Power companies have excess power in the early morning hours. There generators are running, but since everyone is asleep, most of the power isn't used. Hence, this is the best time from the power company's perspective, to charge EVs - no need for additional power plants and extra revenue for the power companies. To encourage us to use this late night charging, many power companies have time of day metering where the late night power is significantly cheaper.
The local power company, PG & E has a special rate schedule for "experimental electric vehicles" called E-9. Applying for E-9 is tricky - you can find the rate schedule and a form to apply, but it doesn't tell you where to send the form and references a E-Net application that isn't mentioned on the web site at all. I sent them an email which gave me a contact that gave me the address.
After reviewing the rates, we decide to have a second meter installed for the car - that way we aren't paying $.28instead of $.11 a KWH for household appliances during peak summer months.
Okay, the form filled out I pop in in the mail and hear nothing. Friday morning a blue truck pulls up and a guy has a work order to swamp our residential meeter with a time of day unit programmed for E-9 rates. Not what we wanted, but after talking with him, we could either have him put the house on E-9 or not, he couldn't put a second meeter in. We decided we'd give it a try for a month and see how it worked.
Now I need to put in a timer on my charger circuit so that it only kicks in after midnight...
Put some solar panels on the roof an then you'll happily get paid the $.28 instead of $.11 on those peak summer days. Seriously though, I would be interested to hear if your average rates go up or down. All those PG&E rates and time schedules make my head hurt when I try and figure it out hypothetically.
ReplyDeleteSolar is the way to go. I just don't have PV panels in the budget for this year - maybe next year.
ReplyDeleteThe meter had "E9" written on it in felt pen, but a month later my bill was still on the standard E1 rate. I called and they sent out a truck with a guy who explained that the meter wasn't being read since the existing peep hole was too far from the meter (news to me!). He installed an angled bracket and I put in a new peep hole. Next month, I was still on E1. I called again and though they seemed to want to help they told me to call some guy to get it straightened out. Two weeks later after, no return call, I played the "I'm going to the PUC" card. The CSR then asked if I could read the meter to her. I did, and then got a call from the supervisor who confirmed I was now on E9. Finally! A week later I got 2 FAT bills showing each day's charges by time of day period which added up to significantly less than the old bills. I then got a couple bills with new gas charges and refunds for the earlier months at E1.
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