sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Well seems they're FINALLY going to start transitioning customers to a Time of Use schedule for their electricity, and all under the guise of "helping the environment" which in itself is another argument to enact this system with private investor owned utility service and do so with a punishment based system that really shows it only hurts people (look at electric bills of those in super hot climates, so much for them staying under that baseline!) ... but all of that is an argument for a different topic.
So what I know is this is happening, I don't know if there is an opt-out available for this, I'm probably thinking no but that's because I don't feel like diving in any deeper. Now why am I not diving deeper? Because NEMs (aka solar customers) that are grandfathered into the old system aren't being transitioned to ToU, and I have solar so yay me! Also if you have an EV and are on some different schedule that may not affect you at all.
For more information look here
specifically to when
Alameda seems to be leading the charge with a May transition, and other bay area counties in the months after (Except Contra Costa which is in Feb 2022 for some reason)
Now fundamentally I can get behind the concept of a time of use system, however how it is implemented often involves lifestyle changes that don't exactly transition very easily. In case you don't know "peak" period will be between 4-9pm, and for things like doing dishes, laundry, etc, you can fairly easy change the schedule for that, however when you come home from work sometime in that time frame, are you just read a book? No watching TV, cooking dinner (hope you have gas!), etc until after 9pm? Those with A/C, on hot days do you do a solid and have the thermostat a bit higher than normal because no sense keeping an empty house cooler? I'm willing to be that's going to change as people bring down the overall temperature of an empty house paying for "cheaper rates' so that later on they don't have to cool as much, doesn't sound like that's going to help the environment.
Now is it all doom and gloom? Maybe not, it will greatly depend upon how well you can adjust your life. So one benefit to TOU plans is that there are simply two tiers, baseline and over baseline, there also are two seasons, summer (June 1 to Sept 30) and winter (the rest of the year duh!). Now in the "winter" time the off peak is 3 cents lower versus current baseline & up to 400% baseline, and the peak is even cheaper by a penny! So heating the tank in cold months will actually be cheaper! Now the real kick in the nuts is that "summer" off peak rates are 2 cents more per kWh, and during peak times they're 9 cents more per kWh. So this part is where your lifestyle comes into play, now me being in San Francisco (no a/c) there's less electrical usage for me in the summer by and far by a lot (even if I didn't have solar), those of you with conditioned air though you'll probably end up paying more though, doubly so if you run a chiller on your tank!
Here's the PDF with the rate info, and yeah the cynical side of me thinks this can all change in an instant if people do end up "saving energy" as the "investor" part of that investor held utility (aka PG&E) will want more money... although I do firmly believe this will on average end up making PG&E much more money, sure someone who lives in SF may get off pretty well due to that lack of a/c thing, but most of the bay I don't think is as lucky. https://www.pge.com/pge_global/comm...rates-work/Residential-Rates-Plan-Pricing.pdf
So there ya go people, if you have any sort of energy monitoring equipment, may want to see exactly when things you do use the most power, if you can in fact "read a book" and put the tank on "low energy mode" for 5 hours a day, then it may not be so bad. Otherwise just keep an eye out for how hard you may get spanked by this, god knows it's expensive enough as it is to live here.
So what I know is this is happening, I don't know if there is an opt-out available for this, I'm probably thinking no but that's because I don't feel like diving in any deeper. Now why am I not diving deeper? Because NEMs (aka solar customers) that are grandfathered into the old system aren't being transitioned to ToU, and I have solar so yay me! Also if you have an EV and are on some different schedule that may not affect you at all.
For more information look here
PG&E’s Time-of-Use rate plans
On Time-of-Use rate plans, customers shift some electricity usage to times when costs are less and demand is down to lower their bill and to support a healthier environment.
www.pge.com
Alameda seems to be leading the charge with a May transition, and other bay area counties in the months after (Except Contra Costa which is in Feb 2022 for some reason)
Now fundamentally I can get behind the concept of a time of use system, however how it is implemented often involves lifestyle changes that don't exactly transition very easily. In case you don't know "peak" period will be between 4-9pm, and for things like doing dishes, laundry, etc, you can fairly easy change the schedule for that, however when you come home from work sometime in that time frame, are you just read a book? No watching TV, cooking dinner (hope you have gas!), etc until after 9pm? Those with A/C, on hot days do you do a solid and have the thermostat a bit higher than normal because no sense keeping an empty house cooler? I'm willing to be that's going to change as people bring down the overall temperature of an empty house paying for "cheaper rates' so that later on they don't have to cool as much, doesn't sound like that's going to help the environment.
Now is it all doom and gloom? Maybe not, it will greatly depend upon how well you can adjust your life. So one benefit to TOU plans is that there are simply two tiers, baseline and over baseline, there also are two seasons, summer (June 1 to Sept 30) and winter (the rest of the year duh!). Now in the "winter" time the off peak is 3 cents lower versus current baseline & up to 400% baseline, and the peak is even cheaper by a penny! So heating the tank in cold months will actually be cheaper! Now the real kick in the nuts is that "summer" off peak rates are 2 cents more per kWh, and during peak times they're 9 cents more per kWh. So this part is where your lifestyle comes into play, now me being in San Francisco (no a/c) there's less electrical usage for me in the summer by and far by a lot (even if I didn't have solar), those of you with conditioned air though you'll probably end up paying more though, doubly so if you run a chiller on your tank!
Here's the PDF with the rate info, and yeah the cynical side of me thinks this can all change in an instant if people do end up "saving energy" as the "investor" part of that investor held utility (aka PG&E) will want more money... although I do firmly believe this will on average end up making PG&E much more money, sure someone who lives in SF may get off pretty well due to that lack of a/c thing, but most of the bay I don't think is as lucky. https://www.pge.com/pge_global/comm...rates-work/Residential-Rates-Plan-Pricing.pdf
So there ya go people, if you have any sort of energy monitoring equipment, may want to see exactly when things you do use the most power, if you can in fact "read a book" and put the tank on "low energy mode" for 5 hours a day, then it may not be so bad. Otherwise just keep an eye out for how hard you may get spanked by this, god knows it's expensive enough as it is to live here.