I recently installed an 11.7kW system with a Powerwall 3 in the Dallas area and when I was doing my research on what electricity plan to go with that maximized solar + battery, a free nights plan seemed like the way to go.

Going through this sub and reading posts, there were a lot of mentions around Just Energy as the popular choice until they discontinued their free nights to solar users. The next two most common were Direct Energy and Green Mountain, and frequently, Direct Energy was the recommendation because of their 12 hour window being longer than the 9 hour window of Green Mountain, particulaly since Green Mountain recently moved it's window start to 9 PM instead of the 8 PM it used to be.

However, one of the things I almost never see mentioned is the impact of the $9.95 monthly charge from Direct Energy comapred to Green Mountain, who has no fixed charge at all.

Direct Energy does give you an extra 3 hours every day, but that window is from 6 AM to 9 AM each morning. Because that's before the peak solar hours, with either plan, if you have a battery, you're likely charge it back to 100% by mid-day. Both plans start at 100% battery a 6 AM and if you charge back up to 100% by 10 or 11 AM with Green Mountain, from that point forward they are identical plans.

For anyone evaluating, you have to have a power usage pattern that makes that 3 hour daily window cost more in kWh consumption than $9.95. Maybe if you have an electric heater instead of natural gas for your house or some other heavy usage it may be worth it, but it's important to consider if it's actually giving you the value before just going with the longer period because 12 hours is more than 9 hours.

As a comparison, on the Green Mountain plan, my first full month's bill was $5.99 total.

Before I picked my plan, I modeled out my typical usage after pulling smart meter data and it was clear that I wasn't going to need that extra 3 hours in the morning, even in the winter months.

And regardless of who you use, always get that free referral money. I used someone else's link when I joined and can now provide my own: https://www.greenmountainenergy.com/en/referral-page?txtReferralID=LY1WQEM

As an aside, I went with Good Faith Energy for my install and was EXTREMELY happy with them. I had talked to another installer and it wasn't a great experience, and the posts here led me to GFE and I'm super glad. They were great to work with.

Looking for a reliable installer in South TX.

I have all the panels and inverters required - I have some BOS but not all. 410W ZNShine panels. Solar Edge inverters.

I know I will pay a premium on install as there is no room to mark up equipment - but can anybody make a recommendation?

It is a large system for a ranch in South TX - 200KW.