ToU billing from PSE?

[gglockner]

I see that Puget Sound Energy used to offer residential Time of Use pricing and metering, but I can't find anything current about it. If Time-of-Use pricing is still available, how do we get it? If not, how can we lobby for it? Seems like it would be good for both drivers and for the electric grid.

 

[Six]

My understanding is that with the large use of hydroelectric power Time of Use Pricing is of little interest to PSE. (Water behind a damn is a pretty good "battery" and they can control energy flow better then most utilities. So the ToU experiment ended with no plans to bring it back. But this is just from memory from my past research into the topic.

 

[DouglasR]

My understanding is that with the large use of hydroelectric power Time of Use Pricing is of little interest to PSE. (Water behind a damn is a pretty good "battery" and they can control energy flow better then most utilities. So the ToU experiment ended with no plans to bring it back. But this is just from memory from my past research into the topic.

PSE gets about half of its power from hydro, but most of that comes from run-of-river projects, with fairly meager storage capacity. While PSE's hydro was probably a factor in dropping the TOU experiment, the main reason had to do with ending the energy crisis of 2000-2001. Here is a good discussion of the project: Time of Use Electricity Billing: How Puget Sound Energy Reduced Peak Power Demands (Case Study) (Energy Priorities Archives).

 

[gglockner]

Even if electric generation is not capacity constrained, maybe transmission and distribution may be constrained. Still seems to me that it would be best if EV charging is primarily overnight, and this could be encouraged via time-of-use pricing and metering.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Even if electric generation is not capacity constrained, maybe transmission and distribution may be constrained. Still seems to me that it would be best if EV charging is primarily overnight, and this could be encouraged via time-of-use pricing and metering.

I presume the historic assumption was that residential peak shaving wouldn't make a big enough difference. Part of the issue is that TOU billing can involve different meters, which would need cost to be recovered. The additional of large-battery plug-ins could change that idea.

I would suggest contacting them to ask about it, giving them some kind of idea of your peak charging load and asking about incentives to charge off peak. It's always worth letting them know because they may need to make local upgrades.