Duke Energy off-peak charging - AVOID

[solodogg]

FYI...Duke Energy offers a $10 credit per EV (max 2 vehicles) in your household if you agree to only charge the vehicle during off-peak hours. After learning about this, I was curious to see how this would work as I typically only charge during their advertised off-peak hours anyway.

Off-PEAK PERIODS: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., 9 p.m.-5 a.m., weekends and holidays

HOLIDAYS: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Good Friday, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day

Signing up with this program requires logging into your Tesla account with Rolling Energy Resources, which grants them access to view your charging history and location at all times. This didn't seem like a huge issue to me, until I started noticing my car waking up every 30 minutes on the dot. Sitting in the room next to the garage, I'd hear a "click click" noise and notice the car seemed to be kicking in. I check the router to see if the car is connected, sure enough it's online and the car is awake. Literally every 30 minutes the car wakes up, assuming just to check charging status.

Logged into my Tesla account and changed the password to kill their login, and now the car sleeps like normal only waking up once per 24 hours if not used. This program is nowhere close to being worth the $10/mo they are offering if the car can't sleep and is constantly using excess power just to check its own status. Maybe in due time they will offer a real program that will monitor the actual charger installed at the home, but until then I'd advise anyone to stay away from this program.

 

[120v]

I've just reached out to rolling energy resources about this exact problem -- really bad. I'm estimating those wake-ups are consuming ~$8 a month worth of power (nevermind the constant use of the high-voltage relays wearing out components). If they can't give me a good answer on how to prevent this, I'll be disconnecting and alerting Duke.

 

[120v]

Quick update: Rolling Energy Resources knows they're doing this, and says I'm an "edge case". They claim that their pings should not wake the car from deep sleep and are already trying to figure out how to improve it. I've asked to be removed from the program.

 

[solodogg]

Yeah, completely not worth it when the car is constantly waking from sleep just to save $10/mo. Duke could subsidize a Sense like system that would monitor circuit usage in the home and attach directly to the EV charging circuit and accomplish the exact same thing without keeping my car awake all the time. Or they could work with Tesla specifically to get access to the wall connector and monitor usage from there as well.

 

[DavidElg]

Thank you for posting this. A little while ago I complained to Duke about their lack of off-peak pricing for EV owners and was directed to this program. I went through the first couple of hoops which involved sending photos of my car's registration and screenshots of my Tesla app showing it was set to charge overnight. Once they asked me to share my Tesla log-in info with a 3rd party app is when I questioned if the $10/month was worth it. Also the overnight hours of charging do not include weekends. I take Sundays and Mondays off work so it seems that I could get dinged for charging after working on Saturday. I never proceeded and it sounds like that was the right call.

 

[solodogg]

Thank you for posting this. A little while ago I complained to Duke about their lack of off-peak pricing for EV owners and was directed to this program. I went through the first couple of hoops which involved sending photos of my car's registration and screenshots of my Tesla app showing it was set to charge overnight. Once they asked me to share my Tesla log-in info with a 3rd party app is when I questioned if the $10/month was worth it. Also the overnight hours of charging do not include weekends. I take Sundays and Mondays off work so it seems that I could get dinged for charging after working on Saturday. I never proceeded and it sounds like that was the right call.

Weekends and Holidays are all considered off-peak hours, so not much of an issue there. Problem is the constant wake/sleep cycles more than anything, not sure why it would be difficult to just have an internet connected CT installed on your EV charging circuit to qualify for the discounted rate...but I wouldn't expect Duke to do anything that makes sense.

 

[solodogg]

Quick update: I just noticed that Duke has reinstated the RST-1 rate tariff for Florida, enabling residential customers to select the TOU program once again. If you do the majority of your charging between midnight and 6am, this could be a cost saver for sure.

https://desitecoreprod-cd.azureedge.net/_/media/pdfs/for-your-home/bill-inserts-2022/02feb/florida-def-residential-rate-insert.pdf?la=en&rev=8facb0cd7d2649b7a3c209ac40ccdfed

 

[Edtreo]

Hmmm... all Duke energy ask from me is a screen shot that I'm charging off peak.

 

[Klondike05]

Hmmm... all Duke energy ask from me is a screen shot that I'm charging off peak.

Nope, they still asking for login.

 

[valem]

Hmmm... all Duke energy ask from me is a screen shot that I'm charging off peak.

That's what I first though as well... I sent them the pictures as requested and I was like, wow this is nice and easy.
Then I get an email that I am accepted in the program and they directed me to the RER site to connect my car.
I was like, no thanks. Not worth the risk.

 

[Edtreo]

That's what I first though as well... I sent them the pictures as requested and I was like, wow this is nice and easy.
Then I get an email that I am accepted in the program and they directed me to the RER site to connect my car.
I was like, no thanks. Not worth the risk.

Never got the email. Not worth it for me as I charged at work which is subsidized at $0.06/KWH during daytime.

