SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

benjam47 · November 2008

Hi all,

As part of my plan of getting a solar system, I wanted to compare SCE's regular tiered domestic service with their TOU-2 plan, to see exactly where the payback point was.

I created the attached Excel spreadsheet which will calculate your monthly bill for both the tiered service, and the TOU-2 service, under various conditions. I figured I would share it with others and hope someone will find it useful.

To use it, open the sheet and enable macros (if you are uncomfortable with this, wait for other forum members to confirm that the macros are safe). Then fill in the parameters in the yellow section of the sheet. They should be pretty self-explanatory. The "DWR Percentage" is found on your bill where it says "DWR provided XXX% of the energy you used this month". After updating all of the inputs, you will see that it calculates your bill under both Schedule D (domestic tiered) and TOU-2.

Sheet 2 ("Chart") on the spreadsheet is a chart which compares the monthly bill for domestic tiered vs TOU winter vs TOU summer over a 0-3000 kwh/mo range. After setting the DWR Percentage and Baseline Allocation inputs on the first sheet, run the "RecordData" macro, then switch to sheet 2.

After setting the DWR Percentage and your baseline allocation, you can use the chart on sheet 2, which will compare tiered rate vs TOU winter vs TOU summer over a 0-3000 Kwh/month range. Run need to run the macro "RecordData" anytime that you change the DWR Percentage or baseline allocation. The yellow line is the tiered service, red is TOU winter, and blue is TOU summer. Within each section of the chart, the on-peak vs off-peak ratio changes from 100% off-peak to 100% on-peak, which is why you see the large spikes in the blue and red lines. Any point under the yellow line is cost savings under the TOU plan, any point over the yellow line is a higher cost under the TOU plan.

Disclaimer: While I believe the calculations in this spreadsheet are correct (within a very high tolerance anyway) based on SCE's online tariff documentation, I am not making any guarantees. Please let me know if you think there are any inaccuracies.

mike95490 · November 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

benjam47 wrote: »

(if you are uncomfortable with this, wait for other forum members to confirm that the macros are safe)

Security wonk hat <ON>

Well, that's a wonderful tool you have provided, and if someone here who's participated a lot over the last year posted this, I might bite. However, you are at a disadvantage, being new on the scene, with your first post.

Why would a spreadsheet need macros? Pretty complex stuff can be done without them, so I think I'd let someone else be the canary.

edit-
rant toned down,
Mod scanned the files, and believes them clean (see BB's post below)

IP Address 98.119.17.224 resolved to Hostname pool-98-119-17-224.lsanca.fios.verizon.net Guessed City: West Covina

benjam47 · November 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

Hi Mike,

I don't blame your pessimism. It's a good thing to be concerned about security.

However, I never told anyone not to worry about the macros. In fact, I specifically told them to wait so that another forum member who is comfortable in reading macros can verify that they are safe.

Most of the equations are regular formulas, but the chart requires a series of data to be created for the 0-3000 kWh/mo range in 100 kWh increments. As far as I am aware, the only way to create this data is with a macro. If someone would like to show me an alternate, I would love to hear about it.

If people would like, I will be glad to create a version of the spreadsheet which does not include the chart, and therefore would not contain any macros.

I think posting an IP trace is a little much for someone who has not demonstrated any ill-will, but whatever.

Cory

BB. · November 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

Just an FYI--The owner of this forum has chosen to have IP address of all posters to be visible.

It turns out to have been very helpful when people ask questions (how much power will xxx watts worth of panels generate, where can I buy batteries, etc.)--as well as to identify at least one sock-puppet poster.

The IP information is available to the host/manager of every website (and to the advertisers too for sites with ads).

Nobody intended any harm here--but with the tons of viruses out there (both spread to unknowing users, and seeded by the bad guys out there)--it sort of makes everyone paranoid.

I appreciate the hard work you have gone into making up this spread sheet--I have looked at how I would do the same thing with PG&E's TOU billing structure (probably even more wacky than SCE rate plan).

There was, a few years ago, a big issue with PG&E on how "baseline would work"... (basically, I have 300kWhr per month baseline--If I used 150 kWhrs per month during the night, and generated 150 kWhrs during noon-6pm--was my baseline usage for the month 0, 150, or 300kWhrs--After a bunch of complaints, PG&E changed back to the answer of "0" rather than "300", adding both + and - usage).

I will download the macro and run a virus scanner on it (AVG free)--and post the results.

-Bill

Scan of the Zip and XLSM files came back clean...

PPS: Of course, that is about the limit of my knowledge regarding virus checking.

System2 · December 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

benjam47 wrote: »

Hi all,

As part of my plan of getting a solar system, I wanted to compare SCE's regular tiered domestic service with their TOU-2 plan, to see exactly where the payback point was.

I created the attached Excel spreadsheet which will calculate your monthly bill for both the tiered service, and the TOU-2 service, under various conditions. I figured I would share it with others and hope someone will find it useful.

To use it, open the sheet and enable macros (if you are uncomfortable with this, wait for other forum members to confirm that the macros are safe). Then fill in the parameters in the yellow section of the sheet. They should be pretty self-explanatory. The "DWR Percentage" is found on your bill where it says "DWR provided XXX% of the energy you used this month". After updating all of the inputs, you will see that it calculates your bill under both Schedule D (domestic tiered) and TOU-2.

