1. 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

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

3. 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

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

5. Typical Residential Customer Invoice
Excerpt from an EverSource NH Utility Bill

6. 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) $ $ $ $
Transmission Charge ($/kWh) $ $ $
Energy Supply Charge ($/kWh)
$0.1095 $ $ $
Other Stuff ($/kWh) $ $ $ $
Total Volumetric Charges ($/kWh)
$ /kWh
$ /kWh
$ /kWh
$ /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

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

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

9. 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

10. 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) $ $ $ $
Energy Supply Charge ($/kWh)
$0.1095 $ $ $
Total Volumetric Charges ($/kWh)
$0.1093 $ $ $
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

11. 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

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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Example Liberty Utilities Commercial Invoice

16. Understanding Load Profile is Important to Isolate Customer Cost Drivers

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

18. 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!!