My electric co. on learning curve too

solarvic

Seems like my electric co is on a learning curve too! Hope they don,t dream up a lot of new charges too. Getting online with my GTI system was confusing as the electric co didn,t keep me updated very much as what was going on. Meter was changed about 3 weeks before I had system done. I got it inspected and contacted engineer 2 times that I was ready and he never returned my calls. So I called meter supervisor and he told me as far as he was concerned I could turn on my system. 1ST bill was wrong as thier software for online billing didn,t have provisions to put the info I needed for auto bill pay and they had to change to oldfashion statement billing. Didn,t receive bill in April for march meter reading so called last week. They told me they didn,t know how to bill me as I made more power than I used, so didn,t send bill. It is time for next bill. So today I got a bill with a bunch of whiteout erasiers and they added a bank and I have 59 Kw in my bank and they charged me $8.96 for a meter reading and billing fee per month which I feel is reasonable. Sure is a lot more efficient and cheaper than batterys and I can use my deepwell pump or how much power I want. Person I talked to told me I am a learning experience for them and they don,t have many solar customers but are starting to get lots of phone calls. Even the inspector I had never done a solar inspection. I read some of the horrow storys that some of you have getting your systems inspected and am starting to think I am kind of lucky that I got my system passed and am glad I did a lot of research on solar. I even had to keep the electrician on track as there seemed to be lots he didn,t know about DC. So since I got it to pass I think I will leave sleeping dogs lie. S:Dlar vic.

BB.

Re: My electric co. on learning curve too

If you have Time of Use or other seasonal variations in rates--You might suggest that they keep the bank in Dollars instead of kWHrs... It might make their accounting a bit easier.

Also, find out what they do with the bank (Typical 1 year net metering: My bank is either reset to Zero $$$--if they owe me money; or I pay the balance if I owe them every 1 year).

-Bill

nvyseal

Re: My electric co. on learning curve too

I was the third residence in my city that had solar installed a bit more than a year ago. I filed all the necessary paperwork for net metering with SCE, City inspectors came out, Got a letter from SCE with a little hang tag in the envelope saying to put this on your meter and your good to go. They never came out to check anything. I still have the ratty old mechanical meter spinning backwards. They did have a problem switching me over to net meter billing. I found out my bill is actually lower if i use just 1kwh from them than if i bank 300kwh with them. $.88 cents vs $1.87 or so

solarvic

Re: My electric co. on learning curve too

Bill I don,t have time of day metering, just a Bi directional meter. I think Iwill have to learn how to read thier meter and keep records of where I am every few days. One thing I got is a personal meter and I could keep track of my output for myself. Going to install a mini split air conditioner heat pump so will be needing more power then. Also I will be going ng for waterheating and electric dryer. I am impressed that I have some kw in the bank after using them 2 power hungry appliances. I guess my first yer with GTI will be a learning experience for me. The power co settles once a year but I don,t know for sure what will happen but I think it is around the time of year to settle. Think Junw so I will know more when that happens. S:Dlarvic