as someone who just recently got solar
and by recently I mean it's only been a
couple months and I've only gone through
a few bills it's been a little bit of a
learning experience in terms of how I'm
actually getting billed getting paid and
getting credited for the solar I'm
producing the problem being right now
I'm with We Energies and Milwaukee
Wisconsin We Energies the biggest
utility in Wisconsin and even the people
in charge of the solar department or
Renewable Energy install department
couldn't give me a straight answer and
basically they just gave up and said
just wait until you get your first bill
and you'll pretty much see how it works
at that point because they couldn't
follow the utilities billing practices
either and I want to show you exactly
how they're screwing over the solar
customer as well as how they're very
confusing rates work and how it's
actually going to end up hurting the
utility as compared to helping utility
so let's first look at the rates I've
rounded the rates to the nearest cent
so for flat rate well at 13 cents
because it's actually like 13 points
something like so we just rounded up and
that up or down to the nearest cent will
say peak is 19 cents a kilowatt hour and
off-peak is 9 cents per kilowatt hour
now so the best bet if you have a system
that's really not over producing and
it's about breaking even with how much
power you're using on a monthly basis
then flat rate is actually where you
want to be so say you produce now with
flat rate say you produce let's just say
1000 kilowatt hours and it's actually 1
megawatt but it's easier to say just
kilowatt hours because that is what
you're generally billed at okay so if
your produce 1000 kilowatt hours
and you only use a good key for produce
use two 980 kilowatt hours and it's
going to you for use that means you have
a difference of 20 kilowatt hours that
the utility would then have to pay you
for if you're on a reimbursement plan
now that means on the flat rate you
would be getting paid about it's about
five cents a kilowatt hour or it's oh no
no we're looking at more about four
cents a kilowatt hour of course we're
not being exactly accurate here so you'd
be paid about eighty cents for that
excess kilowatt hour usage likewise if
you reverse it and you use the thousand
and you produced nine hundred and eighty
now you'd have to pay the difference
which would be 20 kilowatt hours times
thirteen cents so you'd have to pay the
utility two dollars and sixty cents for
what you used that you did not produce
so if you're using I mean real close
around what you are producing plus or
minus a bit you're better off actually
on flat rate if you're using nowhere
near what you're producing you're better
off on a time of service and let's
switch over to time a service here their
time of use so you have now peak and off
peak usage now where this comes in
beneficial is you are going to get paid
more now when is your solar generally
producing more that's right
during the daytime at least here daytime
productions about five cents
kilowatt hour and off-peak production so
peak here is considered 7:00 a.m. to
7:00 p.m. weekdays which is where the
demand highest demand usages for the
utility off-peak nights weekends 7:00
p.m. 7:00 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m. so
basically think of it like your cell
phone whenever your cell phones got free
certain you know unlimited minutes for
free of course all the plans pretty much
have unlimited nowadays it's a similar
concept and off-peak you're getting paid
about four cents a kilowatt hour so
likewise if you're not using anywhere
near you're going to be getting paid
more for your overproduction now here
comes a little bit of a problem
that is where nobody could answer my
question they finally just said just
wait until you get your bill what the
problem was is I've always for the last
14 years I've been on time view service
so I pretty much put timers on
everything I could switched all my usage
as much as I could to off-peak usage
because I am paying less now they
recently jacked it up in January 1st
2015 we used to pay five cents a
kilowatt hour on off-peak which was
amazing then they raised it up to nine
cents just like that and of course they
lowered on peak but nobody uses time
service for on peak usage here's where
the problem is I charge my car at night
so that's here evse
whatever this and my car's plugged in at
night so I was always thought I'm taking
advantage of my time of service charging
at night I pay a lower rate however I'm
generating more during the day so let's
say I generated one megawatt that month
and I only used so our produce and I
used say 800 kilowatt hours but I used
more of that power at night now the way
and this is how the employees at the
power company thought it worked as well
they thought first all my usage is
subtracted from my production so it
would be minus 800 which would mean I
would have 200 kilowatt hour over
production now this isn't quite accurate
in terms of what I'm actually producing
but I'm trying to keep it simple for in
terms of explaining it to you all so
technically I would have had two hundred
kilowatt hour over production which is
great right you're thinking okay I have
over production since I'm generating it
during the day I would get the daytime
day rate and nitrate I would get the day
rate in terms of getting paid back so
you would have thought two hundred
kilowatt hour times five cents would
