Tonight was an info meeting for the Alameda Municipal Utilities Board to introduce the topic to its customers, the meeting was titled Electric Vehicle Rate Talk
I was one of maybe two people that attended other than people who work there. Likely all the info will be in your upcoming bill.
TL;DR A pilot program is coming next year where AMP will be testing out time-of-use rates to help keep electric cars from charging during the evening peak usage.
They presented several info slides:
This slide explains the issue, people with EVs coming home and plugging their cars in, just when everyone else is coming home and starting dinner - oven and microwave, turning on the TV, putting on the dishwasher, starting a load of laundry. Also cooling the house in the summer and warming the bed in winter. All this is why the dotted line shows a swift peak in the value of electricity to AMP at 7 pm. They don't pay more for their power, but they can resell any unused power during that peak. They looked at the bills of EV owners and in general, they already were the customers with the highest bills, bigger houses, more toys. That's why the EV Customer line is SO much higher than the average one.
All plans remove the Tiers that AMP currently (ha!) uses in favor of a flat rate. These are the plans they came up with, you will figure out my preference just by paying attention, but the option B that is highlighted is because that is what the staff and consultants are recommending.
The first option will provide a discount for those that charge at night, after 10 pm and before 6 am. Only 7¢ per kWh! There are cheaper plans on the planet, but this is great for California. Think of the rate you pay for charging your car like what a gallon of gas costs, the lower the better!
Option B has the smallest window outside the discount rate. You can charge your car whenever you want and get the discounted 12¢ rate except during the hours of 5 pm to 9 pm, but during those hours it's 50¢!!! Gack!
I just get home from work, I've signed up for the EV rate plan because I bought a used Leaf thru the California Plus-Up program for low-income people like me. I won't plug in the car until later, but I also know that I shouldn't run any appliance or even lights until after 9 pm. But now EVERYONE in my family is mad at me for trying to police their use of power, even on weekends.
Option C is a less draconian version, widening the window by an hour each direction, and lowering the peak rate by half but raising the discount a penny.
This next slide shows what might happen if you chose the EV Rate Option A. This is what most EV owners already should be doing. Set your car not to charge until 10 pm or put a timer on the outlet. Of course, someday all those cars clicking on at the atomically corrected time of 10 pm might cause a serious spike in the grid. Perhaps it could be planned for, so we'll leave that for another day.
You can see that currently, this customer is paying for 7500 kWhs a year, AMP gives a $9-21/mo incentive for each electric vehicle, this would be replaced by this plan. Someone that signs up, but cannot give up charging during the peak window or using other appliances during the day actually pays almost $40 more, but on a good day can save as much as $95 a month. Likely not going to wait until 10 pm to run a load of laundry, certainly not going to get up early enough to run another one so it will finish before 6 am. So some things will be more painful than they are now even on my favorite plan.
This is the one they are going for during the trial period. They plan to collect data and see how people react. If they move the EV owners off electricity during the peak period it will be a success, but it seems like they are punishing EV owners for trying to do the right thing. The current rate plan does the same thing, the more electricity you use the more it costs. This doesn't encourage people to buy electric cars when they are punished for using more electricity. Now they are punished for moving to the EV plan that raises their electric costs at dinner time, especially bad if they need to charge their car to go somewhere during that period. VERY expensive.
If the peak is a problem why not come up with a plan that makes everyone use a little less during that period, not a draconian plan to make its subscriber choose dinner or EV. Certainly, it's fairer to make everyone pay the same for dinner and let people charging their cars fill during a period that's otherwise unused. Taxing our microwaves and ovens seems wrong.
I was one of maybe two people that attended other than people who work there. Likely all the info will be in your upcoming bill.
TL;DR A pilot program is coming next year where AMP will be testing out time-of-use rates to help keep electric cars from charging during the evening peak usage.
They presented several info slides:
This slide explains the issue, people with EVs coming home and plugging their cars in, just when everyone else is coming home and starting dinner - oven and microwave, turning on the TV, putting on the dishwasher, starting a load of laundry. Also cooling the house in the summer and warming the bed in winter. All this is why the dotted line shows a swift peak in the value of electricity to AMP at 7 pm. They don't pay more for their power, but they can resell any unused power during that peak. They looked at the bills of EV owners and in general, they already were the customers with the highest bills, bigger houses, more toys. That's why the EV Customer line is SO much higher than the average one.
All plans remove the Tiers that AMP currently (ha!) uses in favor of a flat rate. These are the plans they came up with, you will figure out my preference just by paying attention, but the option B that is highlighted is because that is what the staff and consultants are recommending.
The first option will provide a discount for those that charge at night, after 10 pm and before 6 am. Only 7¢ per kWh! There are cheaper plans on the planet, but this is great for California. Think of the rate you pay for charging your car like what a gallon of gas costs, the lower the better!
Option B has the smallest window outside the discount rate. You can charge your car whenever you want and get the discounted 12¢ rate except during the hours of 5 pm to 9 pm, but during those hours it's 50¢!!! Gack!
I just get home from work, I've signed up for the EV rate plan because I bought a used Leaf thru the California Plus-Up program for low-income people like me. I won't plug in the car until later, but I also know that I shouldn't run any appliance or even lights until after 9 pm. But now EVERYONE in my family is mad at me for trying to police their use of power, even on weekends.
Option C is a less draconian version, widening the window by an hour each direction, and lowering the peak rate by half but raising the discount a penny.
This next slide shows what might happen if you chose the EV Rate Option A. This is what most EV owners already should be doing. Set your car not to charge until 10 pm or put a timer on the outlet. Of course, someday all those cars clicking on at the atomically corrected time of 10 pm might cause a serious spike in the grid. Perhaps it could be planned for, so we'll leave that for another day.
You can see that currently, this customer is paying for 7500 kWhs a year, AMP gives a $9-21/mo incentive for each electric vehicle, this would be replaced by this plan. Someone that signs up, but cannot give up charging during the peak window or using other appliances during the day actually pays almost $40 more, but on a good day can save as much as $95 a month. Likely not going to wait until 10 pm to run a load of laundry, certainly not going to get up early enough to run another one so it will finish before 6 am. So some things will be more painful than they are now even on my favorite plan.
This is the one they are going for during the trial period. They plan to collect data and see how people react. If they move the EV owners off electricity during the peak period it will be a success, but it seems like they are punishing EV owners for trying to do the right thing. The current rate plan does the same thing, the more electricity you use the more it costs. This doesn't encourage people to buy electric cars when they are punished for using more electricity. Now they are punished for moving to the EV plan that raises their electric costs at dinner time, especially bad if they need to charge their car to go somewhere during that period. VERY expensive.
If the peak is a problem why not come up with a plan that makes everyone use a little less during that period, not a draconian plan to make its subscriber choose dinner or EV. Certainly, it's fairer to make everyone pay the same for dinner and let people charging their cars fill during a period that's otherwise unused. Taxing our microwaves and ovens seems wrong.
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