[...] I get that step 2 rates are designed to encourage a greener attitude by minimising your hydro consumption.
Ironically those of us with electric vehicles who may be more likely to live greener anyway, (i.e. have installed LED lighting and energy efficient appliances), have higher than average consumption due to the vehicle and are being "penalised" by the step 2 rate increase [...]
I've also been a bit worried about paying a lot more on my hydro bill at the higher Step 2 rate with additional power consumption ever since getting my Model S. Since I took delivery of my 70D at beginning of Dec 2015, I've now had just over a full year of driving electric under my belt, so I thought I'd take a look at the past two years of my electric bill and do a quick comparison...
BTW, the current BC Hydro residential rates are: Step 1 $0.0829/kWh, Step 2 $0.1243/kWh.
Step 1 rates apply for the first 1,350 kWh in a 2 month billing period. Step 2 rates apply to any kWh usage above that.
(Sometime around mid 2016, there was a rate increase, IIRC it was about a 4% increase).
Comparing 2015 (i.e. pre-Tesla) and 2016 (post-Tesla), my hydro bills show a a total increase of ~ 850kWh consumption for the year (about 10% increase 2016 over 2015). that's an average increase of ~ 71kWh/month. I don't have a separate meter on my car, so there's no way for me to tell how much of this increase is attributed to EV charging (let's assume all of it)
The actual billing amount increase between the 2 years was about $129. That would have bought me maybe a tank and a half of gas for my old V6 Audi. Meanwhile in that 1 year I drove my 70D about 14,000km - although that includes a 3500km Supercharged-road trip to CA and back, plus a handful of much shorter Supercharged road trips. I should also add that I only have 120V charging at home, so therefore I might supplement home charging periodically at one of the many free public L2 chargers somewhere around town. And yes, I know that charging at 120V is less efficient than at 240V...
Looking at the effect ot Step 2 rates... with or without a Tesla, it seems my hydro bill would have hit the Step 2 threshold regardless about 8 months of the year. Yes, I've converted most of the lights at home to LED already. But buying a Tesla itself didn't seem to bump it over the threshold any more months than before. Pre-Tesla my annual kWh consumption was split at about 94% at Step 1 rate / 6% Step 2. In 2016, that ratio changed to about 87% / 13%. Based on overall billed amount & consumption, my average annual electric rate calculates out to about $0.088 / kWh in 2015, vs about $0.094 in 2016. Lower than I thought it would be.
Now that I've looked at the numbers I'm actually surprised I didn't take a bigger hit with Step 2 rates, or get bumped over the Step 2 threshold in more months. My low typical daily driving mileage helped keep costs down, as did supplementing with occasional free public charging around town. As others have already said, we're pretty lucky here in BC with an abundance of cheap hydroelectric power - I can't complain being able to drive such an amazing car for only $10.75/month in "fuel". And I'd certainly not complain either if BC Hydro gave EV owners a bit of a break on Step 2 rates...
