Southern California Edison recently released new rates that will impact the way residential customers are billed in a significant way. Currently planned for October 2020, SCE will be switching all residential customers over to Time Of Use rates, which have dynamic pricing that varies throughout the day and time of year. The specifics of these rates are shown below, with 3 rates available.
For customers considering solar, this also impacts the value of any electricity produced by the solar panels. When customers go solar, they are required to switch to one of these Time Of Use rates. Since SCE offers retail rate Net Energy Metering, meaning any kilowatt-hours sent back to the grid are credited at whatever the retail rate is at that time, these varying time periods change the value of billing credits from solar depending on the time of day they are generated. This can of course impact the effectiveness of a solar system, which typically produces electricity from 8 AM to 6 PM each day.
With rate analysis software, our engineers can simulate how a solar system would work to offset your electricity costs on an hourly basis. Your specific usage can be downloaded from your SCE customer portal via a Green Button Data format. Our engineers will then design a solar layout specific to your roof, and run an analysis with your Green Button Data to see how much money you will save. In most cases, a solar system can offset 70-95% of your electricity costs by offsetting your annual kilowatt-hour consumption by 120% with solar panels.
Otherwise, a battery storage system can also work to minimize electricity costs by reducing the amount solar panels needed to achieve the same savings. While a battery can add to the upfront cost of the system, it gives you flexibility in storing versus deploying the electricity generated by solar, which is evermore important with Time Of Use rates.
For more information on Southern California Edison’s new residential rates, visit SCE.
Jake Cosmo is a leading expert in energy analysis and renewable technologies with Barnes Solar. He is a seasoned industry professional with experience in engineering, system design and project development. He can be contacted directly at 949-371-9375 or Jake@BarnesSolar.com.