genability.com | Tariff News

Notice on SMUD Tariff R-TOD-SSR, March - July 2022

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (“SMUD”) introduced a new Solar and Storage tariff for solar customers (Rate Schedule “R-TOD-SSR”), which took effect on March 1, 2022. SMUD published documentation regarding the revised tariff structure on their website: https://www.smud.org/-/media/Documents/Rate-Information/Rates/01_SSR.ashx
genability.com | Tariff News

California Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM3)

California is updating its Net Energy Metering policies in 2022, commonly referred to as NEM3.0. Genability customers can rely on Genability providing full support for them. Ahead of the publication of the final NEM 3 tariffs and rates, Genability has publishing a set of Tariffs with the latest proposed rate structures for customers to use. Once details are available, the finalized tariffs and rates will be published for all to use. In this blog post we track updates as the policies and rate changes firm up. We recommend checking back hear from time to time to get the lastest.
genability.com | Company

Whats new with Genability

Like many companies, the start of a new year is a time when Genability’s goals and objectives are updated and plans are set in motion. Here’s a summary of what we are up to in 2021.
genability.com | Tariff News

California Residential Electricity Rate Changes - January 2020

Southern California Edison (SCE), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) all released new tariff rates on January 1, 2020 improving the economics of residential solar for all three utilities.
genability.com | Products

Solar Incentives Data

Genability Switch customers no longer need to maintain their own database of residential solar incentives. As of October 15, 2019 Genability’s Solar Incentives API has graduated from Beta to V1 and is now available under general release for Switch customers that wish to license it. We’ve also built a new user interface within Switch’s Dash web application to view this data along with your savings analyses.
genability.com | Tariff News

Review of Southern California Edison's New Post Solar Electricity Rates and its Impact on Savings

On March 1, 2019 Southern California Edison (SCE) will close its current default post-solar tariff (TOU-D-A-NEM2) and replace it with a new default post-solar tariff (TOU-D-4-9PM-NEM2). This tariff change will dramatically impact solar savings in SCE as the Time of Use (TOU) On-Peak hours move from 2-8 PM under TOU-D-A-NEM2 to 4-9 PM under TOU-D-4-9PM-NEM2. More importantly TOU-D-4-9PM-NEM2 introduces a Super Off-Peak period in the Winter from 8 AM to 4 PM, when the majority of solar production occurs.
genability.com | Products

Savings Analysis API Support for Non-bypassable Charges

Genability has just upgraded both our Savings Analysis API and our Calculate API to better support Non-Bypassable Charges (NBCs). What are NBCs you ask? Well that’s how the California utilities refer to the customer’s annual NBCs that cannot be offset by Net Energy Metering (NEM) Credits under NEM 2.0. These NBCs behave as a second minimum charge calculation that’s performed during the customer’s annual true-up.
genability.com | Tariff News

Review of California's Proposed Commercial Time of Use Electricity Tariffs

In 2019, both Pacific Gas & Electric (PGE) and Southern California Edison (SCE) will introduce new Time-of-Use (TOU) periods for commercial tariffs. Both utilities are moving highly-priced peak hours later in the day, from mid-afternoon to 4-9 PM. If you are selling solar, storage and/or energy efficiency in California, you want to be sure to calculate savings using these new tariffs. Thanks to Genability’s new Proposed Tariffs product for enterprise customers, now you can!
genability.com | Products

Proposed Tariffs included in Genability database

Our Proposed Tariffs feature allows you to use our complete set of tools to calculate the costs and savings of tariffs that are not yet published and live.
genability.com | Products

Genability Adds Support for PVWatts Version 6

We’ve added support for Version 6 of NREL’s PVWatts API, used to estimate the hourly production of a customer’s solar PV system.
genability.com | Products

Explorer Web App for Energy Professionals

Today we are pleased to announce the launch of our latest product, Genability Explorer, a web-application for Energy Professionals.
genability.com | Tariff News

Solar Incentives in Illinois, Net Metering Ends for Duke Energy South Carolina

The roller coaster for solar in the U.S. (call it a Solar Coaster?) keeps rolling this summer.  The state of Illinois has finalized the credit values for its Adjustable Block Program, which provides solar owners with an upfront payment for 15 years of estimated solar production.  Meanwhile, in South Carolina the state legislature failed to increase the net metering cap and Duke Energy has met its 2% limit. Starting on August 1, 2018 full net metering closes for Duke Energy SC customers and will be replaced by the Purchased Power Rider. First the good news for solar developers:
genability.com | Tariff News

