EV1-A to EV2-A

[wwu123]

I also am still on EV-A after having installed two Powerwalls in early 2022. I was just about to re-program my Powerwalls thinking I was on EV2A but fortunately I didn't screw that up and I kept the same TOU periods that I manually programmed in for EV-A. I've been searching for the rate tariff for EV-A to see how the rates compare across TOU periods, but I haven't been able to locate the current tariff. Are the rates the same as in EV2A but just the TOU periods are different? Or is there a separate EV-A with different tariffs than EV2A?

On the PGE.com site, click on Regulation under the bottom menu, to get to all published rates, including legacy rates not available to new customers. EV-A and EV-B still there, look under Electric Rates, for Tariff Name "EV (Sch)". As opposed to "EV2 (Sch)" that includes EV2-A.

Pretty sure the rates are going to be different, not just the periods.

 

[zanary]

I also am still on EV-A after having installed two Powerwalls in early 2022. I was just about to re-program my Powerwalls thinking I was on EV2A but fortunately I didn't screw that up and I kept the same TOU periods that I manually programmed in for EV-A. I've been searching for the rate tariff for EV-A to see how the rates compare across TOU periods, but I haven't been able to locate the current tariff. Are the rates the same as in EV2A but just the TOU periods are different? Or is there a separate EV-A with different tariffs than EV2A?

PG&E publishes all tariff's at this link: Tariffs

Expand "Electric Rate Schedule" and then search for "EV (Sch)" if looking for EV-A. If looking for EV-2A schedule to do a comparison, search for "EV2 (Sch)". Each will bring up their associated PDFs, and then you can do a comparison.

It's important to note that even though your are on EV-A, the cost changes even though it's a deprecated plan, so look for the page with the summer and winter pricing, and then look at the footer to see when the price change. Check both PDFs every 2 months as you never know when PG&E gets approval to increase the price becuase they do the bare minimum communication as per CPUC which is pretty much useless communication.

Note: For both EV-A and EV-2A the price last increased 30 days ago.
Note 2: EV-A customers pay the highest rate in the US during peak hours I believe and if it's not the highest it will cross 70 cents per kWh in a few months guarantee because CPUC just says YES to everything that PG&E ask for...

 

[miimura]

Note: For both EV-A and EV-2A the price last increased 30 days ago.
Note 2: EV-A customers pay the highest rate in the US during peak hours I believe and if it's not the highest it will cross 70 cents per kWh in a few months guarantee because CPUC just says YES to everything that PG&E ask for...

Um, no. The June 1, 2023 rates actually went down. That's why they have an (R) next to each of the prices.

Also, SDGE has way higher rates than PG&E for EV charging plans.

 

[SFOTurtle]

Thanks for the help in finding the tariff, which I did manage to find earlier on my own through some more sleuthing and was able to manually program my Powerwalls with the settings. Since I've now been migrated to NEM 2.0 from 1.0, I know we'll be earning a few cents less on our exports.

But since our panels export for most of the afternoon and we still have enough in the batteries to avoid pulling from the grid during peak hours (for 8-9 months of the year anyway when it isn't raining), and we rarely run A/C or any other major appliances during the afternoon, EV-A is better for us with the higher peak rates starting at 2 p.m.

 

[wwu123]

For solar, EV-A is better than any current plan for sure, which is why they kicked as many people off it as possible, unless you had some sort of grandfathering. I was grandfathered on E-6, which was also pretty good, for about three more years, but when they announced they were closing EV-A to new signups I switched since it was marginally better.

Of course they then kicked me off EV-A a whole three months later, with no way to get E-6 back... sigh

 

[aesculus]

I also am still on EV-A after having installed two Powerwalls in early 2022. I was just about to re-program my Powerwalls thinking I was on EV2A but fortunately I didn't screw that up and I kept the same TOU periods that I manually programmed in for EV-A. I've been searching for the rate tariff for EV-A to see how the rates compare across TOU periods, but I haven't been able to locate the current tariff. Are the rates the same as in EV2A but just the TOU periods are different? Or is there a separate EV-A with different tariffs than EV2A?

