California introduces bill to assess rooftop solar net metering

[fromport]

California introduces bill to assess rooftop solar net metering

California Assembly member Laura Friedman has introduced a bill to require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to consider the costs and benefits of rooftop solar and its non-energy benefits when designing net-metering rates.

www.pv-magazine.com

California Assembly member Laura Friedman has introduced a bill to require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to consider the costs and benefits of rooftop solar and its non-energy benefits when designing net-metering rates.

 

[houseofancients]

Sounds like a politician finally woke up..
Will probably be killed by the powerco's lobby, but it is a start

 

[OffGridForGood]

non-energy benefits

Aesthetic benefits?

 

[v_green57]

Aesthetic benefits?

It's a "beautiful" thing to see panel arrays instead of concrete tiles or asphalt shingles, I guess.

 

[hwy17]

So it's a bill to make non solar customers pay more to subsidize net metering for spurious externalities.

How about solar owners suck it up and buy some batteries so they can actually generate their own power instead of playing pretend with a spreadsheet. Oh because their winter production sucks? Hello, reality.

 

[fromport]

excerpt:
Now the rooftop solar on the rise report recommends that policymakers
take into account the full benefits of rooftop solar when determining how to compensate
solar panel owners for the electricity they supply to the grid.
California's public utilities Commission, doesn't do this.
Unfortunately right now, they only factor in certain economic benefits of rooftop solar.
While leaving out some of solar's best benefits, like the environmental and public health benefits.
So one key step that California can take right now is to make sure we fully value all the environmental
and societal benefits of rooftop solar.

 

[Hedges]

Any chance they will come to the realization that (latest net metering rule) export credits for rooftop PV are less than the cost to produce electricity from rooftop PV, which is something the legislature previously mandated for all new home construction?

Might they also realize that the same dollars wasted on PV systems for every new home could be used to install 3x as much PV, offsetting 3x as much fossil fuel consumption, if invested in utility scale PV?

I'd like to see distribution rates divided by where the power flows and time of day. If the power I generate flows out my underground utility drop and in my neighbor's, without even going through the transformer in my front yard, I don't think their entire distribution charge should apply.

We in the neighborhood ought to be allowed to purchase the transformer, do net metering for power to/from it, and aggregate/allocate power through our underground conduit.

Looking at the bill for my Oakland house, PG&E's distribution charge is $150 and the Community Choice generation charge is $75. So why aren't NEM 3.0 rates paying 1/3 of retail for backfeed? Instead, I think it is around $0.05/kWh for backfeed and $0.50 for purchase.

 

[hwy17]

which is something the legislature previously mandated for all new home construction?

NEM3 addresses this with a waiver for Title 22 solar mandates when it's not economic.

 

[fromport]

I am not happy (understatement) with the increase of the rates of NEM2 i am paying with SCE (my utility provider)

The above is for transport only, since I have a credit for the generation part.


and my latest February bill:


I used 18% less energy, but had to pay 43% more than 2022!
Again: only for the transport part of my utility company, not the generation.

All approved by the same CPUC

And my utility isn't done yet with price increases:



And this is (afaik) without the proposed TAX (based on income) that will be added monthly in 2025.

This will be my last month on ToU-D-A


before switching to ToU-D-4-9PM
Meaning that charging my EV's at night will go from $0.20 -> $0.30/$0.40 depending on baseline.
Which was roughly 480 kWh of my last (Feb) bill , so at least 50% and maybe even 100% increase in rate.

I am going to invest more in batteries and try and use as minimum as I can from the grid, and eventually go totally off grid.

In California the utility companies are allowed (with blessing of their old colleagues now working at CPUC) to charge a rate not based on costs plus reasonable profit margin. They can (and will) charge whatever they want and they are getting away with it.

 

[Hedges]

NEM3 addresses this with a waiver for Title 22 solar mandates when it's not economic.

I didn't know that. Probably wasn't looking at that part of the massive amount of text, just focusing on what mattered to me - the impact to value of PV I already have or want to install.

Not economic?
That would be Every. Last. One.
(unless loads are during daylight hours and pretty much continuous not cyclical.

 

[Hedges]

I used 18% less energy, but had to pay 43% more than 2022!

That may not be a utilities thing.

How does your budget compare in the area of milk, butter, meat, tires, batteries, everything else you buy?
(go back a bit farther than 2022; utility rates are regulated so changes will lag changes is cost and value of dollar.)

 

[fromport]

That may not be a utilities thing.

It is, because it is for transport only.
I use CleanPowerAlliance for generation of my electricity.
How can transport of electricity go up so much ?!

How does your budget compare in the area of milk, butter, meat, tires, batteries, everything else you buy?
(go back a bit farther than 2022; utility rates are regulated so changes will lag changes is cost and value of dollar.)