Solar Incentives in Massachusetts

Later this year, Massachusetts will close out it’s SREC program replacing it with the new Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) incentives. While there are still a few details left to be finalized, Genability is able to model the proposed SMART incentives for our customers and has made the new incentives available via the Incentives API.
genability.com | Tariff News

Duke Energy North Carolina Solar Incentives

At 9 AM this morning (July 9, 2018), Duke Energy North Carolina started accepting incentive applications for their Solar Rebate program and Genability has made the new incentive available via our Incentives API.
genability.com | Company

Genability Open for Business for Commercial Energy Customers

We have an exciting announcement. Genability is now open for business to any and all new energy companies servicing commercial and industrial customers. Today we have lifted all restrictions that might have prevented you from working with us in the past.
genability.com | Tariff News

Hawaiian Smart Export and Customer Grid Supply Solar Programs

Starting on 2/20/2018, the three Hawaiian investor-owned utilities will offer two new programs for customers with solar: Customer Grid Supply Plus and Smart Export. Both programs offer export credits for power provided to the grid, an option that has not been available in Hawaii since the Customer Grid Supply programs closed in 2017. Genability has just made these two programs available for Hawaiian Electric Co (HECO), Hawaiian Electric Light Co (HELCO) and Maui Electric Co (MECO) for use in your solar proposals.
genability.com | Products

Estimating Energy Usage from Customer’s Bill Amount

Do you have a potential solar customer’s 12 months of bills or their annual bill amount for electricity? If so, we can now estimate energy usage from that information!
genability.com | Tariff News

New York Public Service Commission Guidelines on Presenting Solar Savings

Effective December 1, 2017, solar developers in New York are required by the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) to meet precise guidelines (PDF Download) when presenting savings estimates.  Genability has reviewed these requirements and we have made some data upgrades for New York so that our solar customers can comply with these new requirements without any change to their API integration.  First, let’s review the new savings requirement:
genability.com | Products

Run Down of Genability Developer Website Updates

A quick rundown of the latest and greatest updates on GDN, our developer website.
genability.com | Tariff News

The Methodology Behind our Monthly Residential Rates Newsletter

Every month Genability updates thousands of tariffs. These changes can be as small as a simple rate increase or as large as a whole new rate structure. For just over a year now, around the 10th of each month, we have sent out a summary of those changes in our Monthly Residential Rate newsletter to help our customers better understand and anticipate these changes.
Tariff News

California Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM3)

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| Reading time 6 minutes

California is updating its Net Energy Metering policies in 2022, commonly referred to as NEM3.0. Genability customers can rely on Genability providing full support for them. Ahead of the publication of the final NEM 3 tariffs and rates, Genability has publishing a set of Tariffs with the latest proposed rate structures for customers to use. Once details are available, the finalized tariffs and rates will be published for all to use. In this blog post we track updates as the policies and rate changes firm up. We recommend checking back hear from time to time to get the lastest.

January 20, 2022 - UPDATE

Genability has just released NEM 3.0 tariffs based upon the 12/13/2021 Proposed Decision from the California PUC. There is one NEM 3.0 tariff for each affected utility.

Switch customers can now use these tariffs to estimate savings for their customers under the rules outlined in the Proposed Decision.

The most complex feature of the NEM 3 tariffs is the export price that varies according to the hour of the day, weekday vs. weekend and the month of the year. As outlined in the decision, each climate zone will have its own, specific export price schedule that is specific for that climate region.

In the interest of making the NEM 3 tariffs available to our customers now, Genability is initially making only one export price schedule per utility available.

  • Pacific Gas & Electric - Climate Zone 3B (San Francisco Bay Area)
  • Southern California Edison Climate Zone 9 (Inland Orange County, Santa Ana)
  • San Diego Gas & Electric Zone 10 (Inland San Diego County)

We will be building support for territory-specific price schedules in the future. Once built, the Switch API will use the address set on the customer account to determine the appropriate export price schedule for that customer.