 

[RKCRLR]

Set your reserve to whatever keeps your home from touching energy from the grid from 3pm to midnight lol.

Like excluding EV charging, I don't expect anyone to modify their behaviors based on the time of day. So it's 6pm? The dryer is running, people are cooking on electric, they're watching TV, and a bunch of lights are on. I don't have as many lights in my hallway as @Redhill_qik, but there are a bunch of lights on lolol. And on a high-usage day with mild AC usage we'll use about 20 kWh in that timeframe... and the PWs drop to 30% SOC.

So 30% is my magic number in the spring.

The Summer is more flakey... when it's really hot I can exhaust all 3 Powerwalls before midnight. But those are also the days the grid may collapse, so I just watch sadly as we use expensive energy from PG&E before midnight. Sad.

I wish there was an option on TBC to prioritize solar to my home with the excess going to the grid during peak hours. I keep my reserve at 50% because I live in an area of frequent outages and my batteries hit my reserve before midnight on hot days.

 

[BGbreeder]

I wish there was an option on TBC to prioritize solar to my home with the excess going to the grid during peak hours. I keep my reserve at 50% because I live in an area of frequent outages and my batteries hit my reserve before midnight on hot days.

Have you tried increasing the power cost, and/or decreasing the sell cost to incentivize "hoarding" power in the off peak/shoulder time periods? I have mine set to account for NBC and a 10% added price differential and it seems to work as you describe. (Home first, powerwalls second, and solar to grid during peak times.)

 

[getakey]

Home first, powerwalls second, and solar to grid during peak times.

Don't you want PWs first, home second? You should charge PWs with solar when grid rates are low.

 

[BGbreeder]

Don't you want PWs first, home second? You should charge PWs with solar when grid rates are low.

You are right we do.

I wrote incorrectly above. I should have written that the solar powers the house and charges the powerwalls with off peak solar, with limited grid usage during off peak, and then during mid-peak, and peak, no grid use, which in our case carries us through peak and mid-peak on solar and powerwalls alone. I used to be concerned about any grid usage, and then @Redhill_qik's analysis made me realize that a few kWh of off peak usage is built into the monthly fees, so that's what we seem to use, and I don't sweat it.

YMMV, but in our case it was all achieved by the minor tweaks of import/export price differentials to reflect NBCs and Powerwall round trip efficiency seems to get us the behavior of no peak grid use, no mid-peak grid use, and almost all of our solar booked as mid-peak, not off peak power.

All the best,

BG

 

[RKCRLR]

Have you tried increasing the power cost, and/or decreasing the sell cost to incentivize "hoarding" power in the off peak/shoulder time periods? I have mine set to account for NBC and a 10% added price differential and it seems to work as you describe. (Home first, powerwalls second, and solar to grid during peak times.)

I haven't lately. However I've previously tried playing around with settings which had unintended results. Right now I have a $0.03 differential between the buy and sell prices to account to account for NBCs. It works good during off peak to ensure the Poweralls get charged before 3pm but still allows the house to run off solar. I would have thought that the 10% round trip losses would have been built into the programing since there is no way to avoid them.

Do you add the 10% across the board (off peak, partial peak, and peak), just to partial peak and peak, or just to peak?

 

[BGbreeder]

I haven't lately. However I've previously tried playing around with settings which had unintended results. Right now I have a $0.03 differential between the buy and sell prices to account to account for NBCs. It works good during off peak to ensure the Poweralls get charged before 3pm but still allows the house to run off solar. I would have thought that the 10% round trip losses would have been built into the programing since there is no way to avoid them.

Do you add the 10% across the board (off peak, partial peak, and peak), just to partial peak and peak, or just to peak?

