drmanny3 said:
I noticed that several months ago SCE changed the Time of Use midnight to 6 am charges. It dropped the cost to I think $0.11 for Winter and $0.10 for Summer. Though frankly it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly how much I am being charged. As you noted you have generation charges as well as distribution charges. I understand the conservative wing of the party is trying to curb benefits to having solar like net metering. They would like to see it end across the US. I am hoping that this does not happen as it impacts our being able to level load the system. SCE was very supportive of Solar not that far back. I wonder if the loss of the Nuclear facility is causing them grief. There is some discussion afoot to have ratepayers make up the billions in loss, rather than have the shareholders eat it all. SCE is not a private company per say and yet not a public company either. I am counting on the rates for electricity in the running of our cars. However, life is full of changes.
Manny
Manny, the Super Off Peak combined rate is now about 9.35 cents per kWh. Just add the delivery and generation charges per kWh on your bill.
From what I've picked up, my impression is that SCE and the other CA utilities would rather not see residential solar have the benefits that it currently has, such as net metering including retail credit for generated power. While the state has distinct goals for a percentage of total power produced by renewables and the utilities have targets to meet those goals, my understanding is that they get no credit toward those targets for the renewables that their residential customers install, only for the commercial renewable power that they contract for. In addition, they say that, contrary to counter arguments, residential solar doesn't allow them to keep from building power plants because on rainy days when residential solar generates nothing, SCE still needs to be able to provide 100% of the power that their customers demand.
As the percentage of their residential customers with solar grows, the utilities have been increasingly trying to make the case that these customers are riding like freeloaders on the public grid, paying nothing while using the grid as a big battery. To aid their case, they've enlisted the argument that the cost of the maintenance of the grid falls to lower income families who live in inland areas. A bill, AB 327, was signed into law last fall by Governor Brown. This law will allow the flattening of rates, which residential customers are apparently already seeing, and a grid use fee of up to $10 per month for residential solar customers, which has yet to be authorized by the PUC, as far as I know.
Here is some reading on the topic.
http://climatepolicyinitiative.org/usa/2013/11/18/will-californias-ab327-help-or-hinder-renewable-energy-the-devil-is-in-the-details/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/AB-327-Signed-Into-Law-in-California-With-Solar-NEM-Warning-from-Jerry-Bro" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
