Protect Yourself

California Electricity Retail Price

Historically, residential electricity rates in California from 1982 to 2008 increased with a 6.7 % compound annual rate (Source: CPUC “Electric Rate Compendium). That means 5 years from now, your electricity bill will increase about 40%; 11 years from now, your utility bill will be doubled.

California Electricity Retail Price

Tier-rate is a rate structure that adopted by most utility companies. The idea behind tier rates is the more electricity you consume, the higher unit price ($/kWh) will be.

Since the state law prohibits rates changes for Tier 1 and Tier 2, all the rate increase must be borne in Tier 3-5. On January 1st, 2006, PG&E residential rates increased to 24¢, 38¢, and 44¢ per kWh accordingly for tier 3 to tier 5. SCE is also proposing a 45% increase by 2011.

Solar electricity can be used to offset the energy usage in the high price tier. As show in the following case study, a San Jose home owner used solar electricity to lower his electricity bill from $499 to $36.

Solar systems have 30+ years of life span and an average generation cost of 14¢ per kWh. To protect yourself from ever increasing utility rate, call for the free solar evaluation and start saving today!

Net-Metering

Net-Metering is a regulatory structure specially set up for solar (or other renewable) energy producers in 42 of the 50 U.S. sates. Under Net-Metering, when the solar system is producing more electricity than your house’s consumption, the excess electricity is “sold” back to the utility with full retail value and the meter will literally spin backward. In California, solar home owner could be benefited further by the “Annual Net Metering”, where excess production can be stored in the utility grid for up to a year with 100% efficiency. 

Time-Of-Use (TOU)

The peak demand for utility companies usually happens near 4-6 pm during weekday. To solve the peak demand issue, utility companies offer Time-Of-Use rates, where the cost of electricity depends on when you consume the electricity. For solar electricity producers, during the day, solar system will feed the electricity back to the grid and earn the highest credit for daylight peak hour. During night time, solar energy producers simply draw electricity from the grid with lower off-peak rate, and start saving from day 1.

Save money for your family, and save the world for your children!  To reserve a free solar site consultation, please call us at 1-888-780-6789 and start saving today!