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.
Products

Announcing Signal, the Best Utility Rate Engine

By

| Reading time 4 minutes

Genability is pleased to announce our latest product, Signal. Signal is our first product purely for Utilities and Retail Electric Providers (REPs). Signal empowers these providers with the ability to better understand and present electricity costs and savings wherever they engage, service and communicate with customers.

Announcing Signal

Signal answers a growing need for utilities to use the power of price to incentivize customers to use their energy in ways that are compatible with the macro trends like increased renewables and the electrification of transportation (i.e. to “Signal” smarter usage). Utility tariffs are becoming increasingly complex. Demand Charges and Time-of-Use (TOU) rates are on the rise. Regulators and policymakers are mandating more effective customer engagement on costs and savings as a key step in the path to rate reform. Signal was built to power customer relationship platforms, digital and mobile push communications, as well as more traditional paper reports. Signal supports it all.

What Can Utilities Power with Signal?

Tariff Plan Comparisons, Cost Transparency

Electric utilities can now provide their customers with instant comparisons across all available rate plans and options. This works for the smallest residential customers to the largest industrial plants. Signal also calculates accurate historical and month to date costs. Results can be provided down to a billing components or line item level, with granularity at the billing period, calendar month, or by Tier, TOU period, day, hour and even 15 minute increment. The data provided by Signal helps customers avoid bill shocks, compare trends in electricity costs and improve their customer satisfaction, all while reducing utility support costs.

Powerful “What-If” Functionality

Beyond rate plan and elective changes, Signal also helps customers “what-if” changes to usage patterns, efficiency measures, EV adoption and smart charging implementation strategies and much more. Signal helps utilities move load by quantifying the cost impact of load changes under TOU pricing, demand charges and during dynamic events. Signal calculates customers’ costs, presenting savings in dollars, not just kWh.

Deregulated Market Customer Acquisition

Signal was also designed for Retail Electric Providers. In deregulated markets, REPs can use Signal to acquire new customers by accurately displaying price-to-compare and bundled rates. For existing end customers, Signal enables a host of digital engagement features such as rate analysis, bill comparisons and “what-if” analysis. With Signal, REPs can fully reconstruct customers’ utility bills, enabling shadow billing and innovative energy service products.

Analysis of Solar, Storage, Electric Vehicles and More

Utilities are increasingly offering distributed energy advice and resources directly to customers. Utilities can use Signal to help customers understand the economics of these New Energy products, including rooftop and community solar, energy storage, electric vehicles and more. Genability’s Switch product provides the cost and savings information for nine of the top ten solar companies, as well as all major storage company. Signal now brings the same industry leading capability direct to utilities.

Accuracy and Performance Guaranteed

At its core, Signal uses Genability’s powerful rate engine and accurate, comprehensive tariff rate database. Our accuracy, depth of coverage of tariff rates, service performance, uptime and speed are unmatched in the industry. Our tariffs have been evaluated by NREL to be accurate to within two cents and we perform over 1,000 data quality checks on every single rate change. We have a track record for our API’s uptime at well over our 99.95% guarantee, and response times less than 150 milliseconds. With 24/7 critical support and over 100 combined years of energy industry experience, no other service can come close to Signal.

We work hard to maintain this level of performance for a reason. We understand how important it is for you and your customers that any costs and savings presented are accurate. That is why Signal comes with concrete guarantees on accuracy and performance. To do this, we’ve baked a comprehensive suite of tools directly into Signal to measure and validate accuracy during onboarding, rate updates, and ongoing in real time (more details coming on this in an upcoming blog post). Each Signal contract includes Service Level Agreements that guarantee support for millions of calls, with response times measured in milliseconds, and with costs that are proved to meet the highest accuracy standards.

Join Industry Leaders Oracle Opower, Engie and Just Energy

Today we are proud to also announce that Oracle’s Opower is a Signal customer, and that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is deploying Signal as part of their next generation digital engagement and rate education platform from Opower across all 5.5 million residential, commercial and industrial electricity accounts.  REPs such as Engie and Just Energy also use Signal to provide price-to-compare applications in their consumer portals, as well as present potential new products.

A Rate Engine for the Future

It’s important to note that Signal’s rate models are dynamic and data driven. No code changes are required to publish new tariff versions, even when there are fundamental changes to rate structure such as removing tiers or adding demand charges. In fact, our model supports every rate we have found in the market (ratchets, block & index, tiers, etc.), and given we’ve modeled residential, commercial and industrial rates for the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia and the UK, we’ve seen a lot of complexity. Signal is ready and able to support your rate initiative now and in the future. Signal is also the perfect platform for more powerful rate design, and we intend to build enhanced design tools in the Signal product suite starting next year.

Want to Learn More?

Signal is available today. We have some additional information on our website. To learn more contact sales and we will  setup a demo and answer all your questions. Also, keep an eye out for future blogs where we will delve into all the details of Signal. Next up we’ll talk about how we make sure your rates, costs and savings are accurate and up to date.

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