PPA - energy credits and savings

Background

A homeowner contacts support and claims that their utility bills are not decreased since the system was activated.

How energy credits work

The system produces energy, and it goes either directly into the home if energy is being used or it goes back to the grid and the customer is credited for that energy produced.

If more energy is needed in excess of what the solar system produced, or the system is not producing energy (i.e. at night) then energy is pulled from the grid.

If extra energy is produced than what is needed, the customer is credited towards the next bill. During each billing cycle, their bill will show them how much energy they produced, how much they used and how many credits they have if they over produced that month.

After 12 months, the utility provides a "true up" statement that shows all the credits and debits from the previous year. In most cases, credits are built up during the summer months when the days are longer, and the system produces more energy. Those credits are then applied to the months when the system is producing less energy than what the home is using.

Cases where there are insufficient credits to offset a utility bill

In cases where the system was activated (received PTO) during a month when it would not be producing as much energy (i.e., the winter months) the customer will not have built up credits to cover these months. Hence, they might not notice any decrease in utility charges until the following season, when they have sufficient credits built up.

There are also other base charges on an electric bill for service, etc.

This link may be helpful for PG&E customers. Understand Your Bill