New Member wanted to say Hi.

[joanne58]

New Member needs help from professionals
From Murrieta Ca. I can sure use your help. It's a long story but I will try to be brief.

First of all, I knew nothing about how solar worked, net metering, Lease systems etc. On the other hand, because I am a Real estate lender, I saw a lot of contracts that we had to subordinate to our first mortgages. Most payments were averaging 189.-200 per month.

My daughter and I bought a house that had an existing lease from Sunpower. The lease started in Dec 2014 for 20yrs. As you all know, it is mandatory that the lease be paid off or assumed, no other choice. So reluctantly it was assigned over to me of which I put a clause in that I was forced to sign this lease. But that means nothing.
This is what I got:

The system is 34 Panels with a maximum rated capacity of 11.12 KW-DC. A production guarantee of
17934:19822 the first year. And production guarantee goes down 40 Kw per year thereafter. The
payments of 346 78 is based on .22 cents per kilowatt charged at the average of production guarantee of 18878
and the last 3 years at ,23 cents per kilowatt.

Keep in mind this was a contract in 2014. 346.78 monthly lease payment. I knew something wasn't right but like most consumers, I didn't know what.

One year later, my bill from SCE was 4200.that I owed. So, know my energy savings (or not) is 350 from SCE and 346.78 from solar= 696.78

I had to figure out what happened, which entailed learning about the solar energy, net metering, the PPA's, The lease, etc...

I'm sorry if I am boring you but stay with me if you could.

1. We all know your lease payment is based upon your costs per kwh and the expected amount of production the first year.

in 2014 .22 cents per KWH was an extremely over inflated cost. I don't have the exact prices from that year but looking at the previous owners one bill, it looked like the highest tier was 18 cents per KWH

Well, it's pretty obvious you're not going to save anything on solar.

2. The system was never going to produce more than 16,700 KWH the first year as this was told to me in an email from an analysis of Sunpower.

So now not only do I pay 22 cents per KWH but on an amount based on 18,878.

3. Recently SCE developed software that actually shows the amount of energy received by solar. MY ACTUAL ONE YEAR PRODUCTION OF ENERGY FROM SUNPOWER WAS 12,000 kWH. IN 2021

4. This brings me to Sunpower's monitoring system. Which contradicts SCE energy received. Sunpower says 18,700 production and SCE says 12,000

I believe that Sunpower can manipulate the monitoring system and I have other proof for that.


So of course, the contract states you must arbitrate, and you can't engage in any class action lawsuits. So, I could not find an attorney to take the case. So, I filed myself one year ago.

Summary

We are getting close to the hearing and Sunpower gives me documents and blacks out information that has to do with what they paid the installer as incentives bonuses etc.... saying its confidential. Then they send 2500 pages over of stuff I don't even understand what they are saying. There are no proposals that exist that can show consumer how the consumer may save money.

But I am going to lose, because I have the burden of proving my case. I don't have an expert witness that can explain to a judge what they were doing, nor do I have the knowledge to prove what I think they did. And really the average consumer doesn't understand this whole world of solar energy.

So, I ask all of you out there, do you know of someone that will advocate for the consumer as an expert witness or do you know of any attorney's that are willing to take over in an arbitration hearing?

Or can you tell me where I can find more legal cases that are similar to mine?

Sorry if this was to long

Thanks

Joanne

[Ampster]

I don't know if I can offer much help. All I can do is try to explain how net metering works and help you understand the numbers. Based on Sunpower's estimate and what you posted the 18.000 kWhs sounds like a reasonable number. Remember, what you produce is used by your home before it is exported to the grid. Therefore it may be possible that all your power company saw as a net amount exported to them was 12,000 kWhs. To you that may seem like a discrepancy. but Sunrun may point to the SCE numbers and simply point out the the result is that you consumed 6,000 kWhs. Unless you have consumption data to prove you consumed less, you won't have much of a basis to prove that the Sunpower numbers are incorrect. 6000 kWhs per year is 500 kWhs per month and only 17kwhs per day which may be reasonable depending on where you live. What you consume is not a matter of contract between you and Sunpower, The panels produced what they were expected to produce. What you consume is not part of the contract.

You can try to call that manipulation but 18,000kWhs on an 11kW system is a reasonable estimate and consistent with some typical metrics and within the ballpark of what Sunpower estimated.
I hate to be blunt, but you assumed an onerous contract and there is not much I can offer to help, except that this is a good lesson for other readers. If it makes you feel better, my daughter and her husband purchased a home in 2017 with a Solar City lease (Power Purchase Agreement) on it. Despite my advice to negotiate a removal of the solar panels, this was their dream home and they did not want to rock the boat. They are living with that decision for the rest of the term.
There are a lot of cases like yours, and the Solar companies have spent considerable resources writing contracts that do not give you many options. I am not a lawyer but I have spent lots of money on lawyers and obtained good value from those expenditures, but if I understand the facts correctly, you would be wasting your time trying to fight this contract which you assumed.

[OCJ]

I can see why you can't find anyone to take this case because you have no case. As Ampster pointed out you do not understand the numbers or how solar works.

I want to focus instead on helping you understand your energy usage, and how you can reduce your bill.

First, you have a system that produces a lot, so that's great. You should also be grandfathered on NEM 1.0, which is ideal.

Second, SCE rates are now $.29 for the lowest tier, so you are actually ahead of the game now thanks to California's insane increases by the IOUs. So it's $.29 for Tier 1, $.37 for Tier 2, and $.47 for high usage. You may have been switched to TOU though but that is still going to be between $.23 at the lowest off-peak and $.67 at the highest on-peak.

So, what's happening here? There are a few possibilities:

1. For whatever reason, your system is OFF and not producing at all so you are getting no credits with SCE.
2. Your account is not set up correctly with SCE.
3. You use a TON of electricity.

So, how do you address this?

1. You need to get access to the monitoring software for your system. Do you have access? If not, get it. The fact that SCE recorded 12,000 kWh of export means your system is likely working. However, accessing the monitoring may be good for you to understand how the solar curve works and how your usage compares to it.

2. Post a bill here (preferably your last bill in the 12-month relevant cycle) and your True-Up Bill. You can also message me seperately and I can take a look at it. The fact that you had a True-Up means it's probably set up correctly.

3. You need to understand your usage. SDG&E has daily, hourly, and even 15-minute graphs, I imagine SCE has something similar. If you can post some screenshots of 15-minute graph for days in June, July, August, and September that would help me understand your usage. Also, get one of these: Emporia Utility Vue Connect. If you are using a boatload of electricity, this device taps into your utility meter and gives you usage to the second. You can walk around your house and turn things off and on see their usage in almost real time.