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It has long been public policy to encourage the adoption of both electric vehicles and residential solar systems in California. So, many EV owners were recently shocked to learn that the California Public Utilities Commission is allowing Southern California Edison to discontinue a popular EV rate plan (TOU-D-TEV) which will directly undermine the investments these early adopters have made.
One EV owner, Joseph Gray, who is being affected by these changes, created the website ProtectOurRates.com to help educate the public. "EV's are still relatively new so many are considering purchasing one or have recently done so. It's not uncommon for EV owners to also consider investing in solar systems based on the benefits of net metering in tandem with EV rate plans."
Gray, who purchased a Chevy Volt back in 2011, invested an additional USD$68,000 to have solar installed at his home in 2013. Less than a year and a half later, he is confronted by the fact that he won't be seeing a return on his investment as planned. He cites SCE's termination of the TOU plan as the culprit. "SCE is shortening the summer season from 7 to 5 months while shifting peak hours from 10-6PM to 2-8PM. This will be devastating to owners of solar systems who have previously earned the majority of their solar credits from 10AM-2PM during the summer season. I feel these changes are a direct attack on EV owners who have invested in residential solar and that SCE hasn't been transparent in this."
Gray says EV owners are frustrated because they made their investments in good faith and their solar systems were engineered and sized based on existing EV charge plans and net metering. He is asking for others to sign an online petition asking the CPUC and SCE to grandfather in existing EV and solar system owners so their investments are not compromised so significantly by these changes. "This is not only the right thing to do, it is what the CPUC should have demanded."
