PSE&G Billing – some sad news
I just got off the phone with the PSE&G Customer Service folks, since I hadn’t gotten my corrected bill for last month.
If you’ve noticed that the corrected bills for the Southern NJ area have been slow or missing, it’s probably because the person handling the corrected billing, Bob Honey, died suddenly a few months ago. They have a new person working on it. That’s too bad – he did a really good job with it when the billing system remembered to forward the uncorrected bill to him (which wasn’t often for me).
Supposedly, they were going to have the net metering billing automated by the 2nd quarter of this year. I asked the CSR to add a question about that to my query about last month’s bill. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.
PSE&G Follies, again
Well, I got to October 15 and hadn’t received my September net metering bill. I called PSE&G, and was told that the right person was out of the office and would get my message on Tuesday, October 19. My meter reading was on September 20.
Flash forward to today. I called again. Now, we’re past my meter reading of October 19. Still no bill.
They called me back this afternoon, and e-mailed the bill to me. It seems that the system is STILL not set up correctly to re-route my regular bill to them for net metering capture and re-billing. So, they issued a combined September and October bill, which I will pay tonight.
I really hope that they get this right soon. I’ve had my system running since June and they still haven’t billed me properly without MY prompting.
The good news is that my system output more than half (755) of what I consumed in input (1427). That means that I bought less than 1/2 of my external flow from the utility. That’s probably on track for a 2/3 usage from solar – I’ll have to look at the solar production to see for sure. There was some air conditioning time in there too – it runs back into August.
More on PSE&G Billing and Net Metering
Last night, I got my August bill from PSE&G. Again, it was not correct for net metering – it had my usage based on the inbound power reading but ignored the outbound power reading. That overstated my usage by 1/3.
I called customer service in the evening. They couldn’t help, but had the right person call me in the morning. He did call.
The way net metering works for the moment is:
1. Your meter is read by telephone on your reading date.
2. Your meter is also read by the reader on-site (because I also have a gas meter).
3. The automated system generates a bill that will be wrong.
4. The bill is supposed to be intercepted and forwarded to one person.
5. That single person takes the bill and generates a new bill with net metering taken into account. He also applies corrections to your billing in the A/R system to adjust for the automated bill.
6. You receive the corrected bill only, and pay based on that.
What happened to me was that the bill was not stopped on the way to me in step 4.
This one guy has to prepare bills for ALL net metering customers. The computer system is scheduled to be updated in the 2nd quarter of 2005 to automate the process, but in the meantime he’s stuck re-working bills for all PSE&G customers in the southern part of the state who have net metering. He said it wasn’t too bad when it was one or two people, but he’s up to 81 now.
I don’t yet know if the adjustments are being applied to my Green Mountain supplier interface yet. I’ll have to keep an eye on that – I might be getting overbilled for the supplier portion of my bill (as opposed to the distribution portion from PSE&G).
Reading the Meter, PSE&G Billing
After looking at my bill for July, it seemed to me that something was wrong.
So, I called PSE&G. After trying Customer Service and Billing, I started trying to track down the person that my installer told me about. I finally found him in the “Third Party Supplier” department.
I asked how to read the new meter, and after doing a little research he came up with an answer.
First, a picture of the meter:
For the purposes of these instructions, I will call the numbers on the left the “little numbers” (066 in the picture) and the numbers on the right the “big numbers” (00003 in the picture). These instructions apply to the Elster electronic meters currently being supplied by PSE&G for residential solar installations. Apparently, some small commercial installations use a similar meter.
The meter display cycles through four displays.
The first display is the “test” display – the meter shows all possible symbols and the numbers all read “8”.
The second display shows a code “100” in the little numbers. The big numbers specify the total in-bound electricity – electricity supplied from the utility grid.
The third display shows a code “101” in the little numbers. The big numbers specify the total out-bound electricity – electricity produced by your system supplied to the utility grid.
The fourth display shows a code “066” in the little numbers. The big numbers have always displayed “00003” on my meter. Supposedly, this is some diagnostic or definition code.
I think I have the arrows figured out as well. The top arrow seems to point in the same direction as the reading displayed. The bottom arrow seems to point in the direction of the electricity flow. Right means in-bound electricity (the same direction that a mechanical meter spins for purchasing power) and left means out-bound electricity.
