MODEL S: What's the truth about the carbon footprint?

[reynirb]

I only focus on CO2 emissions. Florida has very clean power grid thanks to ~70% of power coming from natural gas. It is very close to California's CO2 per kWh intensity while being 1.5 - 2 times cheaper on average. FPL does offer nice TOU plan, where you would pay 6 cents per kWh 9pm-12pm and about 21 cents 12pm - 9pm in the summer, and 6 cents on the weekends. But because air conditioning runs pretty much continuously during daytime, it ends up costing more in the end. It may work if both spouses work during daytime, commute in 2 EV's at least 50 miles a day and keep air con turned off when away from the house.

True. The TOU plan would work if both work away from home. In my case, both myself and my wife work at home, so my A/C runs 24/7.

Problem is, the TOU rates are too utility favored. A TOU plan should be 6 cents off peak, and 15 cents peak, not 21 cents peak.

You are only saving about 4 to 5 cents off peak, and paying extra 10 cents peak, so the plan works 2:1 against you.

Of course they are also spending over $20 million to make sure solar never goes anywhere, so it is pretty amazing what FPL gets away with here. Add to that the PSC gives them pretty much whatever they want and it is a miracle we actually have reasonable rates so far, subject to change.

 

[AntronX]

It kinda makes sense why they would want 21 cents on peak. Look at it from their point of view. If they are going to lose money on you (you will be saving money each month, otherwise you would stay on flat 11 cent rate) , they at least want you to shift most of your power use into off peak, so they can avoid running their expensive peaker turbines. Pricing it at 15 cents does not bite hard enough for your to really stay away from peak power.

I do wish they could offer super off-peak rate at 3 - 4 cents between 1 - 5 am coupled with mandatory demand response. This way they can remotely pause your night charging when there is a cold snap record power demand at night.

 

[reynirb]

It kinda makes sense why they would want 21 cents on peak. Look at it from their point of view. If they are going to lose money on you (you will be saving money each month, otherwise you would stay on flat 11 cent rate) , they at least want you to shift most of your power use into off peak, so they can avoid running their expensive peaker turbines. Pricing it at 15 cents does not bite hard enough for your to really stay away from peak power.

I do wish they could offer super off-peak rate at 3 - 4 cents between 1 - 5 am coupled with mandatory demand response. This way they can remotely pause your night charging when there is a cold snap record power demand at night.

Well, anyway you cut it, you have to move whatever you are doing to 2 hours of off peak for every hour of peak to break even.

From a practical standpoint, don't see how that is possible for it to ever make financial sense for a TOU plan. Keep in mind in the summer, you have peak from 6AM to 10AM and then 6PM to 10PM. In the winter it is 12PM to 9PM.

The only thing you can really move to off peak is vehicle charging, and maybe some laundry. During the summer, the off peak would be when you are not home if you work outside the home. I believe people who tried it broke even best case scenario.

I may still look into it, but FPL acts like they have no clue what you are talking about when contacting them about it, and they have a 3 month lead time to switch you to TOU, so it doesn't exactly look that FPL is particularly interested in TOU.

I do agree however that they should have Super Off Peak between 1AM and 5AM, or at least some kind of off peak at night. If they really wanted to shift some load off the grid, they could offer an EV plan where you charge 1AM to 5AM.

Maybe they will become more motivated with more EV adoption in the next couple of years.

Kind of curious though. You joined back in 2008? Are you an original Roadster owner or something? Not a whole lot of Tesla production in 2008....