Unfortunately pricing is not split out in production vs delivery at my favorite store so I can not tell how much the transport part of those items have increased.

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

It is, because it is for transport only.
I use CleanPowerAlliance for generation of my electricity.
How can transport of electricity go up so much ?!

Is it reasonable to assume a great deal of this has to do with transmission line upgrades? Wildfires and rolling blackouts spurred public outcry.
I know factually, a 10' stick of Unistrut cost me $22 in 2021 and last week was $38. And that is just steel pricing.

 

[Hedges]

Infrastructure was mostly put in long ago.
"Transport" would be maintenance workers, their equipment, also some office work.
So medical costs, salary, taxes, insurance premiums, gasoline, tires, shipping costs, etc.

What I meant was everything we buy has shot up in price, 50% or 100% on many since Covid. Maybe transport was a larger part of that.
But to a great extent, the dollar has lost buying power. If not in relation to other currencies, they have too.

I think inflation has cut the dollar in half from 2000 to 2008, half again from 2008 to 2020, half again from 2023 to today.
Your utility rate increases don't reflect that, largely due to continued utilization of old capital investment.

 

[dougbert]

Infrastructure was mostly put in long ago.
"Transport" would be maintenance workers, their equipment, also some office work.
So medical costs, salary, taxes, insurance premiums, gasoline, tires, shipping costs, etc.

What I meant was everything we buy has shot up in price, 50% or 100% on many since Covid. Maybe transport was a larger part of that.
But to a great extent, the dollar has lost buying power. If not in relation to other currencies, they have too.

I think inflation has cut the dollar in half from 2000 to 2008, half again from 2008 to 2020, half again from 2023 to today.
Your utility rate increases don't reflect that, largely due to continued utilization of old capital investment.

prices have not risen

the value of a FRN has declined and declined

 

[hwy17]

Not economic?
That would be Every. Last. One.

Good. Lazard's consistently shows professionally installed residential solar is the most expensive form of energy, society should not apply perverse incentives towards further investment in it.

If the installers can bring their pricing back down to earth, then maybe it will be economic.

 

[Skypower]

A friend is a licensed electrician. He specializes in larger solar./inverter /battery, primarily in new custom installations. He now is being inundated by calls from new home owners that have the new required solar panels that have failed. The housing tracts builders installed the cheapest low quality systems that they could find. The system are required by law to be warrantied but the contractors have evaporated. When my friend tells the homeowner the costs to repair, the homeowner rightfully declines because of the return on investment will never happen. The electrician won’t replace the components with the same junk because he knows that he’ll be back, so that means a total replacement because much of what’s still working isn’t compatible with what he’ll use. The systems are also so small, facing in poor directions, poor installation and with the net metering being what it is, it simply not worth messing with. His profit is so low for such a job that he also doesn’t want to be caught up in the middle of a warranty or legal dispute. He just doesn’t want to touch this crap. If these things ever get repaired, it might be by a handyman or the homeowner. California has struck again with its unintended consequences.

 

[OffGridForGood]

Suppose:
Instead of roof top solar on your new home, you can, as an alternative, buy a share in a utiltiy scale PV farm representing the same kW PV size.
The share attaches financially to the home, and transfers with the home ownership if/when sold.
We get (as @Hedges pointed out) x3 efficiency, and all maint and warranty is handled cost effectively by the solar farm, no risk of fire to your home either.
Too easy?

 

[fromport]

The housing tracts builders installed the cheapest low quality systems that they could find.

Can you give us a clue what components the "cheapest low quality system" for NEM3 consists off ?
So that should include panels, inverter & batteries, right ?

When my friend tells the homeowner the costs to repair, the homeowner rightfully declines because of the return on investment will never happen. The electrician won’t replace the components with the same junk because he knows that he’ll be back, so that means a total replacement because much of what’s still working isn’t compatible with what he’ll use. The systems are also so small, facing in poor directions, poor installation and with the net metering being what it is, it simply not worth messing with. His profit is so low for such a job that he also doesn’t want to be caught up in the middle of a warranty or legal dispute. He just doesn’t want to touch this crap. If these things ever get repaired, it might be by a handyman or the homeowner. California has struck again with its unintended consequences.

So he is basically suggesting a replacement with components he trust but also remounted on locations where it does make sense ?
The original cost and refit costs will never make them come out ahead is what you are saying ?

 

[houseofancients]

Good. Lazard's consistently shows professionally installed residential solar is the most expensive form of energy, society should not apply perverse incentives towards further investment in it.

If the installers can bring their pricing back down to earth, then maybe it will be economic.

Funny, cause here solar and wind is the cheapest form of energy generation -by far-