We installed our 11.56 kw solar system this year. We had an outage for about a month due to a lightning strike and we were required to replaced the inverters - they were covered by the warranty, thank goodness.
We live in Central Coastal FL and our electric provider is Florida Power and Light.
We just received the final bill for 2020 and we noticed that our bill was BELOW the minimum bill for FPL by $3.37. The minimum bill is supposed to be $9.06 for fees and such.
A little looking into the bill and under the “Keep In Mind” section on the lower, right hand side of the bill, I noticed that we had a net 218 kwh’s and FPL adjusted our bill for them, paid us for them, thus the $3.37 adjustment downward. Really cool, right?
BUT WAIT! Dividing $3.37 by 218 = $0.015458! LESS THANN $0.02/kWh?
That is insane!
The lowest rate they can charge me for electricity, after the mandatory fees is $0.08568/kWh.
Can anyone tell me if they know where I can find information related to the amount they must give me in FL? I know they only have to pay the wholesale rate, but less than $0.02/kWh seems absurd!
Just spoke to FPL. The buy back was indeed $0.015458 kwh. Wow! I asked why so low and he replied that FPL is becoming so efficient because of two (2) natural gas fuel generation facilities, millions of solar panels etc., it is driving down rates on the open market.
So now I have another question:
If they can generate electricity so cheaply, why hasn’t the cost of electricity plummeted?
One reason - the actual electrical energy cost is just one component of the electrical cost. On my most recent bill, I paid about 100$ for the electric energy and 175$ for the transmission and distribution of that energy. Even if the energy cost was cut in half, my bill would only go down by 18%.
Our minimum bill here in sunny FL is $9.06/month. That is assuming we generate 100% of our electrical usage/needs with our solar. In other words, the cost for maintaining the grid, etc.
Of course, we “bank” excess solar generation starting in January and that carries forward so in the summer, when we are running the A/C a lot, we will have kwh’s to use up from the “bank”. This, 2021, will be our first full year of solar so it will be interesting to see how we do overall.
I live in NorCal. My minimum bill also set to about 10$ assuming I produced 100% of the electricity I needed, in the TOU I needed it. I have relatively high rates, anywhere from 16c to 48c per kWh, but as I said, the majority cost behind those rates is transmission and distribution. (PG&E transmission and distribution costs include a fair number of legal settlements for fires, both gas and electric-caused).
I have two EVs and a plug-in hybrid, so a fair sized chunk of my electric (maybe 30%) goes to transportation. My solar panels probably cover 10% of my needs mid-winter, maybe 30% i the summer.
Our crazy high electric rates in NorCal also fund developments like this so we can use more intermittent renewables and less coal-based baseline energy.
Monterey Bay power plant now a record-breaking battery project to ward off blackouts
It really comes down to them selling you the power at retail and buy back at wholesale. While I don’t live in NJ, they give $100-$175 for every MegaWatt you sell back. I know people maxing out their roofs to get maximum return as fast as possible. NY, where I live has no buy back program.
The NJ buyback you speak of may actually be for SRECs. If a state has mandated a certain level of renewable energy, utilities will buy credits from homeowners with solar. The prices for those vary state to state (many states don’t have renewable targets, so there is no SREC market), and may also vary over time as supply and demand change. I believe SRECs can be sold in addition to any net metering option that may be available through the utility.
Finally got my Duke bill with the Energy Credit. They paid me $0.019859 kWh for the 923 kWh that I had in my carry forward balance. At least I didn’t have to pay them $0.14 kWh for their power last year.
