PG&E recently advised that they will be opening the A-6 tariff in early 2008 for customers that are currently on an E-19 tariff and have, or will have, PV systems installed that are sized to handle at least 20% of their onsite demand.  A-6 was capped at 500kW--the yellow below shows how PG&E is expanding this tariff to PG&E customers with demands of up to 1000kW.

Why should you care?  If you are planning a PV power system that provides greater than 20% of your demand, your service size is under 1000kW, and your peak and off peak demand is about the same, then your PV system just became more  valuable.

Part of PV's value is the ability to take advantage of "solar-friendly" tariffs, lowering your operating costs.

This is a good fit for a large hotel property, retailer, or industrial use with a load shape that doesn't fit with PV's power generation shape of mid-day max production.  Another area are users that are "peaky"--big peak demand charges that are outsized compared to total energy use.

PG&E has limited this to the first 20MW of customers approved for this transfer--so this opportunity won't last long.

E-19[pdf] has both an energy charge [how much you use] and a demand charge [how much you use at any one point--used to size the service].  A-6 is only an energy charge [pdf], with a much higher charge during summer peak periods.

Think this may work for you?  Drop me an email and we can explore it.