Here’s what you need to know when you go solar as a LADWP customer. You will more than likely be on one of two rate plans, the Standard Residential Rate or the Time of Use Residential Rate. Both of these plans are billed every other month.
On the R1-A rate plan, LADWP will bill you in three tiers. In each tier, you are given a certain allotment of kilowatt hours to use, which are referred to as baselines. In Tier 1, you will be charged the least and in tier 3 will be charged the most. When you reach the allotment for tier 1, you will then start using your tier 2 allotment. When you reach the allotment for teir 2, you will start to be charged at the teir 3 rate.
LADWP updates their rates quarterly. The rates at which you will be charged are consistent throughout all of LADWP’s coverage area on this rate plan, however, the baselines and tiers are not.
There are 2 zones in LADWP’s coverage area, which are determined by your zip code. In zone 1, your tier 1 baseline is first 350 kwh, your tier 2 is your next 700kwh, and your tier 3 is any additional energy you use. Since LAWDP bills you every other month, your baselines are essentially double this. In zone 2, your tier 1 baseline is first 500 kwh, your tier 2 is your next 1000kwh, and your tier 3 is any additional energy you use. Again, since you’re billed once every two months, your baselines are effectively twice as much.
Here’s an example breakdown if you used 2800 Kilawatt hours over a 2 month billing cycle in zone 1. Your Tier 1 rate will be charged for your first 700 kwh. The higher Tier 2 rate will be charged at the next 1400 kwh. And finally your last 700 kwh will be charged at the highest tier 3 rate. There is also a $10 charge on this account. That’s how the breakdown works with this tier structure.
On the R-1B rate plan, LADWP will charge you different rates based on the time of day and year you use energy.
There are 3 periods during the day: High Peak, Low Peak, and Base. High peak is Monday-friday from 1-5, low peak is m-f 10-1 and 5-8, and base is M-f 8pm-10am and all day Saturday and Sunday.
In the summer months, the high peak rate will be much higher than the base and low peak rate to match the demand on the grid. In the winter months, the rates will be much closer in price.
When LADWP reaches their net metering cap and switches to NEM 2.0, all new solar customers will switch over to TOU and have a one time interconnection fee. In 2019, all customers not on solar will switch to TOU as well.
Here’s an example breakdown if you used 2800 Kilawatt hours over a 2 month billing cycle in June of 2016. Since high-peak is during the day, if you were not home you would hardly use any energy during this high demand period of 1-5 on weekdays. You’d likely be home for a decent amount of time during low peak of 10-1 and 5-8 on weekdays, which is a much lower rate than the high peak. Most of your energy useage would come on base, which is at night, the mornings, and weekends. There is also a $10 monthly charge on your amount. You can see how the breakdown could be beneficial depending on what time of day you consume the most energy.
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