Texas Solar Charges - Brazos bankruptcy causing me to be charged

[noahbraget]

Hey everyone. I currently live off grid, but plan to bring the grid back to my place so I can sell the property in the near future. I live north of Dallas, and will be using Pentex energy. They informed me that they will need to add a second meter to track what I am using from my own solar production so they can charge me for that because of some settlement that came about recently from the Brazos bankruptcy filing from Winter Storm Uri.

I am perplexed that they can charge me for this and was wondering if anyone else has had to deal with this? Icing on the cake is that the inverters I bought earlier this year are the EG4 6500ex which are not grid tie, so Pentex said I would need to buy new ones.

It is only around 1.4 cents per KWH right now, but I am upset more about the principal behind it. I put up the investment for my own system, I purchased inverters that work well for me needs and have the ability to have grid power bypass through it (but then I would be double charged), and they will also be charging me an additional $10 per month for the second meter.

I keep trying to find the details of this settlement to figure out how this can be legal, but I am not having any luck.

Thanks for any help and insight!

 

[Mattb4]

Sounds like someone is telling you a Texas Tall Tale. But in case some petty Official stands by it you could simply turn off and disconnect your solar power and avoid any bureaucratic nonsense or expense. Now after you have the grid you could run your Off grid setup with them not being the wiser so long as there is no cross connection.

 

[J.P.]

Hey everyone. I currently live off grid, but plan to bring the grid back to my place so I can sell the property in the near future. I live north of Dallas, and will be using Pentex energy. They informed me that they will need to add a second meter to track what I am using from my own solar production so they can charge me for that because of some settlement that came about recently from the Brazos bankruptcy filing from Winter Storm Uri.

I am perplexed that they can charge me for this and was wondering if anyone else has had to deal with this? Icing on the cake is that the inverters I bought earlier this year are the EG4 6500ex which are not grid tie, so Pentex said I would need to buy new ones.

It is only around 1.4 cents per KWH right now, but I am upset more about the principal behind it. I put up the investment for my own system, I purchased inverters that work well for me needs and have the ability to have grid power bypass through it (but then I would be double charged), and they will also be charging me an additional $10 per month for the second meter.

I keep trying to find the details of this settlement to figure out how this can be legal, but I am not having any luck.

Thanks for any help and insight!

Anyone from Texas should understand this phrase. Tell them to "COME AND TAKE IT!"

 

[ChrisG]

Sounds like my power company which is buy all produced for $0.01 per KWh and sell back to me at $0.13 vs $0.14 the rest of the population pays. No way around this at my primary residence in NC.

 

[heimlich]

Ask them to put it in writing on official letter head.

 

[timselectric]

Don't have them bring power all the way to your home.
Build a service on a pole. And build an outhouse near the pole. Tell them to hook up your 200a service. Because you want light and A/C in the outhouse.
You can run it the rest of the way, later.

 

[Rednecktek]

Tell them no. They have no legal contract with your solar production and utilization. There is no settelment or contract that you have signed authorizing them to have access to your production, and any requirements to produce equipment must be provided by them or compensated to you.

Unless there is some legislation specifically written to be retroactive and requires the power company (a private company) to be able to charge you for what you produce and use, and Pendex would be required to provide documentation of these requirements, you owe them nothing.

If they still insist, a 200a drop to a shed is the way to go.

Tl;Dr: Just Say No.

 

[bear0214]

I keep trying to find the details of this settlement to figure out how this can be legal, but I am not having any luck.

Thanks for any help and insight!

You might have already found this:

https://www.pentex.com/sites/default/files/documents/SCRF_Presentation_Final.pdf

 

[Rednecktek]

I fail to see anything in there that says they get to charge him for power produced by his system that is NOT fed back to the grid.

 

[Checkthisout]

Hey everyone. I currently live off grid, but plan to bring the grid back to my place so I can sell the property in the near future. I live north of Dallas, and will be using Pentex energy. They informed me that they will need to add a second meter to track what I am using from my own solar production so they can charge me for that because of some settlement that came about recently from the Brazos bankruptcy filing from Winter Storm Uri.

I am perplexed that they can charge me for this and was wondering if anyone else has had to deal with this? Icing on the cake is that the inverters I bought earlier this year are the EG4 6500ex which are not grid tie, so Pentex said I would need to buy new ones.

It is only around 1.4 cents per KWH right now, but I am upset more about the principal behind it. I put up the investment for my own system, I purchased inverters that work well for me needs and have the ability to have grid power bypass through it (but then I would be double charged), and they will also be charging me an additional $10 per month for the second meter.

I keep trying to find the details of this settlement to figure out how this can be legal, but I am not having any luck.

Thanks for any help and insight!

Looks like they charge a fee to read the second meter

https://pentex.com/sites/default/files/documents/Distributed_Generation%20updated_June_2022.pdf

 

[OffGridForGood]

Just blown away by the rules and regs, and outright manipulation.
Try to imagine any other self produced item being charged like this:

'oh you grow your OWN tomatoes, we will need to set a scale up at your house, you will pay us for rental of that scale, and then we will weigh the tomatoes you grow, that we should have grown and sold to you, but you grew your own, and then we will be billing you at 10-cents per pound for those tomatoes you grew yourself. I mean really, this has got to be completely bat-shit-crazy.

