Yes you can use EVA or EVB rate plan with solar (only EVA would make sense in that case, I think). I don't have solar but SolarCity thinks that EV rate would be the best choice with solar if you are eligible. I was planning to run the numbers using miimura's excellent spreadsheet. Without solar, in my case, EVA already let me cut my electric bill to 1/2 or sometimes 1/3 the E1 monthly bill, despite the extra usage from Tesla charging. This is because I could transfer high wattage infrastructure like well pumps, filtration and pressurization, and other pumps to off-peak cheap rates. I'm still in the process of adding timers.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Yes you can use EVA or EVB rate plan with solar (only EVA would make sense in that case, I think). I don't have solar but SolarCity thinks that EV rate would be the best choice with solar if you are eligible. I was planning to run the numbers using miimura's excellent spreadsheet. Without solar, in my case, EVA already let me cut my electric bill to 1/2 or sometimes 1/3 the E1 monthly bill, despite the extra usage from Tesla charging. This is because I could transfer high wattage infrastructure like well pumps, filtration and pressurization, and other pumps to off-peak cheap rates. I'm still in the process of adding timers.
PG&E EV Rate Timing Chart Updated for 2015
I'm sorry -- I got several requests to update this chart but was delayed by various projects including a 15-kW solar array install and the procreation thing. Now it is 2015 and time for an update. New chart is applicable for those of you on PG&E EV-A rate which I ended up staying with (for E9 rate, see 1st post or click the link in my PDF). I updated the dates and costs, effective 1 Jan 2015 tariff rates, and added the holiday list which PG&E just now added to their description. Best effort at date boundaries since the text that PG&E provides is (probably intentionally) ambiguous. So there is some uncertainty just on what hour the switch happens on the four Sundays of the year where you see the time shifts for their "daylight savings correction." Please let me know if any errors. Click the link below or the thumbnail to download the high-resolution PDF.
Musterion's PG&E EV Rate Timing Chart (2015).
I'm sorry -- I got several requests to update this chart but was delayed by various projects including a 15-kW solar array install and the procreation thing. Now it is 2015 and time for an update. New chart is applicable for those of you on PG&E EV-A rate which I ended up staying with (for E9 rate, see 1st post or click the link in my PDF). I updated the dates and costs, effective 1 Jan 2015 tariff rates, and added the holiday list which PG&E just now added to their description. Best effort at date boundaries since the text that PG&E provides is (probably intentionally) ambiguous. So there is some uncertainty just on what hour the switch happens on the four Sundays of the year where you see the time shifts for their "daylight savings correction." Please let me know if any errors. Click the link below or the thumbnail to download the high-resolution PDF.
Musterion's PG&E EV Rate Timing Chart (2015).
I just switched to the EV-A rate last month. What I want to know is what rate does PG&E pay during the summer when my solar system is producing more energy than I'm using. Do they credit us the 42 and 22 cents per hour when we are generating more than we are using during the peak and partial peak periods?
Yup, that's the whole point and the beauty of the system! In fact, now PG&E has raised the peak rates from 37 to 42 cents/kWh since 2013, but the off-peak rate barely increased, so solar producers are even better off as long as power balance stays the same. I've automated most non-time-critical usage into off-peak hours including charging of course. TOU rates work the same. If you scroll up in the thread I quote a great calculator for this written by @miimura. If you have solar and EV, it is possible another TOU rate besides EV-A or EV-B might be better depending on your overall household usage balance.
Musterion, thanks so much for making up the 2015 EV-A rate schedule.
As an exercise, I worked out the timings for 2016, and I now have a chart that's less visually striking than your 2015 chart (no Tesla graphic), but perhaps a little easier to read (slightly bigger fonts).
Were you planning to do a 2016 revision of your chart? If not, I'd be happy to make mine available to the community.
Thanks,
Bruce.
As an exercise, I worked out the timings for 2016, and I now have a chart that's less visually striking than your 2015 chart (no Tesla graphic), but perhaps a little easier to read (slightly bigger fonts).
Were you planning to do a 2016 revision of your chart? If not, I'd be happy to make mine available to the community.
Thanks,
Bruce.
