Sorry, I also just got off the phone with Leslie, its absolutely 1/1/2014. "No change is planned"

I talked at length with her about who to talk to about 1. getting the date changed to 10/1 or just having it rollover.

She suggested sending something to Larry Reese the GM of Austin Energy, Mark Ott and the City Council.

Here is a copy of what I sent Leslie, I would be amenable to modifying it into some whole.

I would also be willing to host/or participate with others to draft a petition/and or go meet with the city. Hope this helps. Thanks

Thank you for finding out more info.

I am definitely willing to participate with the petition and go meet with the city! Let's get a group together - strength in numbers!

Eliot, I agree. We need to go to the Council - AE is owned by COA and reports to Marc Ott who was hired by the Council. Citizen Communication is held every month. COA staff is generally available for meetings.

I think first we need to find a list of the 15-20 or more who might have a credit.

Can someone post this in the Mueller circular?

Does anyone have access to the names of the net-zero folks?

Anyone want to host a meeting in Mueller next week?

I will reach out to Native who does PV to get them to come and/or try to find the info we need.

Thanks

The Next meeting of the City Council is tomorrow:

The Austin City Council will convene at 10:00 AM on
Thursday, August 29, 2013 at Austin City Hall
301 W. Second Street , Austin, TX

I don't understand why you are limiting your advocacy to net-zero and/or Mueller. There are more who are affected.

Hi John,

I dont think we are ready to go talk in front of City Council, I think we need to meet and have a prepared statement that at least a certain number of folks will support.

Not trying to limit any folks from the discussion, I have no idea how to reach out to anyone else. We would likely have to get the statesmen and a tv station to try to do stories. I am entirely open to suggestions.

AE is not (my best guess) release information on consumers use patterns and contact info.

This is David Dixon. I am not in Mueller, but I do have a recently commissioned 8kw installation (waiting for 1st AE bill) that I am very excited about. I have a PV installation company, Native, here in town. I am currently very engaged with Solar Austin and efforts to lobby City Council on increasing the integration of distributed energy (solar) into the generation mix.

I would be interested in joining a meeting of concerned folks to help formulate some talking points at City Council. I can tell you that harping on Leslie Libby's group is not the path to getting anything changed. Her group is your ally. This issue will need to be taken to Council as Austin Energy upper management is not excited about customer owned solar and there are many issues at play here - some not obvious at first blush.

At the moment, the issue for me is securing solar budget for the next fiscal year (Oct), but I see the Value of Solar Tarriff (VOST) as something that we get organized on now and then bring concerns to council in the next couple months. You may or may not be aware, but AE is "re-evaluating" the VOST - presumably to strip out some of the value. Getting in front of this issue will be important for us all.

For those of you that love this stuff - here is some recent discussion with council last week about the solar budget.

Item 4, part 1 and 2 cover the solar rebate
http://austintx.swagit.com/play/08212013-667

I urge you to take the time to watch the whole thing to get an understanding of how AE really feels about your solar. (I am the first speaker in Part 2)

While AE may not be a viable avenue for reaching out, perhaps the installers could get the word out to their customers. Basically anyone who may have a credit at year end will be losing that credit next January.

While I'm not net-zero (I have a 5kW system; installed in 2008), I can foresee ending the year with a credit. January has been a high use month for me in the past (due to heat pump inefficiencies), so a credit could help with my January bill. I do not foresee ever having a credit at the end of September, however, so resetting at that point is fine with me.

It would be nice if AE could at least explain why they changed their mind about resetting in October to resetting in January.

John,

I agree that the low hanging fruit it to get rid of the credit reset date. That will help a substantial subset of PV users. Many of us will go negative in Jan/Feb especially those of you with electric auxillary heat.

As far as I was told, the credit reset was always Jan1...the same time that the VOST was supposed to be annually reset. I don't understand it. It should be Oct 1 to align with their fiscal calendar.

As far as mobilizing the other installers to reach out to their customer base, that has been tricky for a variety of reasons...

John,

I agree that the low hanging fruit it to get rid of the credit reset date. That will help a substantial subset of PV users. Many of us will go negative in Jan/Feb especially those of you with electric auxillary heat.

As far as I was told, the credit reset was always Jan1...the same time that the VOST was supposed to be annually reset. I don't understand it. It should be Oct 1 to align with their fiscal calendar.

As far as mobilizing the other installers to reach out to their customer base, that has been tricky for a variety of reasons...