Rooftop panels, Tesla Powerwalls, Model S allow me to cut cord to utility, slash bills

STORM SAVIOR: In the event of another big event like Superstorm Sandy, my three Powerwalls -- 40-kWh energy storage batteries -- will provide about 5 days backup power for my New Jersey home, Tesla says.

Long road to self-powered home

pays off with tax credits, solar cash

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I stared at my April utility bill in disbelief.

With 68 solar panels on the roof  charging three newly installed Tesla Powerwalls -- energy storage batteries that run my home overnight -- I had finally zeroed out my electric bill.

"Power from the sun day and night" is how Tesla describes the pairing of panels and Powerwalls.

But Public Service Electric & Gas Co. insisted on billing me $4.95 as a "monthly service charge."

What "service"?

Solar dates to 2009

After installing my first set of 60 solar panels in 2009, I was enrolled in the utility's net-metering program that banked electricity, as measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), when my generating system produced more than our needs.

PSE&G lists them on the monthly bill: 

As of May 7, 308 kWh were delivered to me, but we generated a total of 484 kWh sent to the utility for a difference of -176 kWh.

That includes the electricity needed to charge my 2015 Tesla Model S overnight in my garage every few days.

Those kilowatt-hours are available to me, if my solar panels and storage batteries don't generate enough electricity to run my 3,300-square-foot home with central air conditioning and a heat pump that drove up my electricity bill in December, January and February.

$3.44 for electricity

In the previous billing period (ending on April 5), I paid $3.44 for my net usage -- 86 kilowatt-hours of electricity delivered to me -- plus the $4.95 monthly service charge, for a total of $8.39.

Tesla techs were delayed by March weather and didn't complete the wiring until three days into the billing period.

Before my Powerwalls were installed, my solar panels generated more than enough electricity to run my home during 5 months of the year, roughly April through August.

Now, that should be the case year-round. 

Before Powerwalls

My electric bill for Jan. 8 to Feb. 5 was $366, including the cost of "delivering electricity to you;" and for Feb. 6 to March 7, I paid $221.05 for electricity.

For the billing period of Dec. 5, 2018, to Jan. 7, total electric charges were $323.29.

I blame an electricity sucking heat pump I had installed to supplement an inadequate radiant-heating system the previous owner, a Realtor,  saddled me with.

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: One of the deciding factors in the purchase of my home was a southern exposure ideal for the installation of solar panels.

Cutting the cord

The process of cutting the electrical cord to my utility has been long, but there was a time in New Jersey when there were limits on how many solar panels you could install (lest everyone decided to go solar and put the utility out of the electricity business). 

And when the grid goes down, as happened during Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, my solar panels were "knocked out," so to speak, and didn't generate electricity to keep my home running in the 5 days before power was restored. 

Storage batteries were forbidden.

The inspector sent to look at my Powerwall installation in April said they were the first such energy storage batteries in Hackensack, a small city of about 45,000 people.

I paid for the 3 Powerwalls with a fixed-rate home equity loan of about $20,000, repayable over 5 years.

Each Powerwall 2 cost $5,500, and the rest of the cost -- a total of $20,739 -- was for installation and permits.

Rebate, loan

First Light Energy installed my first set of 50 200-watt panels in 2009 -- when the maximum allowed was 10,000 watts -- under a New Jersey rebate program. (The state paid $35,000 and I paid $45,500.)

In the years since, I've earned federal tax credits and sold tax-free solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) to the utility that have more than reimbursed my investment, not to mention the savings from lower utility bills.

You get one SREC for every 1,000 watts your system generates, so I can sell about a dozen to my utility every year.

In 2012, First Light Energy installed 18 more solar panels, these rated at 240 watts each, after I got a solar loan from my utility that required me to put up about half of the cost.

That loan of roughly $11,000 is being repaid with more solar renewable energy credits, which PSE&G values at $400 each, even though their worth on the open market has fallen to almost half of that. 

SELF-POWERED HOME: My Tesla App allows me use my smartphone to monitor my 3 Powerwalls as well as my 2015 Model S. Selecting "Power Flow" shows me when my solar panels are charging the Powerwalls, running the house or sending energy to the grid. My neighborhood experienced two 5-minute outages on May 12, but I never lost power.