Thoughts on Solar

Fire rages in Altadena. Photo courtesy Joe Stanek

One week ago, the Eaton fire erupted, apparently at the base of a Southern California Edison (SCE) transmission tower. (SCE denies responsibility). Driven by hurricane force winds, the wildfire spread rapidly during the night and through Wednesday morning. Damage assessments are ongoing, but satellite imaging suggests that more than 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed. Large swathes of Altadena - one of our prime service areas - have been reduced to rubble. (To date, only 30% of the fire zone has been inspected to verify the extent of the damage. Los Angeles County has an interactive map that contains the data about inspected properties, including photos to show either the damage or lack thereof. You can find that map here.)

Recovery is going to be long and painful. Here are a few useful facts regarding homes with solar systems in light of the Eaton fire:

• Is your solar system covered by your homeowner’s insurance? YES - the solar system is a fixture on your home and as such it is covered. Of course, limitations on total dollars provided under the policy is another issue, as is whether folks even were able to afford coverage for fires.
  
  
• What happens regarding your SCE interconnection status for NEM or NEM 2.0 - can a replacement system continue under those earlier, and more favorable, net metering arrangements? YES - a replacement system for one that was interconnected under either original NEM or NEM 2.0 can continue under those tariffs for the remainder of the original 20 year term. To qualify, the new system must be in the name of the original owner - properties that are sold do not qualify. The new system can be sized to the prior year’s usage, presumably accounting for the energy that was produced by the solar system as well as what was consumed from SCE. (If you need help documenting that production and you had an Enphase system, we can help with that.) The system must be replaced within four years of the fire. Make sure to photograph the site to be able to prove that the old system was destroyed.
  
  
• What happens if your solar system was leased or under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)? Generally, the lease or PPA should be canceled, but be sure to contact the entity financing your system.
  
  
• What about new home construction in the fire area - will it be required to comply with Title 24 in general and its requirements for solar in particular? On Sunday, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an Executive Order (you can read my Substack post on the EO here) that requires state agencies to make recommendations regarding the applicability of Title 24 (and other regulatory schemes including the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA). In other wildfire disasters, the solar requirement was waived, and that may well be the case here, though folks rebuilding who had solar before will almost certainly want to include it again.

Toward that last point, just before the fire broke out, a client of ours called. Their system was complete and had been tested but was not on as it had not yet received Permission to Operate. It was getting dark, and my client was without power. He wanted to know if we could turn the system on so that they would have power with which to stay informed during the windstorm. I was able to walk him through bringing the system back online and now he had power. Hours later, he was ordered to evacuate. As he put it, “the battery system was critical for us having lights to grab our important things.” Solar and storage for the win!

As we endeavor to adapt to Climate Change - and there can be no doubt that Climate Change played a major role in the extent of this disaster - building more resilient infrastructure will be key. Burying power lines in neighborhoods sure seems like a good idea, particularly in areas where entire city blocks have been destroyed and need to be rebuilt. Residential solar and storage clearly have a role to play here, despite the attacks from the utilities and the CPUC. We look forward to helping with that.

LA Strong!

Recently, I was talking to a client of ours about why they were so fortunate to be going solar as a Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) customer instead of being an SCE customer.  He expressed confusion when I said this, because everything that he had heard made him think the opposite was true!  That made me realize that some education was called for; hence this post!

I can think of three key reasons why going solar in PWP territory is more desirable than it is with SCE:

• True net metering;
• Tiered, not time-of-use rates; and
• No batteries needed! 

There are others - to be sure - such as the ease of dealing with the respective bureaucracies, but for now we will focus on these big three.  Let’s take ‘em one at a time.

True Net Metering

As readers of this blog know only too well, last year brought draconian changes to how solar system owners in SCE territory got compensated for energy that they put onto the grid.

WHAT SOME FOLKS SEEM TO HAVE MISSED IS THAT THESE CHANGES DID NOT AFFECT
PWP CUSTOMERS - AT ALL!!! 

PWP customers who install solar get full retail value for every kWh that they put onto the grid, which ranges from 20¢ - 33¢/kWh, based on the tier that you are in (more on that in a moment).  Pity the poor folks in SCE territory who are getting closer to 7¢/kWh.

PWP is not governed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) so their shenanigans in San Francisco do not torment us.  Rather, it is the Pasadena City Council that has the final say in how solar customers are treated, and let’s just say they have your back in ways that the CPUC clearly does not!

Tiered Versus Time-of-Use (TOU) Rates

SCE is forcing all of their customers onto TOU rates and that means that energy used between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. can cost more than double what it does during the other hours of the day - as much as 61¢/kWh! Ouch!  Of course, most of the year, your solar system is not producing anything during that time period. 

But in PWP territory, the excess energy that you put onto the grid helps drive you out of the top tiers and lowers your overall bill.  Tiered rates are the most beneficial for solar, and PWP has them!

No Batteries Needed!

Batteries - or to use the more technically correct term Energy Storage Systems (ESS) - are costly, take up a lot of space on the wall, and in some areas - Altadena we’re looking at you - there are crazy restrictions on where they can be placed.  Sadly, if you are an SCE customer, the double whammy of no net metering and TOU rates, means you almost have to add an ESS to make going solar sensible.  Oh, and SCE’s power goes out - like a lot.  So having batteries can save you money in the long run and be there when the grid goes down.

Meanwhile, because energy from PWP isn’t priced based on when during the day you use it, you don’t need to store it during the day to offset costs from 4-9 p.m. (What is known as time-of-use arbitrage.)  Moreover, since you get full retail credit for every kWh you put back onto the grid, the grid itself acts very much like a battery for you!  Plus, PWP’s grid rarely goes down - Public Safety Shutdowns are unheard of in PWP territory, but they are a common occurrence for some SCE customers, especially at times of high winds or high heat. (It is 108 as I write this - yikes!)

TL;DR

PWP customers have it sooo good when it comes to adding solar! And while it is too late to save you from that crushing bill you are going to see in October, acting now means you will reap the benefits of adding solar for the next 20+ years! Let’s get started, shall we?

On the heels of the sad announcement of the bankruptcy filing of SunPower - a 39-year-old stalwart of the solar industry - and the loss of 290 jobs in California alone, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) just announced that it will decrease the amount of compensation paid by solar system owners for energy sent back onto the grid!

The CPUC had already slashed the so-called net metering rates with a ruling that took effect a year ago April.  As a result, the payback period for solar installations nearly doubled.  Combined with stubbornly high interest rates and the impact was devastating.  Scores of companies - including a giant like SunPower - closed their doors resulting in thousands of lost jobs.  And for what?  To pad the pockets of the investor-owned utilities like SCE? Outrageous.

But the CPUC isn’t done doing the utilities’ dirty work.  They just finalized a rule change that will slash compensation rates even further!  Starting next year, SCE export compensation will be as low as 3.5¢/kWh!

The only good news - and I’m reaching here because the news is catastrophic - is that for projects that submit interconnection agreements this year, they are insulated from these more draconian compensation rates for nine years.  That means consumers have less than four months to lock in these rates.

Bottom line: if you live in SCE territory and you have been thinking about solar, you owe it to yourself to act now! Give us a call at 626-793-6025, or email us at info@runonsun.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!

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!