Thoughts on Solar

The Washington Post is out today with a disturbing article titled, Where heat waves may cause blackouts, and no surprise, Southern California is one of those places!  The rationale for the headline is straightforward enough: climate change is bringing more consecutive days of heat wave weather, and those extended days of heat cause stress on the electrical grid, including on those transformers you see on power poles in your neighborhood, maybe even in your own backyard.  When overloaded, by both heat and increased demand (from air conditioning, pool pumps, and increasingly EV charging), those transformers can fail, sometimes spectacularly!

SCE is well aware of this issue.  From the article:

The power company Southern California Edison recently warned that climate change will make it so “existing infrastructure will become less efficient, especially inland, resulting in reduced capacity on lines and higher losses in transformers.”

Even if the transformers do not fail, SCE might be required to cut off power during heat wave events, compounding the impact on consumers who now find themselves without AC - or even a fan - during a high heat crisis!

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Adding solar and sufficient storage is a way to thrive during those heat waves knowing that whatever the grid does, your life will pretty much continue as normal.  We are certified installers of Enphase equipment, including their more powerful 5P battery systems.  Get ahead of the curve and give us a call today.  One of these summer days you will be glad that you did!

Once again, Run on Sun has been named to Solar Power World’s Top Solar Contractors list!

As we have in eight of the past ten years, Run on Sun continues to “punch above our weight,” providing quality solutions for residential solar clients.  Looking at the numbers from last year (the 2023 list is based on 2022 installations), Run on Sun went over one megawatt of solar installations!  Not bad for a small shop!

In compiling the data, the folks at Solar Power World also looked at some interesting trends, such as:

• More than 62% of the companies on the list has one or more members who - like Run on Sun Founder & CEO, Jim Jenal - are NABCEP Certified.  (Jim’s been NABCEP certified since 2010!)
  
  
• California is the top state for installations with 24% of all installs done here.  After California are: New York and Texas (both at 13%), followed by Illinois and Florida (12% each)
  
  
• 73% of companies plan to get into home energy management and/or EV-related products
  
  
• REC panels - that we use - were the second most popular choice (accounting for 14% of all installs), behind QCells at 23%.  Interestingly, Panasonic was only 4%.
  
  
• Enphase microinverters were the far and away top choice, accounting for 33% of all installs, followed by SolarEdge at 21%.  Once dominant SMA is down in single digits!  (Lo how the mighty have fallen!)

It is a privilege to be in such fine company, and we look forward to adding to our streak next year!

The Ides of March came and went, and with it access to NEM 2.0!

We - and pretty much every one else in the California solar industry - experienced a mad, last-minute crush as we tried to get as many applications submitted with time to respond to the inevitable kickback from SCE before the final clock strike on April 14th. 

Our oldest filing with the status, “Application Submitted” goes back to February 21st.  That means  18 business days have elapsed since we submitted that application and it has yet to be looked at by anyone at SCE!  Ironically, this isn’t even an application for PV, it is simply a storage addition.  But yeah, things have been busy - that application was number 403,122.  The final application that we submitted on the 15th was number 433,008 - a total of 29,886 applications in 15 business days - that’s crazy!

So now what?  Well, for the next 28 days we wait to see what excuse SCE will find to reject our applications, because we know that they will! Once they do, we will respond before the final re-submission deadline so that all of our submissions end up approved.

As to everyone else in SCE territory, we’re sorry you missed out on the great gold rush of ‘23.  Know, however, that we have the modeling tools needed to accurately estimate your savings under the byzantine formula that is NEM 3.0.  And to all you folks in PWP territory, the good news is that nothing has changed for you!

Onward!

Some people are simply shameless, and it appears that the powers-that-be at SCE are among them. We just got this charming missive from the division at SCE that is responsible for processing Interconnection Applications:

Subject: Extended NEM Application Processing Timelines

Hello Contractors and Installers,

We are currently experiencing a high volume of new NEM applications. As a result, processing timelines are taking longer than expected. Please note, Interconnection Requests (IRs) may exceed our average processing timelines. Although most applications will be reviewed within 10 business days, some may take up to 20 business days to review.

To help mitigate this volume, we strongly recommend that you submit your application and the required documents in complete form, including all signatures and attachments. Ensuring that your applications are submitted in complete form helps us to minimize the number of touchpoints and reduce the application queue.

We request your cooperation and understanding as we work diligently in decreasing the application volume. Please refer to PowerClerk for the latest status of your application. If you have any additional questions, please send an email to Customer.Generation@sce.com.

Sincerely,

Eduyng Castano
Senior Manager of Customer Generation Programs
Southern California Edison

To deem this outrageous is to be way too kind. Gee, I wonder why there is a high volume of applications? Could it be because the bottom is dropping out of solar economics in SCE territory after the April 14th deadline? Who could have predicted that - apart from pretty much everyone who is paying attention. And how is it that SCE can unilaterally change the requirement for them to process applications? Doesn’t the CPUC have something to say about this?

The existing standard of 10 business days - two weeks on the calendar - was already a joke, but now they are saying that “some” applications could take 20 business days - nearly a month! Oh and to add insult to injury, they also raised the application fee - you know, the money that is supposed to cover application processing - by 25%! Must be nice to be able to jack the price that you are charging, while simultaneously reducing the service provided. Aren’t monopolies swell?

This is getting real folks. In an earlier post - find it here - we stated that we couldn’t guarantee NEM 2.0 for applications submitted after March 31st. But given this revision - and zero clarity on which applications might hit that 20-day limit, we need to push things up. RUN ON SUN WILL NOT GUARANTEE NEM 2.0 FOR ANY APPLICATION SUBMITTED AFTER MARCH 15! (The Ides of March indeed!)

This is a terrible way to run a business, but we have no control over the arbitrary nonsense coming from SCE. Please plan accordingly!

It is sometimes said that deadlines focus the mind.  Well, if you are in SCE territory, there is a deadline looming that you need to keep in mind if you are thinking of going solar in the next three years!

The deadline imposed by the CPUC upon SCE customers to get into solar under the existing, far more lucrative NEM 2.0 rules is coming fast.  Here are the key takeaways:

• You must have a complete application in to SCE - and accepted by them - before April 15th!
• SCE loves to reject applications at least once - if that happens to you, so that it isn’t approved before the 15th, you are out of luck!
• YOU DO NOT NEED TO COMPLETE THE PROJECT BY THE DEADLINE!!!  YOU ONLY NEED TO HAVE A COMPLETE APPLICATION BY THEN.
• Projects can be completed anytime within three years of submission!

I know people don’t think this way, but if adding solar is on your “to-do” list but realistically not for a year or two, YOU NEED TO GET YOUR APPLICATION ON FILE NOW!  It’s crazy, and it isn’t how we want to do business, but these are the cards we’ve been dealt.

One last point - this only applies to SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E customers.  If your utility isn’t one of those three, your fine, this does not affect you at all.