Aurora will automatically select the utility and utility rate(s) for each project based on the project address. This article will cover how to view and change these utility rate fields.
Table of Contents
- Viewing utility rate details
- Changing an auto-selected pre-solar utility rate
- Changing an auto-selected post-solar utility rate
- Pre-existing designs and changing utility rates
Viewing utility rate details
You are able to view the rate structure, rate details, and export settings for each utility rate that has been selected for your project. To do this, select “Energy consumption” from your Project Dashboard, then click “View pre-solar rate” or “View post-solar rate”.
Changing an auto-selected pre-solar utility rate
To change the pre-solar utility rate follow these steps:
- Click on the “Rate” field. This is your pre-solar utility rate.
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Search for the desired utility rate. A series of suggestions will appear based on the address you inputted.
Note: For custom utility rates, you will need to begin typing the name for it to appear. - Select the pre-solar utility rate.
Changing an auto-selected post-solar utility rate
To change the post-solar utility rate follow these steps:
- Click on the “post-solar rate” field located under “Utility provider”.
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Search for the desired post-solar utility rate. A series of suggestions will appear based on the address you inputted.
Note: For custom utility rates, you will need to begin typing the name for it to appear. - Select the post-solar utility rate.
Note: Rates with a yellow “Solar” tag are those that are deemed “solar friendly”.
Pre-existing designs and changing utility rates
Changes to the pre-solar rate will affect all pre-existing designs in your current project.
Changes to the post-solar rate will affect the rate for any newly created designs, but any existing designs in the project will remain unchanged. To update post-solar rates on an existing project, use the side menu in Design Mode.
Here you will also see the Average Monthly Savings (bill savings and offset) and a monthly utility bill savings chart, comparing their pre-solar and post-solar bills.
- Compensation Policy (only available in Design mode)
- Net Billing We will use the specified pre-solar utility rate and post-solar utility rate to calculate the homeowner’s solar savings.
- Feed-In Tariff: We will calculate the homeowner’s pre-solar bill and revenues from the feed-in-tariff. In a FIT program, all energy produced by the system is exported to the utility grid and credited at a specified rate, and all energy in the household is purchased from the grid
You can also make adjustments to the utility rates from this page by opening the View pre-solar rate or View post-solar rate drawer.
You can click Edit to make changes to aspects of the utility rate, such as Export Rate, Billing Frequency, and True-up Period. Changes to these settings can have a big impact on projected savings. These settings are defined below.
Export Rate
This controls how to value any kWh exported to the grid. We assume that all energy produced by the system is first used by the house, and only production above consumption is exported.
- Retail rate - all exported kWh are credited the same as a kWh imported from the grid. This is used for traditional net metering rules
- Retail rate with fixed reduction - exported kWh are valued as the retail rate, minus the specified reduction. In addition, the imported portion of that kWh is assumed to be non-bypassable. This is used for rates like California’s NEM 2.0
- Retail rate with percentage reduction - all exported kWh are valued as the a percentage of the retail rate. For example, a 10% reduction would reduce the value of exported energy to 90% of the retail value
- Flat Export Rate - all exported kWh are valued at the specified rate, while all imported kWh are based on the selected rate schedule.
- Note - this affects all kWh during the month, while net surplus compensation is applied at the end of the month after all energy charges and credits are netted against each other. Use a flat export rate when the utility’s net metering rules specify that the crediting is done on an hourly basis - examples include Pacificorp and Provo Municipal.
Billing Frequency
How often the utility customer pays their full bill balance. This is monthly in most regions, but California has an annual billing cycle where customers pay for the total year’s worth of bill once per year, allowing production credits from one month to offset bills from previous months
True-up Period
How often excess production credits are expired. Most utilities are annual; if your utility doesn’t have a net metering program then this will likely be monthly (excess production is not carried forward). The specific month that credits are expired in will depend on your utility.
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