 

[Edtreo]

Quick update: I just noticed that Duke has reinstated the RST-1 rate tariff for Florida, enabling residential customers to select the TOU program once again. If you do the majority of your charging between midnight and 6am, this could be a cost saver for sure.

https://desitecoreprod-cd.azureedge.net/_/media/pdfs/for-your-home/bill-inserts-2022/02feb/florida-def-residential-rate-insert.pdf?la=en&rev=8facb0cd7d2649b7a3c209ac40ccdfed

I want on my account and couldn't find an option to choose from.

 

[1speed]

I want on my account and couldn't find an option to choose from.

Go to Billing & Payments -> Rate Comparision. It will show your current plan versus the time of use rate (which for me appears to be called "FLER_RST1A").

Based on my data, it looks like it will make sense to switch, and I have only recently scheduled the car to charge off-peak.

Can probably run the pool, HVAC, dishwasher, etc more at night to make it work even better.

 

[Edtreo]

Go to Billing & Payments -> Rate Comparision. It will show your current plan versus the time of use rate (which for me appears to be called "FLER_RST1A").

Based on my data, it looks like it will make sense to switch, and I have only recently scheduled the car to charge off-peak.

Can probably run the pool, HVAC, dishwasher, etc more at night to make it work even better.

Its blank on my section. I have solar maybe they charge me at single rate.

 

[joeljesudossu]

I have Solar Panels so I used to pay $11 per month as connection fee to Duke, since I produced way more than what I used.

However a year ago they increased the minimum payment from $11 to $35 per month.

The credits for my excess production was at best only $145 for a year for some 2000+ Kilowatt Hour. Since the $145 per year only covers few months of $35, the rest of the months of the year I am expected to cough up the $35.

Now fast forward to my brand new Tesla Model 3 LR. I am actually making good on those panels, I rarely use my gas Honda Fit. Maybe fill gas once a month.. for all driving purposes I use my Tesla and charge at home. Now at best, I am saving $200 per month in gas money as I don’t pay a penny for Solar.

On top of that I was checking if could get the $10 credit which would bring my cost from $35 to $25 per month, but after reading your guys reviews I don’t think I’ll go for it.

 

[Edtreo]

I have Solar Panels so I used to pay $11 per month as connection fee to Duke, since I produced way more than what I used.

However a year ago they increased the minimum payment from $11 to $35 per month.

The credits for my excess production was at best only $145 for a year for some 2000+ Kilowatt Hour. Since the $145 per year only covers few months of $35, the rest of the months of the year I am expected to cough up the $35.

Now fast forward to my brand new Tesla Model 3 LR. I am actually making good on those panels, I rarely use my gas Honda Fit. Maybe fill gas once a month.. for all driving purposes I use my Tesla and charge at home. Now at best, I am saving $200 per month in gas money as I don’t pay a penny for Solar.

On top of that I was checking if could get the $10 credit which would bring my cost from $35 to $25 per month, but after reading your guys reviews I don’t think I’ll go for it.

So how much do you pay duke now?

 

[valem]

Duke imposed a minimum charge amount of $30 (obviously with approval from the Public Service Commission) regardless of how much energy is used, which I think should be illegal, paying for something that is not delivered, just because they want more money.
Which is pretty much to target solar users that were only paying the customer charge or connection fees of around $13.
I have solar, and produce more than I use so I pay $33.37.
Here's what it looks like... this to me is theft in plain sight.
FPL is not doing this, and FPL also has significantly lower $/kWh rates than Duke.

 

[valem]

Because they want to take the easy route of getting all of our cars data for a measly $10, instead of simply monitoring home energy usage, or providing Time-of-use rates (TOU) like any respectable utility does, I think they can shove their $10/mo "where the sun don't shine" which hurts the most (because when the sun don't shine and power demand goes up, their power plants struggle... what were you thinking I was talking about?!?! LOL)

I will make sure to use the most kWh I possibly can (car charging, A/C use, laundry/clothes drying, boiling water, and more) during the ON-PEAK hours. Hopefully others do the same, and maybe something will change.

On their their off-peak $10 credit page it states the following:

You can charge your EV Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., holidays (detailed below) and weekends.
All other times are considered on-peak.

Off-Peak Credit - Duke Energy

Eligible Florida customers who have certain EV home chargers can get a credit on their monthly Duke Energy bill if they charge during off-peak hours.

www.duke-energy.com

To me that reads: "charge your car and use all the juice you can: Monday through Friday 5 am to 10 am and 6 pm to 9 pm"

Cheers

 

[youlikeadajuice]

I own an Ioniq5 and several owners were having 12v battery failures...an owner discovered that Duke had been pinging their car every 30 minutes for this program, changed their password and voila, no more 12v problems.

 

[Edtreo]

ROI for solar at around 7 years would be 50% of average daily use. 70% - to 80% is a good compromise.