How can I use contracted rates for usage calculations?
Contracted rates can be utilized in the Usage Phase to help provide better insight into monthly usage and cost estimations, and are exclusively available in deregulated markets. Contracted rates are applicable to solar projects that have electricity bills split between the cost of the electricity itself and the right to access to the transmission and distribution system that delivers the electricity – the purchasing customer often has a choice over which retail provider they purchase their electricity from.
In EverBright, contracted rates are equivalent to the retail portion of the bill, and the feature set allows you to model the specific retail rate for your customer. Transmission and delivery charges are not impacted by updates to contracted rates. Defaults for contracted rates will be applied to specific rate schedules automatically, via Genability, who have identified the regions and providers with available contracted rates. Rate schedules are applied to solar projects in the “Utility Information” section of the Usage Phase - the associated default contracted rates can be manually updated within the same section across three charge types: consumption ($/kWh), demand ($/kW), and fixed ($). These contracted rate add-ons allow for any combinations of the rate types to model the purchasing customer’s retail rate.
Accessing Contracted Rates in the Usage Phase
As a user with access to the Usage Phase, navigate to the Usage Phase in an EverBright project - select the “More Rate Options” dropdown in the “Utility Information” section.
Within the now expanded “Utility Information” section, select the blue “Edit Rate Breakdown” button to open the rate breakdown modal.
Selecting Contracted Rate Types
Note - the message “Default contracted rates applied. Add new rates to override.” is important. The selected site/rate schedule has the default rates sourced from Genability, and these are automatically applied to the project. Any rate charges added manually will be overriding these values.
Should you wish to override the defaulted contracted rate values, select the downward facing carrot adjacent to “Select Charge Type”.
Select one of the following options: “Consumption”, “Demand”, or “Fixed”.
Utilizing Contracted Rates by Type
Contracted rate types (consumption, demand, and fixed) can be combined with their respective date ranges/tiers/blocks to create a full-scope contracted rate.
Consumption:
Shown to the right is the charge type “Consumption”, with the units $/kWh.
To add a standard and consistent value for a consumption rate, enter a cost in $ format to the “Cost” field.
Users can also designate consumption rate values across a specific date range, the first option under the highlighted triple dot menu.
This is the only option that can be combined with the following “Set Tiers” and “Set Blocks” menu entry options.
Additionally, tiers of consumption (kWh) can be set to reflect varying values in the contracted rate as consumption increases - select “Set Tiers” to set these values.
Varying slightly, although importantly, from the prior tiers entry is “Set Blocks”. While tiers allow for an open-ended rate charge (e.g. 0-100 kWh is $.15, and anything greater is $.25), blocks feature rates confined to specific consumption values (e.g. 0-100 kW is $.15, and 100-200 kW is $.20). This is expanded upon below in the following examples.
Shown to the right is still a charge type of “Consumption” with the option “Specify Date Range” selected.
The rate has been titled “Summertime” with the “Charge Start Date” and “Charge End Date” set using their respective fields and an built-in calendar function.
From May 1st to July 31st, consumption rates are set to $.15 kWh.
Note that the “Set Tiers” and “Set Blocks” options remain available (along with an option to remove the specified date range should you need to). Tiers and blocks can be applied to rates in conjunction with consumption rates set to a specific date range.
If no further stipulations for the consumption rate are required beyond a date range, select “Apply Changes” in blue to save.
Should users wish to add tiers for consumption rates (with or without a specified date range), select “Set Tiers” within the triple dot menu.
As a continuation of the above example, the “Summertime” consumption rate is set from May 1st to July 31st - using the “Tier” entry box next to “0 kWh to”, set a desired kWh range to apply a base cost, shown here as 0-250 kWh at $.18 per kWh.
Automatically populated is the following “Tier” entry box, which takes the value from the above “Tier” field to state that anything above 250 kWh will cost a stagnant $.20 per kWh.
Additional tiers can be added using the green “+ Add Tier” button, as shown below.
Selecting “+ Add Tier” will create another stipulation to the consumption rate charges starting from the value set in the initial “Tier” entry box (in this example, 250).
Enter a second desired value into the second “Tier” entry box (shown as 500 kWh) and an associated cost ($.2 per kWh).
Ensure that the third and final “Cost” entry displays the appropriate value for consumption rates above the secondary tier value (shown as $.22 per kWh).
Users can delete by tier entry using the trashcan icon, or delete the entire tier structure using the triple dot icon - save the designed tiers by selecting “Apply Changes” in blue.
Users can “Set Blocks” (blocks operate exclusively from tiers, although like tiers, they can be applied to a specific date range) to designate consumption rate values on a per kW consumed basis.
Blocks are utilized most often by heavy and stable energy consumers who can benefit from a contracted rate for large amounts of electricity despite the obligation to purchase the set block amount, regardless of whether it is used in its' entirety.
Select the triple dot menu and “Set Blocks” to populate the block structure, and add further blocks by selecting “+ Add Block” in green.
Shown to the right is a 2 block structure still operating during the “Summertime” consumption date range.
The first block states that from 0 kW to 750 kW, the consumption rate is set to $.18 per kW.
The second block rates that from 750 kW to 2000 kW, the consumption rate is set to $.22 per kW.
As with tiers, you can remove individual blocks or the complete block structure using either the adjacent trashcan icon or the triple dot menu.
To apply the designated block rates, select “Apply Changes” in blue.
Demand:
Contracted rates can be set to charge by demand (kW) by selecting the “Demand” option in the “Select Charge Type” dropdown.
As with the “Consumption” option, selecting “Demand” will populate a field to name the rate and set a default cost. There is also the option (using the triple dot menu) to specify a date range for the contracted rate and set tiers (by kW), and these fields function in the same manner as within the “Consumption” selection.
Blocks are not available in “Demand” rates as a demand-based rate is already designed to charge on per kW basis.
Structure the contracted demand rate and select “Apply Changes” if desired, or delete the designed rate by selecting the trash can icon or “Reset to Defaults”.
Fixed:
The final contracted rate charge type is a “Fixed” rate, used to override the Genability sourced contracted rate for a given rate schedule with a fixed, constant figure.
As with the “Consumption” and “Demand” rate types, a rate name field and cost field are automatically populated. The triple dot menu exclusively features “Specify Date Range” and “Delete” as it is designed for non-changing rates.
Fill in the relevant fields, specify a date range for the rate to apply to if desired, and select “Apply Changes” in blue.