AB 920 Update

Here at OCRenewables, we have eagerly anticipated the implementation of AB 920. Here's a great article from the Solar Home and Business Journal on the latest developments.

California Solar Owners to Start Gaining Payments for Net Surplus Generation

Some highlights from the article:

Although fewer than 10 percent of solar PV system owners are expected to be affected, and the compensation in most cases will be small, the frequency with which this question comes up demonstrates that it packs a symbolic wallop.
Conversations with hundreds of small-scale prospective solar owners suggest that a majority believe that they are entitled to be paid for excess generation at the highest retail price they pay the utility to provide electricity to them, not the wholesale price the utility pays conventional suppliers.

They aren’t going to get it, at least not yet.

Under a proposed decision by an administrative law judge in a proceeding before the California Public Utilities Commission, the compensation for net surplus generation is to be based on a formula suggested by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. that reflects short-term wholesale electricity prices. Because these prices vary, the plan calls for averaging out 12 months of daily fluctuations.
In 2009, the average price for Pacific Gas and Electric was a nickel per kilowatt-hour for energy purchased between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. The draft decision calls for adding a payment to the wholesale electricity price that reflects the cleaner-energy attributes of solar or other renewable generation. This amount is to be based on the average market price of renewable energy credits, which are not yet traded on a public market in California. Under other pricing mechanisms suggested by the utilities, the added compensation for cleaner energy could have ranged from about 1 to 3 cents per kilowatt-hour.

According to Pacific Gas and Electric, a total of 2,450 customers on net energy metering were net exporters of electricity in 2009. Of those, more than 40 percent had net surplus generation of only 100 kilowatt-hours or less annually. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. said it had fewer than 1,000 customers who would have been eligible for net surplus compensation, while Southern California Edison reported fewer than 1,500 would have been eligible. At 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, the average annual payment would have been less than $125 in the service areas of SCE and SDG&E, the proposed decision said.

We will continue to keep you posted on this important development as events warrant.

AB 920 update

From our good friends at CleanTechnica...

AB 920 now gives solar homeowners two additional options for the excess kilowatt-hours in our credit at the end of the year.  We now have the option of rolling over month-to-month indefinitely – banking credits for later, when we can finally buy an electric car, maybe! – or we can take the cash at the end of each year. (The exact cash amount won’t be finalized by the CPUC till By January 1, 2011.)
So, if you are installing solar this year, you should feel free to overbuild your solar system, because now you can be paid cash (or rollover credits) for the excess. But be sure to sign up for one or other of the new end-of-year credits options with your solar estimator. Otherwise, per DSIRE: “If the customer makes no affirmative election for either option, the utility will be granted their NEG at the end of the 12 month period with no compensation to the customer”.
OC Renewables will be keeping a close eye on this going forward. Keep us posted as well if and when you hear the latest!