Billing Problems
As I was talking to this PSE&G representative about my bill, it became clear that the billing wasn’t happening correctly. For residential solar setups, you are supposed to receive a bill with both an inbound reading and an outbound reading. My July bill (the first acknowledging the new meter) only had a single reading. It looks like that reading was the “101” number – or out-bound – for which I was billed as if it were in-bound power. I’ve already paid that bill, but a corrected bill will appear. Since I received three bills for June, I’m not surprised that it isn’t correct yet.
On future bills, a supplemental page will lay out the in-bound and out-bound numbers and I will be billed/credited for the net usage.
So, if you have a new solar installation grid-connected with PSE&G, you need to make sure that your bill shows both meter readings.
From now on, my electric meter readings will be taken via the phone line and only my gas reading will come from the meter reader.
More PSE&G Confusion
On Friday, July 9 I called PSE&G to inquire what had happened to our June bill. They responded that they had to generate one.
They did generate one. It was postmarked July 14, received on July 15, and a second copy received on July 16 postmarked July 14 with a different postmark. Both copies were due July 19 (2 business days later!). The bill had only a partial month for June – it ended with the last meter reading of the old meter on June 10 when it should have run until June 20 or so.
So, I ended up paying a partial month for June. I suspect that the July bill will make up for the difference, assuming it’s mailed on time. Given that I only paid the bill and mailed it today, I’ll probably look past-due.
They really need to work on this.
PSE&G Confusion
Our new meter was read on June 21, 2004. When last Friday (July 9) had come without a bill, I got suspicious.
I called PSE&G customer service. It seems that in the change of meters, the system never generated a monthly bill for us. The customer service representative said he’d get one generated.
Moral of the story – watch your utility like a hawk after installing solar panels.
Meter Confusion
Today is meter reading day. My wife happened to be home and working outside, so when the reader wandered by, she walked over.
Apparently, he was confused as our new meter was not on his list. He made a few phone calls, and that got resolved. Apparently, even though they can read it via the phone line, he still has to record the number as a double-check.
Today will be the end of the first week – tomorrow I’ll post some numbers. I won’t have any real comparison to usage until next month when we get a bill for an entire month with the system active.
Final Approval
We got final verbal approval from PSE&G today! We’ll be turning the inverters on permanently tonight.
Our installer called his PSE&G contact, and was told that we could have turned on the system as soon as the meter was replaced. Of course, that isn’t written anywhere (in fact, the tariffs say you have to wait until your next meter reading after filing as a minimum). We decided to stick with the letter of the rules until we got some communication from PSE&G.
We should be getting the letter from them soon with the signed agreement.
New Meter
As I mentioned below, the new phone line was installed for our electronic meter. I called from it to my house the other day, and “PSE&G” came up on caller ID.
Today, I called and a machine answered with a single beep! I think we may have the new meter installed. I won’t know for sure until I get home tonight. If that’s the case, we may be able to turn our solar panels on as soon as tomorrow (or even today).
I’ll try to post pictures tonight, as long as there isn’t a severe thunderstorm going on when I get home (they are calling for one).
UPDATE: They did install the new meter. Here it is:
The meter is a replacement of the old mechanical meter. Also, the box attached to the lower left corner of the meter box is new – I think it includes the modem. It’s locked, so I can’t tell for sure.
This is a close-up of the new meter. I have no idea what the things on the screen mean – I’ll have to do some digging on the net to find out.
We are now waiting for verbal permission (to be obtained – hopefully – by our installer through his contacts tomorrow) to turn the panels on. At some point soon, we should receive the signed interconnection agreement and we can turn them on then anyway.
Phone Line Installed
Verizon installed the phone line yesterday – 1 day shy of 2 weeks after I mailed the PSE&G interconnection agreement, and about 1 week after they cashed my check.
They installed what seems to be a POTS line (normal, dial tone line) with a local phone number. Verizon left a modular station wire attached to the telephone network interface with the phone number written on the baggie.
I guess that this means that PSE&G can install the meter any day. Looking at their tariffs, there’s a chance they might wait until my next meter-reading day – which should be June 20 or thereabouts. Or, maybe I’ll come home tonight and find it done.
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