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Analyzing Solar

FLEX Insights can help you understand and net out how solar generation affects electricity usage across a customer population.

Solar analysis combines the populations you define with FLEX Insights’ modeled solar generation to help answer questions such as:

  • Which customers show meaningful solar generation?
  • How much electricity is being generated by solar?
  • What gross energy consumption is occurring at the meter when solar is present?
  • How do customers with solar differ from customers without solar?
  • How does the effect of solar vary across different customer populations?

Identifying Customers With Solar​

Start by creating a Segment that represents the solar population you want to analyze.

From Segments, create a new Segment and select the appropriate solar criteria from the available filters. You can combine solar with other criteria when you want to investigate a more specific population, such as residential customers in a particular geography or customers on a particular rate.

Once you have defined the population, save the Segment and add it to a Report.

Understanding Solar Generation​

Open the Report containing your solar Segment and select Load Types.

Load Types separates modeled solar generation from the other components of customer electricity usage. This allows you to see the estimated contribution of solar alongside loads such as heating, cooling, baseload, EV charging, and other available end uses.

Solar generation typically concentrates during daylight hours and varies by season and population characteristics.

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Understanding the Effect of Solar on Load Shape​

Move to Load Shapes to understand how solar affects the population’s overall electricity demand.

Seasonal Usage Patterns can be particularly useful for solar analysis because it shows how usage changes throughout the day and across different parts of the year.

Solar generation can reduce electricity drawn from the grid during daylight hours, creating a different load shape than populations without solar.

Use the Remove Solar Generation checkbox to see the estimated load shape without the effect of solar generation. This adds the modeled solar generation back to the observed load, estimating what the population’s electricity demand would have looked like without solar.

Comparing the original and solar-removed views can help you understand how solar changes the timing and magnitude of grid demand, including its effect on midday load and the shape of the evening ramp.

Looking at Load Shapes alongside Load Types provides additional context by showing the modeled solar generation contributing to those differences.

Net Meter Usage​

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Gross Meter Usage​

Interpreting Solar Results​

FLEX Insights models solar generation from available energy data and does not require device-level telemetry. Interpret it as a highly accurate estimate rather than a direct measurement from the solar system itself.

The strongest analyses combine multiple views. Load Types helps estimate how much solar generation is present, while Load Shapes shows how that generation affects the electricity profile observed at the meter.

When comparing populations, remember that differences between them may reflect characteristics other than solar. Creating closely matched Segments can make the comparison more meaningful.