SDG&E Minimum Charge Adjustment Changed May 1st

[RichardCullip]

On May 1st SDG&E made a change in the way the Minimum Charge Adjustment is calculated. Prior to the change NBCs were included in the Minimum Charge Adjustment. Now they are excluded and are a separate charge outside the Minimum Charge Adjustment calculation. NBCs are now truly non-by-passable and aren't included in the Minimum Charge Adjustment.

As a net producer, who has been just been paying the Daily Minimum Charge (~$10/month), this has effectively raised my overall rate by ~50%. I now pay the Daily Minimum Charge plus pay for any NBCs I incur from drawing power from the grid. Granted this is not a big dollar amount(~$5.00/month for my current usage pattern) but it looks quite big from a percentage change perspective.

Anyone else affected by this change?

[J.P.M.]

I'll not be affected until NBCs get charged to MEM 1.0 users.

[slinthicum]

What are "NBCs"?

[RichardCullip]

In California NBCs are non-bypassable charges which are per-kilowatt hour charges that are built into utility electric rates. They add up to approximately 2-3 cents per kWh and go towards funding energy efficiency, low-income customer assistance, and other related program.

[slinthicum]

Thanks for the response. If that "low-income customer assistance" includes SDG&E's CARE program, I'm happy to pay it as I've witnessed its outcomes for a couple of my neighbors who were unable to replace old refrigerators, furnaces, etc., due to financial costs.

[J.P.M.]

In California NBCs are non-bypassable charges which are per-kilowatt hour charges that are built into utility electric rates. They add up to approximately 2-3 cents per kWh and go towards funding energy efficiency, low-income customer assistance, and other related program.

Further to that, besides the PPP (Public Purpose Programs), the NBC is also composed of the ND (Nuclear Decommissioning) charge, the CTC (Competition Transition Charge) of the UDC (Utility Distribution Charge). The UDC is the part of the total per kWh rate that is not associated with the actual charge for the energy, that is, somewhat oversimplified, the UDC is what the POCO charges to maintain the infrastructure that gets the electricity to the customer. Add to that the NBC includes the DWR bond charge.

Currently, the total NBC rate for SDG & E residential NEM-ST users (NEM 2.0 and above) is $0.0262/kWh.

The PPP portion of NBC is currently $0.01851 or about 71% of the total NBC.

[Ampster]

An additional anecdote, The DRW bond charge is what all Californians are paying for the State bail out of the utilities from the Enron gaming the newly deregulated energy system in California in the early part of this century. A lot of what Enron did was illegal but unfortunately this part of their manipulation was ruled by the Bankruptcy Judge as legal.

[RichardCullip]

An additional anecdote, The DRW bond charge is what all Californians are paying for the State bail out of the utilities from the Enron gaming the newly deregulated energy system in California in the early part of this century. A lot of what Enron did was illegal but unfortunately this part of their manipulation was ruled by the Bankruptcy Judge as legal.

SDG&E obscures that fact as they have recently changed that line item on their bills to read "Wildfire Fund Charge"

[slinthicum]

Two months ago I wrote an article as a guest blogger (uncompensated) that relates to an energy monitor and smart plugs that I purchased. Having worked at data collection, I'm thinking of doing a follow-up article that focuses on a single SDG&E billing period and how scheduling energy usage makes sense. I am amazed at the practical value in terms of providing accurate data that will enable me to structure energy use in ways to lessen the impact of higher charges imposed by my utility provider. Attached will be one of the exhibits I include in the article. It reflects both in terms of energy use and cost, days where solar production exceeds energy consumption (good days) and days where energy consumption exceeds solar production.


Yesterday was a perfect example of a "bad day." Here in the San Diego area on weekends, we have an extended "super off-peak" rate that runs from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We purposely schedule laundry activities for Saturday mornings to take advantage of the lower energy rate. With the washer and dryer running non-stop during this period, coupled with the lack of sun due to marine layer cloud coverage, consumption exceeded production by 16.2877 kWh at a cost of approximately $6.03. May and June here near the ocean are often cloudy (hence why they are known as "May Gray" and "June Gloom"). I'm nevertheless pleased with production exceeding use for the billing period at approximately $55. That will come in handy in December when daylight hours are short.

Steve

[J.P.M.]

Two months ago I wrote an article as a guest blogger (uncompensated) that relates to an energy monitor and smart plugs that I purchased. Having worked at data collection, I'm thinking of doing a follow-up article that focuses on a single SDG&E billing period and how scheduling energy usage makes sense. I am amazed at the practical value in terms of providing accurate data that will enable me to structure energy use in ways to lessen the impact of higher charges imposed by my utility provider. Attached will be one of the exhibits I include in the article. It reflects both in terms of energy use and cost, days where solar production exceeds energy consumption (good days) and days where energy consumption exceeds solar production.


Yesterday was a perfect example of a "bad day." Here in the San Diego area on weekends, we have an extended "super off-peak" rate that runs from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We purposely schedule laundry activities for Saturday mornings to take advantage of the lower energy rate. With the washer and dryer running non-stop during this period, coupled with the lack of sun due to marine layer cloud coverage, consumption exceeded production by 16.2877 kWh at a cost of approximately $6.03. May and June here near the ocean are often cloudy (hence why they are known as "May Gray" and "June Gloom"). I'm nevertheless pleased with production exceeding use for the billing period at approximately $55. That will come in handy in December when daylight hours are short.

