California
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Harmful to THEIR solar rollout. And as I said, fuck PG&E. Let's all just get out own rooftop solar and batteries to fuck their shit up.
No. Harmful to your solar rollout.
The increased output from their baseload generators continues through the day, reducing demand on solar. Too often, total supply outstrips demand, and we are seeing negative rates on electricity during the day. There is a surplus of power on the grid, so they don't want to buy any electricity you are producing. They blame excess solar production, but the actual cause is the output from their baseload generators is too high. It's set too high because they are driving customers to off-peak consumption, instead of letting overnight demand fall to its non-incentivized normal levels.
Overnight demand needs to fall, so that baseload generation is forced lower. Lower baseload means a greater demand for peaker plants and/or solar, and it is cheaper to buy your solar power than to run a peaker.
Any off-peak consumption you take is supporting them and hurting renewables. They are pricing those hours so low because they need the additional demand to make their baseload generators profitable.
I believe in your explanation you're saying it's their fault for how they are incentivising the timing?
Correct.
Any grid operator offering discounts for overnight, off-peak power is a grid operator that either doesn't have sufficient solar capacity, or a grid operator trying to maximize the profitability of their baseload generators at the expense of solar expansion. With solar not being available at night, there should be a shortage of power rather than a surplus. If they have adequate solar generation, overnight power costs should be at a premium, not a discount.
They should be driving industrial loads to daytime operation that can be met by solar, not nighttime that can only be met by baseload generation or pumped storage, both of which are more expensive sources of power than solar.
The only part of your comment I was criticizing was the idea that consuming off-peak power would contribute to bankrupting PG&E. It won't. That off-peak consumption improves their profitability.