Got my annual net metering adjustment

[electrofelon]

The way it works here is you have an "anniversary month" where the POCO zeros out any surplus and pays you for it at the wholesale rate. I had about 3600 KWH surplus and got a wopping $56! That is like 1.56 cents/ KWH. Seems low, I thought it would be more like 3-4 cents. I tried looking up the rates, LOL, that is harder than getting a price on a medical procedure.....I did find the "SC6 rate tariff" and its like 450 pages long. I may have to just trust them on this.

 

[texie]

The days of net metering at retail are over. Can't blame 'em. Why would they pay retail for the privilege of supporting a customer that buys so little.

 

[electrofelon]

The days of net metering at retail are over. Can't blame 'em. Why would they pay retail for the privilege of supporting a customer that buys so little.

To be clear, they do net meter at retail, but the surplus after a year is paid at the wholesale rate. This is National Grid, they are actually quite solar friendly.

 

[mivey]

One main factor is the glut of natural gas resources has driven down the cost of NG and with so many NG turbine units on the margin it drives down the electric energy market. Around 2 cents has been the norm lately which is low as you would normally expect 3-5 cents.

Another factor is the added cost of varying output DG. Things like still having to have a dispatchable resource available if the DG is not working or producing at full output. Or added cost for protection and/or power quality equipment, depending on the DG saturation level. These costs, al9ngbwith inter-tie costs, may be allocated to the DG rate because of cost causation.

 

[electrofelon]

One main factor is the glut of natural gas resources has driven down the cost of NG and with so many NG turbine units on the margin it drives down the electric energy market. Around 2 cents has been the norm lately which is low as you would normally expect 3-5 cents.

Another factor is the added cost of varying output DG. Things like still having to have a dispatchable resource available if the DG is not working or producing at full output. Or added cost for protection and/or power quality equipment, depending on the DG saturation level. These costs, al9ngbwith inter-tie costs, may be allocated to the DG rate because of cost causation.

But the POCO does say it will be paid at the SC6 rate which as far as I can tell is the general wholesale rate, not a DG specific rate. I didn't feel like digging thru that 450 page document to try and find the rate, I just arrived at that 1.5 cents by taking the "annual net metering adjustment" line item and dividing by the kwh surplus.

 

[electrofelon]

And just to be clear, I'm not complaining, just curious

 

[BandGap1.1eV]

Why not find a few friendly neighbors and virtually net meter some power their way for, say, a 10% discount off their normal $/kWh rate?

 

[electrofelon]

Why not find a few friendly neighbors and virtually net meter some power their way for, say, a 10% discount off their normal $/kWh rate?

I think my POCO would do virtual net metering in some applications, but I dont think in this case they will split it across two or several different meters.

 

[mivey]

But the POCO does say it will be paid at the SC6 rate which as far as I can tell is the general wholesale rate, not a DG specific rate. I didn't feel like digging thru that 450 page document to try and find the rate, I just arrived at that 1.5 cents by taking the "annual net metering adjustment" line item and dividing by the kwh surplus.

The excess energy credit would be part of a DG rate. In your case, it appears the avoided cost credit is in their SC6 schedule. The avoided cost of 1.5 cents is close to what I have seen for market energy costs lately.

 

[mivey]

I think my POCO would do virtual net metering in some applications, but I dont think in this case they will split it across two or several different meters.

They wouldn't here. Only one supplier per meter.

 

[Zee]

Nice!
How many kwh/kW installed did you generate annually?

 

[electrofelon]

Nice!
How many kwh/kW installed did you generate annually?

I have about 16 KW DCwhich makes 19-20 thousand KWH/yr.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Did you not pay any monthly bills?

 

[Hv&Lv]

The excess energy credit would be part of a DG rate. In your case, it appears the avoided cost credit is in their SC6 schedule. The avoided cost of 1.5 cents is close to what I have seen for market energy costs lately.

Wow... I think we are at 4.25 Cents per kWh on the avoided wholesale rate now, which is what we pay our solar accounts.

 

[gadfly56]

I think my POCO would do virtual net metering in some applications, but I dont think in this case they will split it across two or several different meters.

If they let you offset your neighbors consumption with your kW-hrs they don't get paid the retail rate for their consumption nor do they discount your overproduction. Yeah, I'm not seeing a lot of love from the POCO side for that arrangement.

 

[Hv&Lv]

If they let you offset your neighbors consumption with your kW-hrs they don't get paid the retail rate for their consumption nor do they discount your overproduction. Yeah, I'm not seeing a lot of love from the POCO side for that arrangement.

I don’t know why they would...
how many miles of wires, poles, and equipment do you own?
there’s a lot of overhead in a POCO.

 

[gadfly56]

I don’t know why they would...
how many miles of wires, poles, and equipment do you own?
there’s a lot of overhead in a POCO.

Hey, I'm not blaming the POCO. If it were up to me, I'd stick the whole renewables tariff scheme and RET requirements in File 13.

 

[electrofelon]

Did you not pay any monthly bills?

Just $17 per month service charge. As I said earlier I had about 3600 KWH annual surplus but I'll chew through that more next time when I get my basement remodel done and start heating that with electric.

 

[Zee]

I have about 16 KW DCwhich makes 19-20 thousand KWH/yr.

That is a huge system!

so about 1,250 kWh per kW.

 

[electrofelon]

I think my POCO would do virtual net metering in some applications, but I dont think in this case they will split it across two or several different meters.

So a bit of a correction to this previous statement I made.

"On June 1, 2011, New York expanded behind-the-meter generation and established Remote Net Metering for renewable energy systems to allow the electricity generated to be distributed among many utility accounts. Utilities must now allow farm and non-residential customers the ability to apply the excess net metering credits they earn under Net Metering to other accounts they own. The account to which the renewable energy system is connected is called the Host Account and must be a commercial or a farm account. Residential customers cannot take advantage of remote net metering as the host turbine site. The account or accounts that will receive the excess net metering credits are called the Satellite Account(s). A satellite account cannot be a net metered account (i.e. a renewable energy source is already connected to it), but it may be a residential account. All accounts must be in the same name, from the same service utility, and reasonably close to each other. The individual utility tariffLink opens in new window - close new window to return to this page. spells out the meaning of these concepts."