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Hawaii: How many EV owners pay to charge or charge for free?

Carlh76

Member
Jul 16, 2016
28
15
Hawaii
A little early to say for sure, but #1 for now. Was over producing on the PV which was a big reason for finally getting the MS. Curious about the TOU with net metering. Anyone have any issues with HECO getting the TOU set-up without messing up your existing net metering?
 

Akikiki

A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Nov 26, 2012
6,324
4,452
Kaneohe, HI
No issues with HECO setting up my TOU. There's a form on the HECO site you fill out and send them. Easy-peasy. All it basically needs is your name and the VIN of your EV. There's no direct link between Net Metering and TOU for them to mess anything up.

Do you do most of your charging at night? After 9 pm? That's what you want to think about. You might want to look at several months worth of billing and usage and see where your biggest usage is. Compare night usage against day usage. In a nutshell, not everyone benefits from moving to TOU.
 

Carlh76

Member
Jul 16, 2016
28
15
Hawaii
No issues with HECO setting up my TOU. There's a form on the HECO site you fill out and send them. Easy-peasy. All it basically needs is your name and the VIN of your EV. There's no direct link between Net Metering and TOU for them to mess anything up.

Do you do most of your charging at night? After 9 pm? That's what you want to think about. You might want to look at several months worth of billing and usage and see where your biggest usage is. Compare night usage against day usage. In a nutshell, not everyone benefits from moving to TOU.
Thanks for the info. Will take a look at a couple of months usage to see if it makes sense. Thanks
 

nanimac

Aloha!
Nov 27, 2012
2,426
567
Oahu
Yeah that's going to be horrible for any of us that charge at night. :)

I think it's a step backward for HECO's Clean energy initiative as related to EVs. Am going to contact them to see if they have future plans for an EV rate.
 
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Akikiki

A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Nov 26, 2012
6,324
4,452
Kaneohe, HI
I agree with you nanimac. This is a step backward. I am already on their EV rate. But I wonder now if it will change due to a new TOU rate.
 

nanimac

Aloha!
Nov 27, 2012
2,426
567
Oahu
Your rates are going to change!

As of September 16, 2016, the electric vehicle (“EV”) time-of-use (“TOU”) rate is closed for new enrollments. Customers currently enrolled may stay on rate TOU EV. The Hawaiian Electric Companies will create a new interim TOU rate, in mid-October. Until this new rate is effective, customers may charge their EVs at home or at businesses on their current electric rate.

When the new TOU rate is established, all customers, up to 5,000 across all three companies, may choose to join whether or not they have an electric vehicle. The interim rate is expected to be in effect for two years. When the new interim rate is announced in mid-October we will explain the process to sign up.


Get Started - Rates & Enrollment
 

gmtom1

Active Member
Apr 25, 2013
1,115
370
Honolulu, HI
Interesting - it says closed to new enrollments, but if you're on now, I'm interpreting it that nothing changes for you. Seems like the biggest change is that you're no longer required to show proof of EV ownership to get on the new "interim" EV rate schedule.
 

Akikiki

A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Nov 26, 2012
6,324
4,452
Kaneohe, HI
Hope you are aware, the TOU and EV programs are separate programs. You could be on TOU without owning an EV. But HECO wanted VIN info to sign us up for the EV rate.
 

nanimac

Aloha!
Nov 27, 2012
2,426
567
Oahu
I emailed HECO to clarify the impact of new program on existing EV TOU customers. See below email response below:

"Customers currently on the TOU EV rate can change to the new TOU R interim rate. But, once they make this choice, they cannot return to the TOU EV rate. If you are a TOU EV customer, you will be receiving a letter regarding more information the new rate soon."
 

Akikiki

A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Nov 26, 2012
6,324
4,452
Kaneohe, HI
The new Powerwall 2.0 is looking pretty good. Maybe about time to think about adding that to PV here. Two of those on a house will give us the breathing room to be less dependent on the grid and give us back up for those routine outages. We had one on the windward side just last Sunday night - right in the middle of TWD.
 

Papafox

Active Member
Jan 12, 2013
4,901
54,367
I spoke to HECO a couple months back about adding a battery. I'm currently on the TOU rate and I create 100% of my yearly energy needs on the roof. What concerns me is that I'm grandfathered in under the good rules, where HECO buys electricity from me at the same rate that it sells electricity to me. My concern is that installing a Powerwall 2 might bump me off the grandfathered program and to the current program, which only pays about half of what HECO sells power for. The HECO man I spoke to was one of the top people in the TOU program and basically said that how to handle batteries was under discussion and hadn't been resolved yet. For this reason I suggest caution in making any changes to your system if you are grandfathered in under the old program. Hoping there's clarity soon so that I can add a Powerwall 2.0 and start taking advantage of it.

By the way, if you have solar panels on your roof you don't want the new TOU plan because you'll get paid the reduced daytime rate for your output.
 
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Akikiki

A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Nov 26, 2012
6,324
4,452
Kaneohe, HI
papafox, you don't need to work about being bumped into the program which only pays about half. That program is called grid-supply. Its closed now. It lasted only from Oct ;15 when they stopped NET Metering until just July or Aug when the remaining space on the Oahu grid was maxed for selling back. Now there's only the self-supply and with self-supply you can't push back to the grid, it must go to batteries.
I can't pretend to know what happens if we that are on the old NET Metering want to add batteries to our system. I guess we will learn that when HECO and PUC figure out what they will let us do. But if I had to guess, HECO is going to try and prevent us from staying on NET Metering if they can push us to self-supply.

Anyone's thoughts?
 

Papafox

Active Member
Jan 12, 2013
4,901
54,367
papafox, you don't need to work about being bumped into the program which only pays about half. That program is called grid-supply. Its closed now. It lasted only from Oct ;15 when they stopped NET Metering until just July or Aug when the remaining space on the Oahu grid was maxed for selling back. Now there's only the self-supply and with self-supply you can't push back to the grid, it must go to batteries.
I can't pretend to know what happens if we that are on the old NET Metering want to add batteries to our system. I guess we will learn that when HECO and PUC figure out what they will let us do. But if I had to guess, HECO is going to try and prevent us from staying on NET Metering if they can push us to self-supply.

Anyone's thoughts?

Akikiki, thanks for the update. The problem as I see it is that HECO looks at customers with solar as being a negative. If customers with solar started adding batteries and those batteries suited the needs of the grid, then HECO would be better off, not worse off. For example, if customers with both solar and batteries time-shifted output to the 5pm-10pm time slot, then HECO would have a more balanced usage throughout the day. As EVs become more common, they could principally change during the 10pm-6am period. Batteries could be accessed through smart HECO meters and if the customer allows, power could be drawn from the batteries whenever HECO runs into a tight spot with the grid. There's so many win-win solutions it's ridiculous.
 
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