Cost of EV charging in Vancouver

[ecarfan]

My Google-fu is weak today: I’ve searched for the kW/h cost of hydro in Vancouver but can’t find it on the BC Hydro site or anywhere else. Can anyone enlighten me?

I did find that there are some decent EV purchase rebates from BC and the federal government as well as rebates for residential charger installs. EV Charger Rebate for B.C. Homes | BC Hydro

Of course you Vancouver Tesla owners know all about this stuff. While I currently live in California, but my Canadian spouse and I are planning a move to your beautiful city, hence my interest.

 

[Bluejays]

$0.0935/kWh for 1350 kwh - after 1350 kWh rate goes to $0.1403 kWh

 

[BrandX]

You must have a different "conservation rate" than me

 

[ccudmore]

While I currently live in California, but my Canadian spouse and I are planning a move to your beautiful city, hence my interest.

If you're already referring to it as "Hydro", you're going to fit in nicely in Canada. Next step: It's "pop" not "soda".

 

[Bluejays]

You must have a different "conservation rate" than me

View attachment 593943

Weird, it says I’m on the same Rate Schedule 1101 as you but my step 2 doesn’t kick in until after 1350 kWh is reached at step 1.

 

[Funkmobile]

Weird, it says I’m on the same Rate Schedule 1101 as you but my step 2 doesn’t kick in until after 1350 kWh is reached at step 1.

How your threshold is determined

On your bill, the threshold for the lower Step 1 rate is calculated by multiplying the number of days in the billing period by 22.1918 kWh per day.

Customer meters are read on different days so billing periods can vary from bill to bill. The 22.1918 kWh per day is the daily equivalent of 1,350 kWh for the average two month billing period.

For example, a 60-day billing period would have a Step 1 threshold of 1,332 kWh (60 days x 22.1918 kWh per day). A 58-day billing period would have a 1,287 kWh (58 days x 22.1918 kWh per day) Step 1 threshold.

Your bill is over 2 months, the other is over 1 month.

 

[TheRFMan]

Somewhat odd that they put a transit levy on a hydro bill. Perhaps because of those electric busses?

 

[ecarfan]

$0.0935/kWh for 1350 kwh - after 1350 kWh rate goes to $0.1403 kWh

Thanks. To a Californian that seems pretty reasonable! And yes I realize you are quoting C$ and I am aware of the exchange rate.

If you're already referring to it as "Hydro", you're going to fit in nicely in Canada. Next step: It's "pop" not "soda".

I lived in Toronto for almost two years, a long time ago. And over time I got used to my spouse referring to the “hydro bill”.

So there is no TOU plan in BC?

 

[wayner]

It kind of is dumb that we call it hydro since hydro means water. Technically your hydro bill would be your water bill.

 

[Bluejays]

Your bill is over 2 months, the other is over 1 month.

Just noticed that. Damn BrandX you use a lot of electricity!

Thanks. To a Californian that seems pretty reasonable! And yes I realize you are quoting C$ and I am aware of the exchange rate.
I lived in Toronto for almost two years, a long time ago. And over time I got used to my spouse referring to the “hydro bill”.

So there is no TOU plan in BC?

No TOU yet, but heard that it was being considered.

 

[MexiCanuck]

So there is no TOU plan in BC?

That’s correct. In jurisdictions where electricity is generated thermally with fossil fuels or nuclear energy, it is impractical to vary the rate of production. At nighttime, excess electricity production is going unused, so producers sell it at a discount using TOU.

In BC, pretty much all of our electricity is generated by hydro dams. When demand drops in the evening, BC Hydro shuts off sluices, reducing the amount of electricity being produced, and saving the water to produce electricity the next day when it is needed.

In fact BC Hydro will import electricity at night because other producers have surpluses and are selling it cheaply, then export electricity in the daytime when other jurisdictions are running low and prices are higher.

 

[BrandX]

Just noticed that. Damn BrandX you use a lot of electricity

yeah, I’m always telling the family to turn off the lights, even though we’ve switched over to LEDs.

 

[nshoresteve]

To give you some idea of monthly cost for several months I compared my before Tesla to after Tesla Hydro electric bills and mine went up between $40 to $50 CAD per month charging mostly at home at 120V15A circuit driving about 15,000km/yr. And that's at our Step 2 higher rate. I only wanted a rough idea so didn't try to get exact consumption as my bills are fairly consistent.

 

[Puma2020]

If you're already referring to it as "Hydro", you're going to fit in nicely in Canada. Next step: It's "pop" not "soda".

No, sorry. I can deal with Hydro... but pop is my dad, not something to drink!

