Electric Rates 101: Understand Your Rates, Control Your Bill 2016 New Hampshire Local Energy Solutions Conference Jim Bride, Energy Tariff Experts Nick Hill, Hill Energy Services LLC

Agenda Jim to discuss Basic organization of the grid Who regulates what NH Residential Rates Commercial & Industrial Rates Nick Hill to cover energy procurement

Local Distribution Utility: Generation, Transmission, & Distribution in Restructured Energy Markets Generators: Power plants generate power competitively and sell into organized wholesale power markets Regional Power Grid: Regulated by FERC, transmission line operators maintain long distance power lines that convey power from sources to utility systems Local Distribution Utility: They are regulated at the state level and take the energy the last mile to your meter Supply Portion of Bill Billed by Distribution Utility

Who Regulates What? FERC Local Distribution Bulk Transmission Generation Markets Ratepayer’s Meter

Typical Residential Customer Invoice Excerpt from an EverSource NH Utility Bill

Summary of Current (Fall 2016) Residential Rates Charge Type PSNH Unitil1 NHEC Liberty1 Fixed Charge ($/mo) $12.89 $10.27 $28.93 Distribution Charge ($/kWh) $0.04207 $0.06247 $0.03876 $0.04924 Transmission Charge ($/kWh) $0.02390 $0.02748 $0.01361 Energy Supply Charge ($/kWh) $0.1095 $0.05978 $0.07619 $0.09221 Other Stuff ($/kWh) $0.00479 $0.00588 $0.00412 $0.00503 Total Volumetric Charges ($/kWh) $0.18026/kWh $0.12813/kWh $0.14655/kWh $0.16009/kWh Despite being in the same state, each of these utilities is quite different and these differences manifest themselves in the rate structures 1 Distribution value is for usage over 250 kWh, Distribution and Transmission values are combined for billing

Invoice w/ Solar PV That Net Exports Excerpts from an EverSource NH Utility Bill for a Solar Customer

Invoice w/ Solar PV That Exports Some Months Excerpts from a Unitil NH Utility Bill for a Solar Customer

Invoice w/ Solar PV from NHEC This is an “Above the Cap” bill 3 Meters Consumption from the grid Export to the grid Total solar PV generation Total behind the meter usage is actually 466 kWh

Summary of Common NH Commercial Rates Charge Type PSNH1 Unitil Liberty NHEC2 Rate GV G2 Large Basic Fixed ($/mo) $197.09 $18.41 $55.64 $347.16 Demand ($/kW) $13.81 $10.27 $7.15 $8.68 Volumetric Dist./Other ($/kWh) $0.00951 $0.02945 $0.01862 $0.06309 Energy Supply Charge ($/kWh) $0.1095 $0.05860 $0.07973 $0.07518 Total Volumetric Charges ($/kWh) $0.1093 $0.08805 $0.09799 $0.13827 Demand is max consumption rate occurring in either a 15-min (Unitil) or 30-min (PSNH) timeframe Demand and usage are impacted very differently by different types of distributed generation or EE measures 1 Shows values for demand over 100 kW and usage below 200,000 kWh. Ignores usage and demand breakpoints of 200,000 kWh and 100 kW for demand, respectively 2 – Demand is for kW over 40 kW

Demand is max consumption rate occurring in a specified time interval What is Demand? The utility distribution infrastructure must be sized to meet this peak demand regardless of how often it occurs Demand is max consumption rate occurring in a specified time interval 100 kW for 15 min = 25 kWh 25 kW for 60 min = 25 kWh Same usage, but different demands

Invoice Disaggregation – Example Eversource bill Demand Charges Usage charges Bucketing charges by type is mission critical

Invoice Disaggregation (continued) Supply charges provided by a competitive supplier Most competitive suppliers don’t want customers w/ net metering & intervals with export. Nick Hill is going to talk more about this in ~ 5 min

Other Great Info from the Bill Excerpt from an EverSource NH Utility Bill Bills have a wealth of customer information on them Get as many as you can to understand the load characteristics

Example Liberty Utilities Commercial Invoice

Understanding Load Profile is Important to Isolate Customer Cost Drivers

Solar, EE, and Other Changes Will All Result in a New Load Profile Red lines mark PSNH Peak Period for Demand Charges

And Now for Nick Hill’s Discussion of Energy Procurement!! Summary Understanding your bills is critical to forming an effective cost management strategy Tools in your toolbox Energy Efficiency Measures Targeting usage Targeting Demand Renewable Energy Energy Procurement And Now for Nick Hill’s Discussion of Energy Procurement!!