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Can some one explain how solar kWh credit and CFE works?


Cincy

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I've had my Opiere Solar System for almost 1 year now and I have been continually tracking my electricity generation/consumption during this period.  I have been averaging 125.1% of my energy needs therefore installing a couple of extra A/C mini splits should be not be an issue.

What I don't understand is, have I built up a credit with CFE for the 25% surplus electricity that is fed back into their grid?  If I use more electricity, say, in May/June using A/C, than the solar panels generate, can I dip into the surplus credit and therefore still pay just the minimum payment charge of 25kWh/month? (~54 pesos for 2 month accounting period)

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In any billing period you produce more electricity than you use, CFE places that amount as a credit into that bucket. If you produce more the next period then you are still charged the minimum with the excess put into bucket number 2 (of 6: 12 months). If you use more electricity in the following period, CFE subtracts the excess from bucket 1 which may or may not leave you a balance and if you use more than bucket 1 has it takes from bucket 2. 

If at the end of 1 year you still have credits from bucket 1, CFE takes them. No thank you provided. Buckets 2-5 move down and the current credit takes the most recent position.

CFE will take previous month's credits so long as they exist. If you don't use them you lose them. I have a house in Guayabitos which overproduces solar and so even with running 7 tons of A/C in the summer and a huge pool heat pump in the winter I lose credits but pay only the minimum. Kind of a win-win but it still hurts paying CFE with excess electricity.

 

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2 hours ago, John Shrall said:

Kind of a win-win but it still hurts paying CFE with excess electricity.

Agree strongly, and at STI Solar Technology, we encourage our clients not to oversize their systems; we size them to get to the lowest CFE rate step in tarifa 01.

Bills of about 150 pesos, vs 53 or 54 as the absolute minimum.    And pay $1000 to $2000 US less, upfront, on a typical home installation.    

Doing this is the most cost effective way to go, otherwise people are spending much more than needed upfront, for little to no benefit.

We also make sure the system is easily and cost effectively upgradeable, should the need come up down the road.     

That's a true win-win for the client, save now, and save later.

 

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We had our solar installed in May 2010. At that time we were spending half the year in Ajijic and half NOB. We built up a sizable surplus and despite a lot of people saying CFE would take it away, that never happened. That surplus lasted up until we sold the home in June 2020. We never paid CFE a cent in those 10 years!

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OK, I'm obviously no expert, but we would rather give back to CFE than worry that the next toy added means that we'll have to pay more than the minimum. We like to use our electric appliances, tools, and toys and don't want to have to worry about whether or not CFE is going to gouge us. When we added quite a few more lights around our property, no worries. That satellite dish that gives us great internet but takes quite a few KW? No worries. Cameras around the property? No sweat...and on and on. I think it really boils down to your own level of comfort. To answer the OP's original question, if you make more than you use, you'll only pay the minimum. Your "balance" carries over each billing period until the end of the year and then it starts over. The good news is that you'll build up your credits before and after rainy season (when you may use more than you make), so you shouldn't have to worry unless you've suddenly added a LOT of appliances or didn't quite get the right number of panels. This was one of the hubby's best suggestions for our house (not that I'll admit it to him!).

ETA:  just a thought (someone who knows, please comment)...since CFE provides very heavily subsidized electricity for low usage, doesn't this help those who aren't as financially stable as most of us? If our extra KWs help others, great!

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