San Jose Power was going to automatically scoop up customers, consumers first and PV producers second. I opted out, because they didn't offer a better deal than PG&E. If they were willing to pay/credit significantly more for my valuable PV generated power I would have considered it.
Because I installed excessive PV, I put in an electric duct heater (resistance element) to burn off surplus. Even if credits are a reasonable fraction of charges, could make sense to continue using. But if off-peak credits are a small fraction of off-peak retail, such that it doesn't cover my consumption, electric heat is no longer cost effective compared to gas, not even if I use heat pump. I don't understand the NEM 3.0 credits, something about avoided costs and transitions. I'm sure they're not including avoided cost for power plants and transmission lines they aren't building. Don't know if they will be high enough to be worthwhile or not.
I'll run resistance heating while it makes sense, may put a mini-split in my workshop. Will probably go back to burning gas if NEM 3.0 is imposed and does what I expect. It is just flip of a switch for me.
Batteries may make sense for me to smooth out export/import during the day. Or not, if I'm a net exporter even with A/C running, which I think is the case.
I’m still on gas central heating, gas clothes dryer, gas water heater and gas range.
Was planning to replace them with electric / heat pumps as they fail, but interested to understand from your experience which have a chance of being competitive with free/wholesale PV power available and which do not.
The way the export credit system will work under NEM 3.0 is very unclear.
Turns out this chart you referenced from the article I found is actually in the CPUC decision document (page A2):
And from the text it is clear they intend to have differing hourly export rates:
‘You will receive bill credits at a set price per unit (kilowatt-hour) of based on the electricity’s value to the electric grid
in each hour of the day. The price will usually be lower than what you pay for a kilowatt-hour of electricity.’
It’s not clear to me yet whether the export credits you accrue in any one-month period will be credited against monthly charges or merely accrue into a NEM balance.
It is clear that they are planning to only compensate whatever generation they consider to be ‘in excess of consumption’ at the same wholesale rate they use today:
‘
Monthly Payments and Net Surplus Compensation
Even though installing solar can reduce your electricity costs, most Net Billing customers will still pay electric bills in most months of the year. In months when there are excess solar bill credits, the
credits will roll over to following months, until they are used up or it is
time for your annual “true-up.” Though it's rare, if you export more electricity than you import in a 12-month period,
you will be paid “net surplus compensation” of a few cents per excess kilowatt-hour. Because this rate is so low, it is generally not in your financial interest to install a solar system that produces much more energy than you use.’
There are a few aspects that are confusing about this language, not the least of which is that they make it sound like exporting more annual electricity than you import will be the exception rather than the rule for NEM 3.0 customers while at the same time stating customers will be authorized and even encouraged to install PV systems sized to generate 150% of annual consumption (meaning most every NEM 3.0 customer will export more annual electricity than they consume).
Also, the Net Surplus Compensation for customers Trueing Up in December was $0.05878:
https://www.pge.com/pge_global/comm...s/green-energy-incentives/AB920_RateTable.pdf
That is more than double the export compensation rate indicated on the graph for export between 10am and 3pm.
So what happens at True-Up and whether mid-day export is valued above or below Net Surplus Compensation rates needs to be made clear before we can understand what the Successor Tariff will really mean…