Steve

Re: In the interest of providing accurate data to structure energy use: I can't find a SDG & E T.O.U rate schedule that has weekend/holiday super off peak times from 6 A.M. to 12 noon.
Which residential rate schedule are you on ?
There are super off peak weekend/holiday rate times from midnight to 2.P.M. for the SDG & E T.O.U. rate schedules.

Q: Ever consider a solar clothes dryer for the heavy/bulky stuff in lieu of what's probably electric clothes drying ? Works great for me. Just sayin'.

[slinthicum]

For EV02, the weekend Super Off-Peak extends beyond the 6 A.M. change all the way to 2 P.M. My problem with a solar clothes dryer is HOA-related. No clotheslines are permitted. I reference 2 P.M., not noon.

[J.P.M.]

For EV02, the weekend Super Off-Peak extends beyond the 6 A.M. change all the way to 2 P.M. My problem with a solar clothes dryer is HOA-related. No clotheslines are permitted. I reference 2 P.M., not noon.

On the super off peak times:
My error on writing "6 A.M. to 12 noon". I erred and so misquoted you. My apologies to you, the membership and others reading that post.

However, what you wrote is still, IMO only, less than correct or at least incomplete and so possibly risks misinforming readers.
There is no 6 A.M. extension for weekend/holiday super off hours. The time runs from 12 midnight to 2 P.M.
Weekend/holiday hours are just weekend/holiday hours..
They are not modified weekday hours.
The reality is that, at this time, the super off peak times for weekends/holidays start at midnight and end at 2 P.M. civil time, not the 6 A.M. readers may have inferred as you wrote it.

That they are simply the weekday hours extended beyond the 6 A.M. weekday changeover time is, IMO only, at least a less than helpful description of the situation.

Weekend super off peak hours are not "extended" hours relative to the weekday hour schedules any more than the weekday super off peak hours are "reduced" relative to weekend/holiday hours.

What you're writing about is what's been known as "time shifting" both here and elsewhere for a long time.
There's not really a big mystery to it. It goes like this: Simply perform tasks - usually the ones that use the most energy - when that energy costs the least - with those available low cost times that are most convenient (or least inconvenient) to one's daily schedule likely taking priority.
To get the optimum times only needs the effort to look at a T.O.U. rate schedule.

FWIW, I've found in years of discussions with many neighbors and other friends that the rub is the likely required change in daily habits is less likely to happen as folks generally seem less inclined to consider time shifting of tasks or even investigate doing so because it involves a change - with that change also often viewed as an attempt at manipulation of their lifestyle by the POCO. Besides, it's easier to bitch and moan about how badly they're getting boned by their POCO rather than do something proactive about it. If all that about inconvenience, which is again my opinion only, were not true, I suspect people would also bitch about having to charge their EV's between midnight and 6 A.M., but I don't hear or read a lot of that.

Seems to me it's more of a motivational challenge than a conceptual one to get involved in time shifting.

On the clothesline thing: See sec. 4753(d) - (e) of the CA civil code. That section of the law prohibits HOAs from a blanket prohibition on outdoor clothes drying apparatus. It does not prohibit HOA's from "establishing and enforcing reasonable rules governing clotheslines and drying racks". +

Although case law seems to be either sparce or non-existent at this time, the consensus among HOA's and their lawyers seems to be that an HOA can't prohibit a clothesline in a "backyard" if that backyard is for the HOA member's or tenant's exclusive use. That may be of some use to you or others reading this. Anecdotally, I belong to 2 HOA's, one in no. San Diego county and one in La Quinta, both of them pretty strack with respect to rules, and that's pretty much how they handle the clothesline issue.

[slinthicum]

Thanks for the reference to CC Section 4753(d)-(e). My backyard is adjacent to a common greenbelt area, and although not viewable from the street or neighbor's yards, I suspect battlelines are drawn, particularly after my actions a couple of years ago where I forced the HOA to provide gardening services as they do on the other greenbelt areas because it is akin to an unattractive nuisance (steep hill) and a resident might get hurt doing gardening work.

[Ampster]

SDG&E obscures that fact as they have recently changed that line item on their bills to read "Wildfire Fund Charge"

I think I have two wildrire funds with PG&E since they went into Bankruptcy recently because of wildfilre liabilities.. None of the details show on the bills and one has to drill down to the unbundled tarrifs to actually see the details The DRW Bond charge goes back to 2002 and I saw some reference that it did not apply to certain tiers for SDG&E, We are also paying for Nuclear decommissioning. The bond charge should be in its final years if I remember correctly,

[ybitz]

I got my May bill and noticed this exact same thing about NBC not counting towards Minimum Charge Adjustment. I called SDGE and talked to their solar billing department and they were just as confused as I was in explaining the bill to me, and it wasn't until I read this post that it made sense. Was this change on May 1st publicized? I can't find any info about this online. Was this something that CPUC had authorized?