Sorry for the delay in posting the updated chart. I guess I was too shocked at the PG&E rate increases that went into effect Jan. 1! EV-A rates went up 3%, 5.8%, 12.5% for the 3 periods; other rate plans went up across the board, like 8.7% for E-1 tiers, more for other TOU plans. I will post the new 2016 chart this weekend after proofing it.
aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
cpa
Active Member
I could be v-e-r-y wrong, but something in my dim memory recalls that after the collapse of the California electrical utilities because of Enron, among other things, the CPUC and the utilities hammered out an agreement that would gradually increase rates over a lengthy period to get them to where they most likely would have been had that scandal never occurred.
Rates were kept much lower than they should have been early in the recovery period. This was sort of a consumer-friendly compromise in order not to increase rates by large amounts immediately.
But then again, I could be totally off base.
PG&E EV Rate Timing Chart Updated for 2016
Hi all, I've updated my EV Rate timing chart for 2016 and you can download the full-resolution PDF by clicking the link or image thumbnail below.
Musterion's PG&E EV Rate Timing Chart (2016).
Hi all, I've updated my EV Rate timing chart for 2016 and you can download the full-resolution PDF by clicking the link or image thumbnail below.
Musterion's PG&E EV Rate Timing Chart (2016).
Great, thanks for posting! I cross-checked with the thing I was working on, and the only difference I found was the ending dates for some of the intervals were the same as the starting date of the following interval, but they should probably end the day before the following interval starts. Specifically:
13-Mar should be 12-Mar
3-Apr should be 2-Apr
30-Oct should be 29-Oct
6-Nov should be 5-Nov
Aside from that, for better or for worse, we computed the same intervals for all the schedule changes. So either "great minds think alike" or we're both wrong.
Bruce.
jeffro01
Active Member
I don't quite follow one thing, adjustment for daylight savings time. Why? Is there some part of PG&E's service area that doesn't follow daylight savings time? As I read the chart it suggests there is two time periods per year when my off-peak doesn't start at 11PM but rather Midnight. Am I reading that right???
Jeff
Jeff
Yep you're reading it right, and I don't understand why it works this way either. To quote from the rate schedule:
"DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ADJUSTMENT: The time periods shown above will begin and end one hour later for the period between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in April, and for the period between the last Sunday in October and the first Sunday in November."
Those days are the first and last weeks of daylight savings time. I can't come up with a good reason to shift the time periods for those days.
PG&E EV Rate Timing Chart by Musterion
From Daylight Saving Time :
"The federal law that established "daylight time" in the United States does not require any area to observe daylight saving time. But if a state chooses to observe DST, it must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law. From 1986 to 2006 this was the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, but starting in 2007, it is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, adding about a month to daylight saving time. (See: New Federal Law.)"
PG&E didn't change the switchover dates in their rate schedules to the new 2007 rules, so there are weeks when they're an hour off from actual DST. Musterion's document reflects that.
From Daylight Saving Time :
"The federal law that established "daylight time" in the United States does not require any area to observe daylight saving time. But if a state chooses to observe DST, it must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law. From 1986 to 2006 this was the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, but starting in 2007, it is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, adding about a month to daylight saving time. (See: New Federal Law.)"
PG&E didn't change the switchover dates in their rate schedules to the new 2007 rules, so there are weeks when they're an hour off from actual DST. Musterion's document reflects that.
eye.surgeon
Active Member
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
jeffro01
Active Member
Well that's a new one for me, I mean it's not "new" as it's been in the document all this time but I hadn't seen that which means for a couple of years now two weeks a year I've been paying mid-peak to charge my Volt... Grrr.... Now that's something else I have to keep track of...
Jeff
Yes, Klaus got the history correct as I understand it. Note that all PG&E's TOU plans (not just EV rates) have the same 1-hour offsets during these wonky switchover times.
If these weird time slots were not present, I probably wouldn't have made a chart, since then the same hours would apply all year 'round and you just need a few times to keep track of.
You're welcome and thank you for reminding me to post. Regarding your dates, yes I agree. However if you scroll up a bit to my 2015 update, you will see that because the language in the PG&E document does not specify the actual switchover times during those days (it just says "between this day and that day," I did not want to be responsible for specifying incorrect timing. So I played it safe and put the switchover days -- which can be computed from their text -- on both the tail end of prior period and start of next period. Note this ambiguity is only for the "daylight savings adjustment periods" and not the seasons, which are specified exactly. Last year I put in a ticket to PG&E to clarify this (and also because my bill said "on <DATE> at <TIME>, periods will start and end one hour later..." and it looked exactly like that, i.e. blank fields for the date and time. And they never responded.
Similar threads
- Article