Peter_M
Member
If people shift other loads to night time (like water heaters), I think that would be a good outcome. Market prices at night are very low anyway so I'd rather see Ontario consumers getting a bit of free electricity (beyond EV charging) than giving it away to another jurisdiction for peanuts or paying them to take it. People who are on this program might need to sign something about not abusing it (no giant batteries, for example) but most people don't really have many options to shift their usage to the middle of the night. And if this is really only going to be a 2-year program, the cost of a second meter would not be justified.I had put forth this idea (back before I retired) to the Ministry of Energy. The downside is that it would capture other loads besides EVs. For instance, I'd be sure to adjust my electric water heater's timer to fit into this band
There is also the issue of still having to pay Delivery and Regulatory charges even though the electricity would be free. (Like getting some product on-line for free,but you still have to pay shipping). Otherwise it gets messy from a regulatory point of view in terms of settling costs.
Ontario's TOU bands are as much "political" as they are "technical". Peak demands often run up to 9:00 PM in the evenings from a technical point of view.
I wouldn't mind paying delivery charges based on all kWh including the free ones if this simplifies things enough to make the program actually happen. The delivery charge is going to be all fixed (no per-kWh components) within a couple of years anyway.