I think I like that expression @J.P. : "Tell them to come and get it" {over my cold dead body maybe!}

 

[noahbraget]

I am glad y’all are sharing the same feelings about this as me. I didn’t know if I was being bitter or entitled but after making the investments I did, I thought it was crazy to still pay them for my of power generation.

I have tried to think of all the loopholes but can’t think of something that will work. They said if I didn’t want to pay for the second meter I would need to fully disconnect and lock out my solar setup.

Since the meters can determine the load timing, they would be able to see if I switch between their service and my solar and they would disconnect the power.

They said they would not even install the lines, transformer, and meter if I didn’t set up how they want me to in order to charge me.

I think I’ll have to keep harassing them until they can give me some proof of what they are trying to charge me for. They said if my system had been installed and connected to the grid prior to June of 2022 it would have been grandfathered in. I hope all of the solar users in my area can band together and get this ridiculous case thrown out.

 

[noahbraget]

I just thought of what I am going to say when I speak to the highest up person I can reach at Pentex: “Does your water company keep a rain gauge at your house to charge you for any rain that waters your lawn?” ?

 

[Checkthisout]

Just blown away by the rules and regs, and outright manipulation.
Try to imagine any other self produced item being charged like this:

'oh you grow your OWN tomatoes, we will need to set a scale up at your house, you will pay us for rental of that scale, and then we will weigh the tomatoes you grow, that we should have grown and sold to you, but you grew your own, and then we will be billing you at 10-cents per pound for those tomatoes you grew yourself. I mean really, this has got to be completely bat-shit-crazy.

I think I like that expression @J.P. : "Tell them to come and get it" {over my cold dead body maybe!}

Power can't be managed that way.

What you're doing is akin to arguing that a gym has no right to charge you a monthly membership fee even though the costs to run the gym are the same whether you use it or not.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Sounds like my power company which is buy all produced for $0.01 per KWh and sell back to me at $0.13 vs $0.14 the rest of the population pays. No way around this at my primary residence in NC.

Hence why I don’t have a NET Meter agreement.

 

[Rednecktek]

I just thought of what I am going to say when I speak to the highest up person I can reach at Pentex: “Does your water company keep a rain gauge at your house to charge you for any rain that waters your lawn?” ?

In some states... **COUGHMETEREDPRIVATEWELLSCOUGHCALIFORNIACOUGH**

Power can't be managed that way.

What you're doing is akin to arguing that a gym has no right to charge you a monthly membership fee even though the costs to run the gym are the same whether you use it or not.

It's more like charging you an hourly usage rate for walking around in your living room.

If you have a membership to a gym then yes, you pay to use their equipment. They have no right to charge you for the excresize you get chopping your firewood. This is a case of charging for excersize that doesn't happen at the gym.

If he's tying to the grid and back feeding there is specific set of equipment he'll have to buy that equipment like anyone else who does grid tie, but there's no reason he should pay the power company for energy they don't provide nor energy he gets from a source other than their service. Would he be required to pay the power company when the power is out and he fires up a generator? Does he need to pay the power company for the heat his fireplace puts out? How about paying the super market for the beef cow he butchered out of his own herd?

So yeah, if the only need for grid is to sell the house, a shed with a drop and an extension cord is the way to go.

This is another example of "contracts" that are giving you to right to negotiate the options of Take It or Leave It. In this case, leave it.

 

[timselectric]

Don't sell the house.
Sell the land and throw in the "storage building".

 

[ksmithaz1]

Just put in a transfer switch, treat your solar like a gas powered generator. You cannot grid tie, with the inverters you have so you don't want to grid tie. Run your service to the meter and a separate panel with a single breaker that feeds your transfer switch.

 

[Checkthisout]

In some states... **COUGHMETEREDPRIVATEWELLSCOUGHCALIFORNIACOUGH**



It's more like charging you an hourly usage rate for walking around in your living room.

If you have a membership to a gym then yes, you pay to use their equipment. They have no right to charge you for the excresize you get chopping your firewood. This is a case of charging for excersize that doesn't happen at the gym.

If he's tying to the grid and back feeding there is specific set of equipment he'll have to buy that equipment like anyone else who does grid tie, but there's no reason he should pay the power company for energy they don't provide nor energy he gets from a source other than their service. Would he be required to pay the power company when the power is out and he fires up a generator? Does he need to pay the power company for the heat his fireplace puts out? How about paying the super market for the beef cow he butchered out of his own herd?

So yeah, if the only need for grid is to sell the house, a shed with a drop and an extension cord is the way to go.

This is another example of "contracts" that are giving you to right to negotiate the options of Take It or Leave It. In this case, leave it.

It's a defacto facilities charge.

All power companies charge you a minimum fee every month to hook into their system whether you use power or not.

In this case, at least the way I read it, they charge you for the total power flow through their meter they install to measure your solar output because they do not do net metering.

Did you read the link I posted?

 

[Rednecktek]

Charging a connection fee to have power availble is fine. The cost of infrastructure install and maintenance needs to be covered.

Charging per kwh for power provided by the company that I use is fine. I use the product, I need to pay for the product.

Charging me for the power my solar panels generate that goes into my battery bank and is used at my house? Not cool at all.

Disconnecting my service because I don't use enough? Not cool at all.

The power company doesn't provide the sunlight hitting my panels. The power company doesn't transfer power between my panels and my batteries. The power company does not transfer power from my batteries to my lights and outlets.

In what world should I pay the power company for a service or product they do not provide?

Much like paying a water company for using my own well even if I have no water service provided.