Great news! Tucson Electric Power is now complying with Arizona Corporation Commission’s decision from September 2018, requiring that TEP provide “the hourly load data of its customers available in an easily downloadable file from its website” within 60 days, or tell the ACC why they can’t provide this to customers.
TEP has been providing interval data through a clunky request process and providing the info by email (and waiving data request fees), but this has been taking up to ten days, and is certainly not an easily downloadable file!
So we’re really happy that customers can now almost instantly download their own energy usage data, as I and other folks discussed during ACC hearings & testimony.
This information is critical for new solar customers to understand their savings from solar, and must be part of the discussion between installer and consumer. So how do you check out this data for yourself? First, log into your TEP account, at https://www.tep.com.
Next, hover over the “Billing & Payment” menu, and click on “My Energy Usage,” second to the bottom.
When my energy usage appears, there’s a download button just below the introductory info. Click on it! If you want more info on using the rest of My Energy Usage, see this blog post.
You can then select the time period you’d like energy usage data for, and click “Download” at the bottom. The last 12 months of usage is most helpful if you’re thinking about solar, but you can also download data for a specific year, or even a billing period.
After a bit of processing time, you’ll be downloading a .CSV file of your energy use data. This simple file can be shared with solar installers, or you can just check out your energy usage over time. The first couple days of my recent usage are shown. The zero-usage periods during the day are when solar is making more than is being used in his home. The big usage at night on the 26th is from charging an electric vehicle.
So although we would have certainly preferred TEP not delay their compliance by five months, we’re glad to have this information available now! We hope it will smooth the process of going solar for TEP customers.
One caveat: Some customers may not have interval data available, if they have old analog meters. But TEP is working on that.
Questions? Comments? Please leave them below!