How Genability Will Support the Proposed NEM 3.0 Tariffs

Genability has modeled the California NEM 3.0 Tariffs outlined in this CPUC Proposed Decision. We will soon be publishing the most recent proposed NEM 3.0 version of the following tariffs:

  • EV-2A-TOU for Pacific Gas & Electric
  • D-TOU-PRIME for Southern California Edison
  • EV-TOU-5 for San Diego Gas & Electric

You will see “Proposed” in the tariff name and these NEM 3.0 tariffs will incorporate the change to hourly export rates resolved in real-time, the Grid Access Fee and the Market Transition Credit. The hourly export rates will vary by territory in accordance with the proposed decision.

What is NEM 3.0?

With NEM 3.0, the California PUC requires new solar customers to switch to Time of Use tariffs that are currently only available to customers with electric vehicles or batteries (see list above). In addition, new solar customers will be required to pay a Grid Access Fee of $8/month per kW of solar installed. For PG&E and SCE, the grid access charge will initially be offset by a Market Transition Credit that also varies according to the size of the customer’s solar system.

But the most disruptive feature of NEM 3.0 for solar developers is the change in how power exported to the grid is valued. With NEM 3.0, new solar customers will be required to install a dual-register meter that measures imports and exports in real-time. This means that at any given time, the meter is measuring either the power imported from the grid or the power exported to the grid.

  • Imports will be priced at the Time of Use prices defined in EV-2A-TOU, TOU-D-PRIME and EV-TOU-5.
  • Exports will be credited to the customer according to the Avoided Cost Calculator (ACC) values.

From the NEM 3.0 ruling:

Export Compensation Rates based on hourly Avoided Cost Calculator values averaged across days in a month, differentiated by weekdays and weekends. For the first five years after system interconnection (“R.20-08-020 ALJ/KHY/jnf PROPOSED DECISION - 181”), export compensation rates will be based on a five-year schedule of values for each hour from the most recent Avoided Cost Calculator, adopted as of January 1 of the calendar year of the customer’s interconnection date. Following the five-year lock in rate, export compensation rates will be based on averaged hourly avoided cost values from the most recent Avoided Cost Calculator, adopted as of January 1.

In practice this means that there will be 48 export prices per month, 24 each for weekdays and weekends.

How Does this Impact Switch Implementations?

Most Genability Switch customers will not need to make any changes in order to use the proposed NEM 3.0 tariffs.

Genability has long supported real-time netting. We employ a proprietary algorithm that models real-time imports and exports from the annual-hourly (8760) solar profile provided by switch customers and the annual-hourly (8760) usage profile whether it’s provided by the Switch customer or extrapolated by our Intelligent Baselining algorithm. These capabilities allow Genability to assign an import kWh and export kWh to every hour in the year which is then used to calculate costs and credits.

In addition, Switch already supports rate structures like the Market Transition Credit. If a Switch customer sets the system size on the solar production profile, Genability will use that value to calculate the Market Transition Credit. If you do not, Genability will solve for a system size based on the customer’s location and the annual solar production, assuming typical solar settings.

Finally, note that with our recent release of performance and experience upgrades to Switch when using interval rather than billing data, we are ready to provide you with the best solar + storage analysis in the industry.

How Does NEM 3.0 Impact the Economics of Solar in California?

Genability is performing a detailed analysis of NEM 3 utility avoided cost economics, and will update this blog post soon. However, as a preview, and not unexpectedly, NEM 3.0 does have a sizable negative impact on many rooftop solar scenarios when compared with NEM 2.0. To understand why look at the export credits available to solar customers under NEM 3.0. The ACC values exports to the grid lowest during the hours when the sun is shining and values them highest just as the sun sets. This means that the economics of rooftop solar without storage will be very difficult.

However, with storage the economics improve dramatically. By banking the excess solar production during the daylight hours to release in the evening, the solar + storage customer can not only offset highly-priced evening power but also potentially export power to the grid during those hours to receive hefty export credits.

For Genability Switch customers this means that you should review how you are modeling solar and storage using Switch. How you’ve included solar in your calculations may not be optimal for the new ACC hourly prices, which provide a significant opportunity to increase customer savings.

Final Thoughts

It is not yet clear when the NEM 3.0 tariffs will go into effect and there will likely be changes to the NEM 3.0 tariffs before they are official. We recommend that Switch customers who are active in California review their Switch API implementation with an eye first to how they model storage and solar. This will have the most impact on solar economics under NEM 3.0.

Less critical is to review whether you send Genability the system size when creating a solar profile. Be assured that if you do not we will estimate that value and the calculation will reflect a representative but not precise system size.

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