My wife is from Michigan and they suffer under that same incorrect influence. My first visit to meet her family, we went out for dinner. The waitress was asking what we liked to drink and on my turn, I asked what kind of soda do you have? Received a blank stare. So I asked again, more slowly this this, "what kind of soda do you have?". Same blank stare. Turned to my GF (at that time) and said I needed a translator.
Explaining the issue, she promptly asked, "What kind of pop do you have?". This received a response.
My GF explained that I was asking what kid of baking soda was used in the kitchen. Very strange people but I still married her.

Sadly now, my daughter is now being corrupted, as she is living in BC. For sure.
Thank you kindly.

 

[cwerdna]

My Google-fu is weak today: I’ve searched for the kW/h cost of hydro in Vancouver but can’t find it on the BC Hydro site or anywhere else.

The correct units for energy are kWh. "kW/h" doesn't make any sense.

Looking at BrandX's post, your electricity up there is a BARGAIN compared to Pacific Gouge & Extort.

I'm on E-1 (see page 1 of https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-1.pdf) which is non-TOU. I had to switch away from a TOU plan (E-6 that is closed to new customers) due to COVID-19 and having to WFH. E-6 rates when I'm WFH esp. during the summer would kill me.

Tier 1 (baseline) in my area is about 300 to 327 kWh in a 30 day billing month, depending on the season. Each kWh at the 101% to 400% of baseline (aka tier 2) costs 30.7 cents (in USD). The baselines are intentionally designed to be insufficient for the "average" household.

I had an unusually high bill (for me) last month of $106.08 USD (is about $141.37 CAD) for the electric portion due to wildfires and not being able to cool my house on hot days by opening windows and using box fans due to horrible air quality (AQI of 150+). And, I had to run air purifiers. I used ~385.2 kWh in a 32 day billing period. I did hit tier 2. Pre-COVID in non-winter months, I usually was able to stay within tier 1 each month.

I pay 1 cent extra per kWh to my city for supposedly 100% renewable (sourced) energy. The above with 0 or virtually 0 EV charging at home since the marginal cost to charge at home for me is about 31.7 cents/kWh (yes, in USD). While WFH, I instead use free DC FC juice or a 19 cent/kWh DC FC 5 miles from home. Pre-COVID, I had free level 2 charging at work, so almost all of my EV juice came from that.

We do have an EV plan (https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_EV2 (Sch).pdf, see pages 2 and 3 for the time bands). It has no tiers but they kill you during peak and partial peak times (33.5 to 47.9 cents/kWh). No thanks.

 

[Double_J]

To give you some idea of monthly cost for several months I compared my before Tesla to after Tesla Hydro electric bills and mine went up between $40 to $50 CAD per month charging mostly at home at 120V15A circuit driving about 15,000km/yr. And that's at our Step 2 higher rate. I only wanted a rough idea so didn't try to get exact consumption as my bills are fairly consistent.

I'm hoping the math is a bit off because that savings doesn't seem like much compared to my civic. At $50 per month you are going to spend ,$600 annually.

My civic gets approximately 800km to a tank. 15,000km/800km is just under 19 tanks of gas. I put 41L in the car and while prices fluctuate i will say it costs $1 per litre. My annual bill would $779 based on some rounding. I really hope the model Y is going to save more that $179 in cost annually.

 

[Double_J]

Ps. I'm going to do some charging at work but I'm still hoping for much more savings than that.

 

[TheRFMan]

I'm hoping the math is a bit off because that savings doesn't seem like much compared to my civic.

You're comparing a FWD underpowered economy compact with an AWD crossover that'll do 0-100km/h in 5 seconds. Even if you break even in energy costs, that's a win in my books. A similar ICE vehicle (Porsche Macan GTS, for example), would have cost a lot more in fuel than your Civic.

 

[Double_J]

I'm hoping the math is a bit off because that savings doesn't seem like much compared to my civic. At $50 per month you are going to spend ,$600 annually.

My civic gets approximately 800km to a tank. 15,000km/800km is just under 19 tanks of gas. I put 41L in the car and while prices fluctuate i will say it costs $1 per litre. My annual bill would $779 based on some rounding. I really hope the model Y is going to save more that $179 in cost annually.

Can someone correct my math if I'm off base. I'm going to round off a bit to hopefully be on the conservative side.

Model y has 75kwh battery. I will assume it gets 400km if its fully drained in the real world. At 14.6c per kwh it would cost $11 to fully charge the battery.

In the example above he drove 15,000km.

15,000km/400km per charge is 37.5 charges per year or $412.

Again I did rounding and you would never drain a battery completely but is the math correct?

 

[Lon12]

I like to use 5 km / kWh as an easy math average for most EVs. So you are close. Summer can see 9 winter 4.