PG&E - California’s Most Expensive Power Provider Impacts Large Custom Homes
On January 1, 2024, PG&E started charging 13% more for power, with another rate hike already planned for March. The January rate hike – expected to cost an average family another $33 a month – will pay to bury power lines and other wildfire mitigation efforts. But what is the impact if your not “an average family” and have a large custom home?
PG&E January 2024 Rate Increase Impact
Not The Average Family or Home
Our clients build big homes - really big homes. We looked back at our last three projects, to see what the fiscal impact of this rate increase would be for these clients. The size of the homes ranged from 4,400 to 7,300 square feet, with the average home being 6,100 square feet, and average monthly electric use of 4,842 kWh per month. This is almost 10X more consumption than the articles “average family". Due to the nature of PG&E’s tiered rate structure, we found the average rate increase for these 3 large homes was over 18% and it takes approximately two days to blow through the baseline (cheapest) rate.
Show Me The Money
Our clients know a good ROI when they see it, but because some have certain lifestyle expectations, ROI isn’t necessarily the driving factor. Our clients typically grant us access to look at their PG&E usage, enabling us to look at their energy use patterns in detail, both for time of day and seasonally, to determine average use and costs very accurately. This becomes the baseline, from which we can play various scenarios to optimize equipment, appliances and strategies to achieve the clients energy objectives.
Across our average 6,100 square foot homes, two in Lafayette and the other in Portola Valley, the average cost for electricity in 2023 was $1,792/month. The January 2024 rate increase bumped their average up by $330/month, bringing average monthly costs up to $2,121/month. This is all before any solar, battery energy storage, optimization, Peak Shaving, back up systems and Smart circuit breaker panels.
Achieving Net-Zero
Of these three clients, only one will be an all electric, Net-Zero theme. This 7,300 square foot home, currently in the final phases of construction, was estimated to have an electric bill of almost $6,600/month. Working with the GC and the owner, we were able to get their Solar grandfathered under NEM2.0 and with 44kW of Solar and 80kWh of battery energy storage, their monthly energy bill should be close to Net-Zero, but we won’t know that until after move in. We worked closely with the Fire (AHJ) and Building code officers to make sure, in advance, it met all their stringent fire and building codes, particularly for the ever changing Battery Energy Storage System code.
The projected net savings, combined with the ITC tax credit of 30% on the design, equipment and installation costs, provided the owner with the confidence to invest in a larger solar array , larger battery energy storage system and to incorporate smart circuit breakers for Intelligent Load Shedding.
The other two homes use a combination of Gas and Electric to meet their needs, but across all three of our clients properties, the average monthly electric bill, after incorporating our system recommendations, will be just under $300/month.
Pacific Energy Advisors - Your Trusted Energy Architect
We specialize in integrating and optimizing energy management components and systems for very high net worth homeowners, coordinating with their architects, GC’s, EC’s and other trades. Typically, these systems include various combinations of solar, utility, other renewables, and/or gaseous power generation, coupled with storage, to meet our client's objectives. These client objectives vary, but often include achieving Net-Zero, Peak Shaving, Load Shedding and back-up/stand-by. Our methodology often incorporates intelligent switching to isolate necessary energy demands from "nice-to-haves" during power outages, while maximizing energy storage reserves at the lowest reasonable costs.
Contact Todd Wulfert - todd@pacificenergyadvisors.com - 415-608-1434