have been $10 wrong very wrong and this
is where I could not get the straight
damn answer what they were actually
doing was subtracting out now I am
generating some solar off because you
got you got weekends so you get Saturday
and Sunday which is off-peak so I'm
generating at the four cents a kilowatt
hour now not all my usage was daytime
power but now let's give for an example
a not particularly sunny day or sunny
month so more like a winter month so say
now
out of that thousand or thousand
kilowatt hours or one megawatt I
generated say 700 during daytime a she's
different right 700 during the day and
300 kilowatt hour and at night okay
great
but out of that 800 that I used I used
say 500 at night and I used 300 during
the day okay so seven six five four four
those have prom counting
so that means 400 IU I had over
production of 400 kilowatt hour during
the daytime but I had a negative
production for night or or our off-peak
so I had a negative balance of kilowatts
of 200 at night you're thinking well
they should have just subtracted
everything from the daytime right wrong
very very wrong instead what they then
did is they paid me the daytime rate for
what I over produced on the daytime so
we're at 400 over production times five
cents
so
that would have been $20 bear with me
here yes it looks like I made more money
but that's incorrect
now I used two hundred kilowatt at night
and that was not part of the nighttime
production so now I have I must pay so
I'm paying nine cents a kilowatt so we
got two hundred kilowatt hours times
nine cents eighteen eighteen dollars I
just paid so they credited me twenty
dollars but I paid eighteen so twenty
dollars that they credited me because I
over produce minus the 18 I had to pay
because I overused meant I still owed
them or actually they only owed me two
dollars so that is their trickery to get
them so they don't have to pay the ten
they only had to pay me two what does
this basically mean this means that what
incentive do I have to use the utilities
over production at night I have no
incentive whatsoever anymore I'm
actually better off charging my car at
80 amps during the daytime filling her
up during peak hours and then just using
my power whenever I feel like it in fact
it would cost me less to use the
utilities peak power because I'm
producing more solar during peak times
now the only time now this would
actually not work out in your favor
would be if you had such a giant system
now I have a 5.9 kilowatt hour system or
kill a lot kilowatt system now if I had
the utilities maximum over 20 kilowatt
system then I'd be producing enough on
the off-peak just from the weekends or
I'd be able to erase my off peak usage
altogether this is also where something
like a tesla powerwall will come in
extremely handy because say I had one
power wall which is a 14 kilowatt hour
capacity power wall it'll charge up
during peak times so yeah I wouldn't
technically be producing as much during
peak but I would be able to use that on
the off peak and of course it would only
take what I used or what I need from the
power wall so I would be able to
subtract now say just for ease of ease
of mathematics here all right so I used
500 on the off-peak so 1430 days times
14 kilowatt hours would mean 400 the
power wall in 30 days would be able to
supply me with four HUP - 420 kilowatt
hour of off-peak power and once you add
that to what you actually did produce on
Saturday and Sunday yet actually come
out really ahead of the game and it's
not something that would pay off right
away but over time it would and then
usually working out it would really be
working out great now if you pair a
power wall along with a 20 kilowatt or
whatever such massive overproduction
you can continue to use your off-peak
and then just reap them as many benefits
of on peak generation and pay back the
five cents now once in when they change
their our rates are our time of service
rates in 2015 they also change the whole
payback schedule it used to be whenever
you generated it that's what you got
paid whatever the going rate was so if
you generated it on peak TOS used to be
able to get paid the 19 cents generated
off-peak you got paid nine cents which
was great it basically just negative
everything out so that is pretty much
how the utility is working around
because it knows very few people are
going to put a massive system on their
roofs a lot of people just don't have
the rough space to put enough to fill up
and really over produce so instead
they're reaping the benefits of being
able to pay out $2 instead of $10 just
as a mathematical example as we move
into summer we'll see how it works
Tesla also owes me a power wall - from a
referral program I think I don't know if
I have one two or three coming anymore
the whole referral program is completely
messed up they have no management of a
good no proper management / whatsoever
they're over two years behind in getting
out referral prizes so once that shows
up they're saying hopefully this summer
we'll be able to see what kind of
difference it will make I hope this
helped explain to you just a little bit
different ways of going about it and
obviously you can switch from pink you
know time service to flat rate and back
and forth so on and so on it's time for
me to go if you have questions post
below and I'll try to answer them and do
update in future video
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