New Community Solar program to cut your electric bill
Posted on: November 29, 2023 - 12:11pm
What is Community Solar?
Community solar (CS) gives monthly credits (called “adjustments”) that reduce electric bills after a Con Edison customer subscribes to a CS power project. Each adjustment appears in a bill under “Your New Charges” as a negative number, i.e., a reduction. For an average Croton home, a year of adjustments could save about $150. There’s no cost (just some paperwork) and you can drop out any time, with no penalty. To quickly see how to get that discount, scroll down to the last paragraph.
Community solar (CS) gives monthly credits (called “adjustments”) that reduce electric bills after a Con Edison customer subscribes to a CS power project. Each adjustment appears in a bill under “Your New Charges” as a negative number, i.e., a reduction. For an average Croton home, a year of adjustments could save about $150. There’s no cost (just some paperwork) and you can drop out any time, with no penalty. To quickly see how to get that discount, scroll down to the last paragraph.
Croton’s Sustainability Committee is in a State-sponsored contest to enroll at least 38 subscribers to a CS project. Signing up now will also help Croton earn points toward a $20,000 grant for clean energy projects.
Anyone in Croton with a Con Edison electric account can get the credit*. That includes renters and homeowners that can’t (or don’t want to) install solar panels. Anyone participating in Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) or buying power from a third-party source (e.g., Robison) can also get the credit.
*Unless they are already enrolled in another CS project or have installed solar panels on their property. To see if you’re already enrolled, check your electric bill for an adjustment under “Your New Charges”. If it’s a negative number, you’re presently subscribed to a CS project.
Here’s how it works
A CS project produces power using solar panels. Every solar kilowatt-hour (kWh) it sends into the electric grid avoids a fossil-fueled kWh, reducing the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Nothing gets installed at your home: no wiring, no metering, no mess, etc. Once you enroll online, there’s no more paperwork, no extra bills, no calls, nothing. The worse that can happen is that the monthly billing credit (the “adjustment”) may be smaller in winter when there’s less sunshine, or zero if a project has a temporary technical problem.
Con Edison buys that clean power from the project’s developer and distributes it to all Con Ed customers. For subscribing to the project (a form of support), each subscriber gets a credit (NOT the actual energy) on its monthly electric bill. Across a year, the credits total about 10% of your annual electric cost. They are based on four factors:
- how much power you use
- how much solar power the project generates
- your percent share of the solar array (based on your kWh usage in the year before you enrolled)
- 10% of the value of the power Con Ed buys from the developer, calculated by a formula set by the State Public Service Commission (PSC). The rest of the sale revenue goes to the developer that bankrolled and built the project.
A CS project produces power using solar panels. Every solar kilowatt-hour (kWh) it sends into the electric grid avoids a fossil-fueled kWh, reducing the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Nothing gets installed at your home: no wiring, no metering, no mess, etc. Once you enroll online, there’s no more paperwork, no extra bills, no calls, nothing. The worse that can happen is that the monthly billing credit (the “adjustment”) may be smaller in winter when there’s less sunshine, or zero if a project has a temporary technical problem.
Con Edison buys that clean power from the project’s developer and distributes it to all Con Ed customers. For subscribing to the project (a form of support), each subscriber gets a credit (NOT the actual energy) on its monthly electric bill. Across a year, the credits total about 10% of your annual electric cost. They are based on four factors:
- how much power you use
- how much solar power the project generates
- your percent share of the solar array (based on your kWh usage in the year before you enrolled)
- 10% of the value of the power Con Ed buys from the developer, calculated by a formula set by the State Public Service Commission (PSC). The rest of the sale revenue goes to the developer that bankrolled and built the project.
A real life exampleThe 300-kW solar array atop Croton’s Dept. of Public Works (DPW) building was installed in 2020 by a developer (called Ecogy) as a CS project. A customer subscribed for 6 kW of its capacity, set by the developer based on the last year of the customer’s electric usage. Those 6 solar kW are enough to provide a year of electricity for an average Croton home. They entitle the subscriber to a credit based on the value of 2% (6/300 = 2%) of the monthly kWh output of that array. In a summer month, that system may generate 40,000 kWh. In that month, the 2% share of the system produces 800 kWh (2% x 40,000 = 800). Its dollar value is determined by the PSC’s formula, which varies month-to-month. If the home uses less than 800 kWh that month, the value of the leftover kWh gets credited in future months. If more is consumed that month, the credit is based on the value of the 800 kWh.
In an average month, the power’s value may be ~$.20/kWh, yielding a total sale value of $160.00 (800 kWh x $.20/kWh = $160.00). The subscriber’s 10% share (i.e., $16.00) is the adjustment to that month’s electric bill. The developer gets the rest. The adjustment is a negative number (i.e., a credit) under the “Your New Charges” section of the bill. Note that it may take Con Ed 2 or 3 billing cycles, i.e., months, before the first adjustment appears on your electric bill.
Yes, that’s a bit complicated - but it’s how New York State promotes development of clean energy: the developer gets guaranteed revenue from its investment, and a subscriber get a no-risk savings for subscribing to a CS project.
How To Subscribe
To take advantage of this opportunity, you can subscribe to Ecogy’s Arcadia Horse Farms Solar Array in Yorktown at https://ecogy.powermarket.io/project/arcadia-horse-farm.html (to avoid a follow-up call, be sure to enter your Con Ed account number from a recent bill during the enrollment process).
If you have questions on the process or issues with enrolling, email the Sustainability Committee’s community solar registrar at solarregistrar@gmail.com. After you enroll, Ecogy will inform the Committee so we can add you to our list of new subscribers. Enrollments are limited, so please sign up now!