Pocket
2025-10-14
last edit: 2025-10-15
Table of Contents
I. Summary of Arguments
The Logical Arguments:
- The use of mathematical rounding in the CSU 2026 Rate-Case Filing
hides the trickery behind the argument for a 'cost shift'.
- The need for batteries to handle the difference between energy
production and consumption should be balanced between the utility and
solar homeowners. Batteries are also impossible to get in an ethical
way.
- The proposal would unfairly target solar homeowners with electric
vehicles since level 2 charging would lead to a monthly fee of $129 even
if the owner had 1000 solar panels but a non-solar homeowner would only
accrue ~$40 for consumed kWh.
- The proposed demand charge of $0.4329/kW can lead to an effective
peak rate of between $0.10/kWh and $1.73/kWh depending on the absolute
best and worst case scenario of the shape of the power curve, averaging
to $0.38/kWh which is unfairly higher than the non-solar peak rate of
$0.27/kWh (summer) and $0.14/kWh (winter).
- Looking at the possible cases of a homeowner with an undersized
solar array compared to a homeowner with an extremely oversized array,
and the possible types of net metering, the option that is the most
profitable csu is the version with net metering plus the demand
charge.
Analogy Arguments:
- producing killowatts and are like giving fish to the fishery and
consuming killowatts are like buying fish from the fishery
- peak hours 5-9pm represent times when fish are in more demand
- batteries are like refrigerators allowing the fish caught in the
morning to be used in the evening
- The proposal to charge a fee off the highest demand measurement
point in the month from the one time the homeowner was extremely hungry
seems to be unfair because it didn't account for the behavior for the
rest of the month.
- The need for refrigerators in order for the energy produced to be
useful for the city seems like a problem that should be solved by the
city not by pushing the costs to the individual homeowners.
- Adding fees to people who catch their own fish and take load off the
fishery leads to less likelyhood that people in the future will want to
catch their own fish, making the goal of 80% renewable hard to
accomplish.
II. Personal Background
When I came home on a monday night
III. Logical Arguments
In the
CSU
2026 Rate Case Filing on pdf page 11 out of 319, a particular case
of a solar residential customer's meter information is published.
Note that the exact same graph on pdf page 15/692 of the
CSU
2025 Rate Case Filing also appears without data or axis labels on
pdf page 8/319 of the 2026 Rate Case. It would be nice to see actual
data reflected from a study on real consumption of different customer
types that CSU serves instead of using graphics without any source on if
they depict reality or not.
IV. Analogy Argument
Once upon a time