Abstract
This paper examines the effect of different residential electrical load profiles (electrical energy consumption patterns within a day) on energy charges for customers with solar panels under different Southern California Edison time-of-use (TOU) rate plans. We identify the TOU plan which would be the most cost effective for solar customers with each load profile. The impact of the orientation of the solar panel array (whether it faces south or west or east) and shading patterns on electricity charges are examined. We also determine the ideal usage offset (the percentage of electricity consumption provided by the solar array) for the various scenarios presented in this paper. We perform these analyses using actual data for the average sized residential customer of Southern California Edison. While the data we examine are based on solar panel production estimates for southern California, the issues we address, and the methods we use, are applicable to virtually any locality. And our analysis reveals how myriad factors impact the economics of residential solar panel systems regardless of location.
Highlights
California continues to be at the forefront of the nation in proposing and enacting mandates that are designed to reduce future carbon emissions
This paper examines the effect of different residential electrical load profiles on energy charges for customers with solar panels under different Southern California Edison time-of-use (TOU) rate plans
According to the data published by California Distributed Generation Statistics, there were over 4729 Mega Watts (MW) of new solar installations made in the state from 2017 to 2020, with the residential sector accounting for 3141 MW of the above total, all of which has caused California to be ranked first in the nation for solar capacity (Solar Energy Industries Association, 2020)
Summary
California continues to be at the forefront of the nation in proposing and enacting mandates that are designed to reduce future carbon emissions. The PVWatts site estimates the electricity production of a solar panel array based on a few simple inputs including the system’s location, azimuth (the directional orientation of the array), tilt angle (relative to horizontal) and array size. The average annual electricity consumption per residential location in the 92,8671 ZIP code area of Orange, California for 2018 and 2019 was 7411 kWh (Southern California Edison, 2021a) and we designed an unobstructed 4.541 kW DC solar panel system (with a roof angle of 20 ̊, corresponding to a 4.5:12 roof pitch—a very common roof pitch in the warmer parts of southern California where there is no snow precipitation) that would generate 7411 kWh annually when installed facing south. The average electrical energy consumption for residential customers for each month of the year was obtained from Southern California Edison (2021a). SCE’s rate data for two of its TOU plans were obtained from SCE’s web site (Southern California Edison, 2021b) and we used the rates levied during the 2020 calendar year
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