I just increased the sell/buy difference by an added 10% or so, plus the NBC. My recollection is that I left the buy prices alone and just lowered the sell prices to widen the gap to my goal.

My recollection is that the 10% round trip loss did not appear to be reflected in the Powerwall algorithm actions when mine were installed, based on the behavior. Again, as far as I am concerned, the algorithm is a black box. It isn't clear to me what goes into the algorithm, and at the end of the day, pricing was a variable that I could alter and so I played with pricing.

All the best,

BG

 

[ucmndd]

I wish there was an option on TBC to prioritize solar to my home with the excess going to the grid during peak hours. I keep my reserve at 50% because I live in an area of frequent outages and my batteries hit my reserve before midnight on hot days.

Once it gets hot mine seem to learn this behavior on their own in TBC to make sure I can get through peak.

 

[RKCRLR]

Once it gets hot mine seem to learn this behavior on their own in TBC to make sure I can get through peak.

I was on TBC with a $0.03 buy/sell offset last summer and never say solar prioritized to my house during peak hours.

 

[RKCRLR]

I just increased the sell/buy difference by an added 10% or so, plus the NBC. My recollection is that I left the buy prices alone and just lowered the sell prices to widen the gap to my goal.

My recollection is that the 10% round trip loss did not appear to be reflected in the Powerwall algorithm actions when mine were installed, based on the behavior. Again, as far as I am concerned, the algorithm is a black box. It isn't clear to me what goes into the algorithm, and at the end of the day, pricing was a variable that I could alter and so I played with pricing.

All the best,

BG

I changed my peak sell to $0.49 (buy is at $0.58) to give it a try. Last time I played around with these settings I wound up running from the grid during peak hours...

 

[alextriphan]

I changed my peak sell to $0.49 (buy is at $0.58) to give it a try. Last time I played around with these settings I wound up running from the grid during peak hours...

I'm on EV2-A and got my panels & powerwall last week. The app automatically set Buy $0.49 and Sell $0.49. It doesn't look like my powerwalls are being used at all even during peak hours. I'm going to try buy $.58 / sell $.49, but does anyone have a surefire answer on what I should do?

 

[miimura]

I'm on EV2-A and got my panels & powerwall last week. The app automatically set Buy $0.49 and Sell $0.49. It doesn't look like my powerwalls are being used at all even during peak hours. I'm going to try buy $.58 / sell $.49, but does anyone have a surefire answer on what I should do?

That's not right. If you are on Time Based Control, your Powerwall chart should look like this with buy and sell equal on EV2-A

The PWs should charge from all solar until full, then go into standby until the end of Off-Peak. At 3pm when Part-Peak starts, they should discharge to satisfy your house load until midnight. From Midnight to the start of solar production, they should be in Standby again.

When you reduce the sell price, solar should satisfy house loads first, then charge the PWs when the solar is greater than the house load. At least that's what I'm expecting after I get my additional solar installed soon and I get moved from NEM 1 to NEM 2. Without additional options like Grid Charging and Export Everything, your chart should look substantially like mine above. If it's not charging from solar or not discharging during Peak, call Tesla Energy Support and see if they can get it working. If you want to post your settings pages, we can help you check for obvious problems in your settings.

 

[alextriphan]

This is my current result after changing to Buy $.58 / Sell $.49 on EV2-A plan. My powerwalls are not activating during mid-peak or peak.

 

[BGbreeder]

@alextriphan OK, wow, that is not normal. As far as I can tell from your nice screenshots, it looks ok, although I might try turning off the grid charging and export flags to see if that changes anything. I would call Tesla at this point.

All the best,

BG

 

[RKCRLR]

I changed my peak sell to $0.49 (buy is at $0.58) to give it a try. Last time I played around with these settings I wound up running from the grid during peak hours...

No joy. Still doesn't prioritize solar to my house during peak. However yesterday was cooler so I was still above my reserve at midnight.