Maritime Electric Net Metering Electric Bills Explained

Congratulations you are now a green energy hero!  Every day you are producing electricity via the sun which ultimately is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, putting less stress on our environment AND most importantly SAVING YOU MONEY!

But now, likely many others, you are a conscious consumer that wants to make sure your Maritime Electric bills are correct.

Also, like many others, you are having a real hard time reconciling all the information.  Don’t worry we will do our best to explain all your questions!

The first question I am going to take care of before explaining the bill is our most commonly asked question:

Why does my monitoring system report something different than the bill?

Your monitoring system (in our case APsystems) reports on the total energy your solar panels produce.  Through net metering, that energy goes first to your own personal usage (like heating your pizza pockets at lunch).  Only the extra gets captured and recorded by your electricity provider for your bill.  

So if you produce 2,000 kWh in August from your panels but use 1,300 kWh directly to power your air conditioning, lights and appliances, your electricity provider will only see your outflow meter at 700 kWh and will credit you for it.

Please note: For many monitoring systems the energy produced is typically summarized by month.  However, your electricity bills are commonly across 2 months.  Our examples of the bills you will see coming up are from July 20 to Aug 19.  (This will make it even more difficult to reconcile easily)

*Monthly energy production reporting from APsystems (system was installed end of June 2020)

So here’s what your first month will look like

June 19 2020 to July 20 2020

How net metering works on your Maritime Electric Bill:

Kilowatt-hour (kWh)

First off, I think its best we explain just what is a kWh. This is a unit of electrical energy. Basically, it is a number that is calculated using how much power you are drawing and for how long. For example, if your microwave is a 1000W (1kW) unit and it takes 3 minutes to heat up your pizza pockets, then you would have used 0.05kWh of energy. (3min/60min per hour * 1kW microwave power = 0.05kWh)

Energy Charge - 471 kWh

This is electricity used from Maritime Electric like at night when the sun isn’t shining but you're heating up a pizza pocket at 2am secretly so your wife won’t know you're off your all salad diet. Calories don’t count between 1am-3am.

Outflow meter reading = 716 kWh

Since this is the first month, 716 is the amount of electricity the client produced and did not use at the time of production (at noon your panels could be powering your tv and microwaving your pizza pocket and the remaining electricity could be going back into the grid for credits)

Net Metering Credit= 471 kWh

Maritime electric took your excess electricity production you put into the grid when you didn’t need it and credited that back to you for feeding your late night pizza pocket addictions.

What’s left over:

Outflow meter reading - Net Metering Credit

716 kWh - 471 kWh = 245 kWhs aka Net metering carry forward balance

Now let’s explain your second month (and every month from now on)

July 20 2020 - Aug 19 2020

Keep these 2 starting numbers in the back of your mind:

Outflow meter reading - 716 kWh

Net Metering Carry forward balance - 245 kWhs

These 2 numbers are cumulative and they are your base for this months electricity bills

Energy charge - 307 kWh

Last year they used a whopping 1,768 kWh! Quite a big reduction.

Outflow meter reading - 2,036 kWh

Remember we started with 716 kWh. So this month this client produced 1,320 kWh of electricity that they sent back to the grid for credits to use.

Net Metering Credit - 307 kWh

Maritime electric will always try to cover the entire electricity used from the grid as long as you have enough credits.

What’s left over: Difference in outflow meter readings from July to Aug - 1,320 kWh Less Net Metering credit - 307 kWh Credits to carry forward - 1,013 kWh

Net metering carry forward balance from July - 245 kWh + Credits you did not use from August - 1,013 kWh

Net metering carry forward balance = 1,258 kWh

What to expect in on future electricity bills

• Over the summer it is likely that your Net metering credit > Energy charge
• Late Spring through Early Fall your Net Metering carry forward balance will be progressively increasing
• During the winter you will be using the Net metering carry forward balance as credits to use against the Energy charge
• During the winter your Net Metering carry forward balance will likely be going down each month

Definitions

Service Charge: This is a base rate that is unavoidable regardless of having solar panels.

Energy Charge: Even with having solar panels you are likely to still require some amount of electricity...in the summer or the winter! Unless you live somewhere that the sun shines 24 hours a day there will be a point where you are likely to need to draw from the grid.

For a house with solar this amount will be substantially less than the year previous when they didn’t have solar. Here is the current example:

HST: Unfortunately you can never generate your way out of HST. The only way this will change is with the help of every net-meter customer advocating for change. Provinces like BC actually have an HST exemption for renewable energy and it would make a huge difference if other provinces followed their lead.

PEI Government Energy Rebate: This is an automatic rebate applied courtesy of the clean energy price incentive

Net Metering Credit: This is the amount of kWh produced that Maritime electric will use to offset your energy charge.

This credit in the summer will typically be from the month of production whereas in the winter this amount may come from a mix of month of production and the carry forward balance

In our example the 307 kWh credit is all from the current month.

Outflow meter reading: This is a cumulative reading of all the excess electricity you produced from your solar panels that you did not use. (This is the difference that I was talking about in the first question)

In our example the outflow reading in July was 716 kWh and in August it was 2036 kWh. So from July 20 to Aug 19 this client sent 1,320 kWh to the grid.

Net metering Carry Forward Balance: This is the number of credits you will have available to you to use in the future months. During the summer months you can expect this number to rise whereas in the winter months it is likely these credits will be drawn upon and you can expect this number to draw down.

In our example July has 245 kWh and August increases to 1,258 kWh. This means that they earned 1,013 kWh credits from July 20 to Aug 19 to be banked and used as credits during the winter months.