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.
Industry

California Rate Reform, the Utility Death Spiral and the Duck Curve

By

| Reading time 3 minutes

What did the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) recently decide, and what does that suggest about the longer term California energy prices and their impact on the rapidly growing solar market?

On July 3rd, the CPUC voted for approval on the awaited changes to CA’s residential electricity rate structures.  Rather than immediately impacting electricity prices like a general rate case, these are guidelines for the design of new rates that will implemented over the next 2-4 years.  Let’s first highlight the main changes in the decision, and then take a look at what this hints toward for the solar deployment in CA over the longer term.

1. Net Metering

The decision does not involve changes to CA’s retail rate net metering policy, which is the #1 driver of solar growth in CA.  It is highly likely that this policy will change in the coming years, although no one can predict what it will look like at this time.  Nearly every PUC in the country is reviewing various proposals, and we are likely to see a variety of approaches tested out before a new standard arises in a heavily solarized world.  Rest assured that few energy policy decisions will be a closely reviewed, or as hotly contested, as changes to net metering policies.  Either way, the next few years will be some of the most interesting in CA’s energy history.

Impact: None at this time.

2. Fixed Charges vs. Minimum Bill

The CPUC denied the request by the CA Investor Owned Utilities to enact a $10 a month fixed charge on all customers.  Instead, they allowed for a minimum bill charge of up to $10 a month.  This has a lesser impact on solar economics, which was welcomed by solar advocates, however the door has been left open for fixed charges in future rates cases.

Impact: Minimal impact on solar economics, but could change in the future.

3.Tier Flattening

The biggest news is the reduction of the CA 4 Tier residential tariff structure to 2 tiers and a super-user charge for the heaviest consuming households.  This will have an immediate impact on solar economics in CA by reducing the charges on the heaviest users in the state.  For an in depth analysis of the reasoning behind this change, and possible impacts on solar, check out:

Inside California’s Rate Restructuring Plan

California Reaches Compromise on Utility Residential Rate Reform

Impact: Reduces solar savings for the heaviest energy users.

4.Time of Use Rates

The CA IOUs will be required to begin designing and testing TOU rates for residential customers, with all customers moving to default TOU rates by 2019.  This has the largest long-term implications, as TOU rates can facilitate a whole host of technologies like solar, storage, EVs, and smart homes.

Impact: Long-term change in pricing incentives for all kinds of technology.

5. The Utility Death Spiral and the Duck Curve

The implementation of a minimum bill instead of a monthly fixed charge should help to combat the Utility Death Spiral, the feedback loop where grid-wide fixed costs divided by a shrinking pool of customers drives up rates, causing more customers to go solar.  While commonly mentioned in the industry as the greatest threat to the incumbent utilities, pairing these charges with the shift to TOU rates should have a balancing effect.

As TOU rates come into effect and solar makes up an increasing percentage of the CA energy mix, over the long term we will see TOU Peak periods begin to shift away from midday when solar is plentiful, to early evening right when the duck curve peaks.  Without wide scale storage integration, we are likely to see a large decline in daytime power rates, which will rapidly eat into solar ROI.  The CPUC’s decision to pair a minimum bill with TOU rates may help to stabilize prices in the future, preventing a massive shift in either direction.

Bottom Line: The Utility Death Spiral and the Duck Curve may work to counteract each other in the long-term.

Stay Up to Date on Rapidly Changing Rates

Follow Genability to hear about the immediate changes and long-term trends impacting the solar and storage industries across the US and beyond.

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