How Is Charge For Electric Service Calculated Oge

Customers of Oklahoma Gas and Electrical Co. who install solar panels on their roofs would see a different billing construction under a program filed with the Oklahoma Corporation Committee.

Nigh 200 OG&E customers have installed rooftop solar. Just nationally the marketplace is growing speedily; OG&E said it wants to be ready if large numbers of its customers opt for distributed generation.

The new rate construction for distributed generation customers would accept four parts: a demand accuse, an energy charge, a fuel charge, and a customer charge. That's a alter from current bills, which are comprised of an energy charge, a fuel charge and a customer charge.

OG&E said the new billing structure volition eliminate any subsidization of distributed generation customers from those who don't have rooftop solar panels or small wind turbines.

Senate Nib 1456

The subsidization issue was ane used by OG&E and Public Service Co. of Oklahoma to push for Senate Bill 1456, which passed in 2014. The police force requires new distributed generation tariffs for regulated utilities to exist in place by the stop of the year. PSO has not yet filed its distributed generation tariff.

The utilities said distributed generation customers still rely on the filigree for electricity when the sunday isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing. Under current billing options, some fixed costs are captured in the kilowatt-hour energy charges that vary past customer usage. The utilities claim rooftop solar users aren't paying their fair share for poles, transformers, transmission lines and other fixed costs at the times of the mean solar day when they're getting most of their electricity from solar generation.

Solar advocates said utilities accept yet to demonstrate that distributed generation customers are being subsidized by other customers.

"The law is clear that Oklahoma Gas and Electric must provide proof of any cross-subsidization in guild to levy any different charges on solar customers," said Kim Sanders with residential solar provider Sunrun and The Alliance for Solar Choice. "Their filing falls far brusk in that regard. OG&Due east and PSO pushed this legislation early on terminal year earlier either utility had really looked at the numbers."

SB 1456 doesn't apply to electrical co-operatives that aren't regulated by the Corporation Commission, nor does it apply to customers who installed distributed generation systems earlier November. ane, 2014.

Because nigh 200 OG&E customers are grandfathered under the law, the utility said its new distributed generation tariffs will affect just 15 of its existing customers. The typical client installing rooftop solar would nonetheless save money, but less than they did under the old billing method, said Roger Walkingstick, a consultant for OG&E who filed testimony in the case.

Demand charge

The biggest change for new distributed generation customers volition be the need charge. It is calculated by measuring customer usage in fifteen-minute increments. A client's top demand on the system in a calendar month would exist used to calculate that customer's demand charge.

The typical residential user has demand ranging from 6 to 8 kilowatts, said Don Rowlett, OG&E's managing managing director of regulatory diplomacy. OG&E'southward application puts a need charge of $ii.68 per kilowatt each month. That means nigh distributed generation users would be paying about $16 of their nib for a need charge.

"That's the maximum imposition you put on the system that month, so we have to have facilities to meet that level of need," Rowlett said.

In his prefiled testimony, Walkingstick said new distributed generation customers wouldn't see higher bills. Their bills would merely exist configured differently, and all customers would do good from the changes. "Since the overall revenue collected from all customers in total should exist the same between charge per unit classes, no time to come client should receive unfair positive or negative handling (subsidy) under the new rate structures," he said.

Current bills include some stock-still-cost charges in the energy portion of the nib, a policy choice that keeps standard client connection charges low. Walkingstick said if all fixed costs for manual and distribution were put into the client charge, it would increment by virtually $21 per month for the typical customer. A demand charge is a amend fashion to account for the fixed costs for distributed generation users, OG&East said.

Sanders said The Alliance for Solar Choice was disappointed with OG&Due east's filing. She said demand charges erode savings for solar customers and make it harder to predict time to come rates.

"OG&E is clearly carrying on the wishes of the national utility association, which has fought solar across the state," Sanders said. "Demand charges are the latest play in the utility playbook." Sanders said one Arizona utility, Salt River Project, instituted need charges and saw solar installations autumn by 96 percent in their service territory.

Rowlett said commercial and industrial electricity customers have had need charges for years. The ascension of smart meters and programmable thermostats has fabricated residential customers more than aware of usage at different times of the day. Information technology's also allowed utilities to gather much more data nearly client usage and pattern their rates in a more efficient way.

The Corporation Commission has not yet set a hearing date on OG&E's distributed generation tariff.

How Is Charge For Electric Service Calculated Oge,

Source: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/business/energy-resource/2015/08/21/oge-proposal-would-affect-oklahoma-users-of-rooftop-solar/60728445007/

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