwh) than homeowner solar panel electricity.
The homeowners with solar power installations are effectively in competition with utilities supplying solar electricity and should be paid competitively. It should be borne in mind that the homeowners are near the point of use and that the utility solar installations say 50 miles away in a desert would need expensive grid expansion and grid improvements that the homeowner-sourced electricity would not. Homeowners in Encino could easily supply excess electricity to recharge electric vehicles parked in Encino without much change to the utility's lines. If the utility supplies solar electricity at say 5 cents per kwh, the homeowners might reasonably be paid 6 cents a kwh.
There is also an installation speed factor. Homeowners can quickly have solar electricity panels installed on their house. It can take a long time for a utility to get a solar panel farm permitted and built.
I suspect Al Gore would prefer that California electricity vehicles get recharged via solar electricity than natural gas electricity. Homeowner solar can help speed up the process to powering California cars with solar power. Homeowners should not be made solar install skittish by a state changing a rule that forces homeowners in the state to take unforeseeable solar installation losses.
SOLAR PANEL DISTRIBUTION
Solar panels should be distributed on a rational basis to minimize alleged possible CO2 harm. If a bunch of solar panels might reduce China's coal-based CO2 emissions by 9 tons a year or California's natural gas-based CO2 emissions by 3 tons a year, the solar panels should be used in China and Joe Biden should cool his heels in his basement. If a bunch of solar panels might reduce California's CO2 emissions by 3 tons a year or West Virginia's by 1 ton a year, the solar panels should be used in California.
There is also a social justice factor. If a bunch of solar panels could supply a village in Africa with ample electricity for the first time, then it would be improper for a Maryland millionaire to adorn his mansion with them to show his green credentials.
“Did I mention that gov’t hates anything that promotes independence?”
To them: Independence = Profits Unrealized.
“If you own a $20 million beach front mansion, expect to spend about 3% of its price to raise it up.”
Why? All these prognostics of global warming are just BS. We’re headed into an ice age.
Amen JimRob!
What ever Socialist wrote this nonsense is an idiot.
The government should get out of the energy business. The best way to insure that EVERYONE has competitive energy is competition.
At times of high demand, A/C demand especially in the summer months utilities will pay up to $5000 per MW for electricity over and above what they can make. If a person had 15 or 20 KW on their roof in PV’s they could make a little money selling back to the grid, but if the grid doesn’t want it the government shouldn’t interfere with it. If people want solar let them pay for it. If people believe in Global warming then let them pay for their solar and not worry about it.
I don’t believe in Global warming and don’t care if the grid buys my excess electricity or not. I have solar so when the power is out mine is not. (I have substantial battery backup) Right now in my Kentucky home I don’t have to use my battery backup unless we have a storm that takes the power out. The Electricity company DOES take my excess electricity and allows me to take it back whenever I want. So, in the daytime I give to them (when they need it the most) and at night time I take it from them when they have the most to spare. If the government would stop protecting monopolies so much and allow competition we would see wonders.
To think that I should have to pay more if I use less is lunacy. Currently I have to pay a minimum fee to be connected to the grid each month, you do too you just don’t know it because you use more than some minimum. This is to cover the cost of the wiring to my home and billing. So, whether or not I use any electricity I still have to pay them about $20. I do it, I could always just disconnect and save $240 a year but I like being tied to the grid, the grid likes getting my money.
People need to stop thinking of government solutions to everything, we just don’t need most of it.
When I installed solar on my crackerbox in California, I opted for an anemic 800W.
Why?
Because, by law, every watt generated over the total used was a gift to PG&E.
Consider moving to California, you won't have to worry your pretty little head about selling excess power back to the utility company...
“I’d say your social justice support would also work to say no one should have lobster when people in Africa may be starving.”
The Africans could be working in factories making stuff, and money to buy food.
I think my last pair of pants bought were sewn in Egypt.
For Africans to get social justice, African leftists and corrupt officials need to get the boot. You may also substitute Central American, Latin American and American for African.
“For Africans to get social justice”
They lack this thing you call “social justice”? Just what is that made up crap anyway?
Much is still beautiful, but that is outweighed by the cultural collapse, so I have no desire to go back.
“If people believe in Global warming then let them pay for their solar and not worry about it.”
Solar doesn’t work well in cloudy Cleveland.
They may wish to pay for nuclear, but nuclear takes time to build, especially with government permitting required.
The people that believe in “social justice” now run things and will do so for many years.
The concerns of the people in control must be taken into account and catered to.
Because five Republican state legislatures failed to prevent an obviously demented man from becoming President of the United States, that is the way it is.
Another analysis of proposed CA regulations:
http://www.californiafocus.net/2021/12/will-state-regulators-kill-rooftop-solar.html
This points out that Power Utilities are looking out for themsleves, at the expense of Solar homeowners.
“The Electricity company DOES take my excess electricity and allows me to take it back whenever I want. So, in the daytime I give to them (when they need it the most) and at night time I take it from them when they have the most to spare.”
It is going to be a cold night in Florida. FPL facilities will be running at full bore.
If Floridians want to live in warm houses in late January, FPL’s costs to provide enough electricity must be considered and compensated. The question is how much.
“The government should get out of the energy business.”
I can play tough with FPL and live in an unheated house if its rates are too high, but how about an 87-year old woman with significant dementia?
I open my windows when it’s warm and keep them closed when it’s cold....
That’s all I care about solar anything.
Here in California we are currently being inundated with TV advertising telling us how unfair it is for the poor, who cannot afford to buy solar, to have to pay higher electricity rates to subsidize the rich who can. But they fail to grasp the fact that first, the rich were encouraged by the state to do so with the enticement of guaranteed rate reduction and tax incentives. Secondly, the state now requires all new housing to have solar. Third, solar generation reduces the demand for additional generating sources like hydro and nuclear thereby reducing overall costs for everyone, including the poor. And finally, solar reduces California’s need to buy expensive emergency power from neighboring states during high demand periods, again reducing electrical costs for all. To change the rules now would amount to a government condoned “bait and switch” for solar owners to placate those who cry “poverty” at every cost in life and continually seek government subsistence.
As long as “Bob” has his neighbors paying for his solar installation and subsidizes the cost of electricity he is ok with it.
Back in the early days here in the US or what would become the US, lobster was considered a nasty food and is what they fed to prisoners.
“And finally, solar reduces California’s need to buy expensive emergency power from neighboring states during high demand periods, again reducing electrical costs for all. “
Solar is an expensive energy source. Kali should have kept their coal mad and NG power plants. The morons brag they have shuttered coal plants.
California Energy Commissions: “Since 2007, 11 in-state coal-fired plants retired (370 MW), and 3 converted to biomass
fuel (132 MW). With the retirement of the 108 MW ACE Cogeneration plant in 2014, the
last remaining coal-fired power plant in California is the 63 MW Argus Cogen plant”
“but how about an 87-year old woman with significant dementia?”
Why is she is her own house with significant dementia???
Trey a different analogy, that one is just plain dumb.
“but how about an 87-year old woman with significant dementia?”
Why is she is her own house with significant dementia???
= = =
She should come back to DC from Delaware.
I can play tough with FPL and live in an unheated house if its rates are too high, but how about an 87-year old woman with significant dementia?
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The government should not be in the energy business. I didn’t say anything about not taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves, two different subjects.
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