Sheet 2 ("Chart") on the spreadsheet is a chart which compares the monthly bill for domestic tiered vs TOU winter vs TOU summer over a 0-3000 kwh/mo range. After setting the DWR Percentage and Baseline Allocation inputs on the first sheet, run the "RecordData" macro, then switch to sheet 2.

After setting the DWR Percentage and your baseline allocation, you can use the chart on sheet 2, which will compare tiered rate vs TOU winter vs TOU summer over a 0-3000 Kwh/month range. Run need to run the macro "RecordData" anytime that you change the DWR Percentage or baseline allocation. The yellow line is the tiered service, red is TOU winter, and blue is TOU summer. Within each section of the chart, the on-peak vs off-peak ratio changes from 100% off-peak to 100% on-peak, which is why you see the large spikes in the blue and red lines. Any point under the yellow line is cost savings under the TOU plan, any point over the yellow line is a higher cost under the TOU plan.

Disclaimer: While I believe the calculations in this spreadsheet are correct (within a very high tolerance anyway) based on SCE's online tariff documentation, I am not making any guarantees. Please let me know if you think there are any inaccuracies.

Interesting, but I do not seem to be able to open the .xlsm file on my MS Office Excel spreadsheet.

Why is the "m" attached to the .xls file? Removing it does not help.

BB. · December 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

When I tried to open them with my old Excel--I got a notice that I could download a file converter pack (the spreadsheet is from a newer version of Excel than I have)...

The .xlsm is a "macro enabled workbook"... I am using AVG (free) as my antiviral--and it did not report anything on the Zip or the .xlsm file.

When I did the conversion, it implied that because the new spreadsheet uses more than 256 columns, the spreadsheet will not work correctly (will get a "REF" error). Also, I have macros turned off (high security) in my PC--so I cannot do much more to help.

As always, use caution when working with any files on a windows machine.

-Bill

icarus · December 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

ronhowell wrote: »

Interesting, but I do not seem to be able to open the .xlsm file on my MS Office Excel spreadsheet.

Why is the "m" attached to the .xls file? Removing it does not help.

Ron,

Welcome over here,, From Priuschat,

Tony

System2 · December 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

icarus wrote: »

Ron,

Welcome over here,, From Priuschat,

Tony

Thanks Tony. Yes, I had the same problem as BB, had to update my Office for the Mac and get the file converter pack before I could open the .xlsm spreadsheet. Checked it against some SCE billings that I have had since installing my PV panels, and found it to be quite accurate. It also verified that the Domestic tiered schedule (D) that I'm on appears to be the better alternative, for my level of power consumption, which in recent months has all been in Tier 1.

benjam47 · December 2008

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

.xlsm is an Office 2007 file format, which is why installing the update for previous versions is necessary.

I'll make another version which is natively compatible with Office 2000 - 2003.

I recently discovered that SCE allocates different baselines for summer and winter months. Because the spreadsheet only allows entry of a single baseline, the chart on the second sheet is not entirely accurate.

I'll be uploading a new version in the next few days. It will be in the previous Office file format, and will allow entry of both your summer and winter baseline allocations for more accuracy.

Cory

benjam47 · March 2009

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

Several people have asked for a version of the spreadsheet which is in the older .xls format. I've attached it here.

niel · March 2009

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

better late than never.:D welcome back.

benjam47 · March 2009

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

I forgot to mention.. This version has also been modified to allow you to enter both your summer and winter baseline allocations.

System2 · June 2009

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

benjam47 wrote: »

I forgot to mention.. This version has also been modified to allow you to enter both your summer and winter baseline allocations.

Wow, this is freaking awesome (and saves me a sh*tload of time as I was contemplating making a crude version myself).

One question though, why can't I change the summer and winter baseline amounts without cells H6-10 and H21-25 displaying the "#NAME?" error message?

I have Excel 2007, but downloaded the recent version (excell 2003) you posted in case that makes a difference.

System2 · June 2009

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

JoeSchmo wrote: »

Wow, this is freaking awesome (and saves me a shitload of time as I was contemplating making a crude version myself).

One question though, why can't I change the summer and winter baseline amounts without cells H6-10 and H21-25 displaying the "#NAME?" error message?

I have Excel 2007, but downloaded the recent version (excell 2003) you posted in case that makes a difference.

Let me just answer my own dumb***ness quickly here: "enable macros" ... LOL

keep it clean for all to see as it's not just bikers here.:p
niel

benjam47 · December 2009

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

I'm thinking about updating this to include SCE's new TOU-D-T schedule (Tiered time of use). Would anyone be interested in this?

benjam47 · December 2009

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

I have updated the spreadsheet to include the new TOU-D-T (Time of use - tiered) rate schedule. For those that don't know, SCE is eliminating the TOU-D-1 and TOU-D-2 rate schedules and replacing it with TOU-D-T. It appears that customers that already have TOU-D-1 and TOU-D-2 are grandfathered in.

At quick glance, it looks like TOU-D-T results in higher bills than the normal schedule D unless the VAST majority of your usage is off-peak, much more so than TOU-D-2, and especially in the summer.

The flip side of that is that since the highest solar output is during on-peak time, and during the summer months, we can get huge credits for our generation.

I am considering expanding the spreadsheet to allow you to enter your average monthly solar generation and include that in the calculations. Please let me know if this interests you.

System2 · July 2010

Re: SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

Yes that information would help.

Has SCE eliminated to TOU rate schedule

SCE Tiered vs TOU calculator

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