Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) rate plan in Georgia

Sorry if this is a redundant post ... I did a quick search and didn't see anything specifically on this. Thanks for the patience and please point me in the right direction if this has been answered in the past.

Anyone have experience with the PEV rate plan with Georgia Power? I found this link at the GA power website: http://www.georgiapower.com/environment/electric-vehicles/what-rate-plan-is-best-for-you.cshtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but can't seem to figure out how the power company is able to determine rates for me.

[*]Is this a flat rate that is charged to all of the usage at my house?
[*]Is there an advantage to sign up for this plan?

There is a 12 month commitment to signing up for the plan so I'm a little hesitant.

check the EV Club of the south website or facebook page to go over the details.

I went from a max of $600 a month in the Summer to less than $300 when I switched rates and I have 2 electric cars.

YMMV so you got to understand what changes must be done (mainly defer all EV charging after 11PM (0.04/KWH with all fees included) and minimize electricity consumption from June-September from 2pm-7pm to a minimum - $0.30/KWH. The rest of the day - most of the year is about $0.14/KWH .

Good Luck. BTW -= with GA POWER there is no need to get an EV to get these Time of Use rates. I got my meter changed a month before I got my car.

Hi nguyenner,

I bought a leaf last November and almost immediately signed up for the Plug-in Electric Vehicle rate (PEV). GA power came within a few days (maybe a couple?) to reconfigure the power meter so that it would track hourly use instead of daily use. I now see on my bill how many kWh I used on Peak, Off-Peak, and Super-off Peak hours. Unfortunately, the ability to view the daily usage history on your account on the GA Power website is lost (counter-intuitive, I know), so you can't track actual usage until you see your bill.

All of my electricity usage is charged at the same rate - meaning, after 11pm at night, all of my electricity usage - electric car charging, tv watching, lights, etc. are on the Super-off Peak tier. This also means that in the Summer time, if my AC runs in the afternoon from 2-7pm, it is in the Peak tier and charged at a base of 20 cents per kWh! (Plus taxes and fees, which bring it up to about 30 cents per kWh). That's a lot and can quickly negate the savings from the overnight rate! This only makes sense if you don't cool your house a lot during the Summer afternoons. Both of us work full-time, so no one is running the AC, lights or appliances until we get home in the evening. Because of this, based on my calculations we will have saved nearly $200 this year by switching to PEV (all for just being a little warm in the house when we get home until 7:00 pm )

I would suggest you get a power meter to see how much electricity you use on average at different times of day. Then, you can easily calculate how much you would pay on the PEV rate and if you would have any savings. I personally got the Efergy E2 Wireless Electricity Monitor (I got mine on Amazon), installed it in less than 5 minutes and I can track my energy usage on an hourly basis. I got the monitor because I wanted to see my energy usage in real time and check individual appliances' effect on my electricity usage, but looking back I wish I had gotten the Hub (internet interface) because the monitor doesn't play nice with my computer and you have to hook it up to download the data. The process could be easier...

Lucky for you I've done all of the calculations on the latest GA Power pricing (as of July 2014). I'm in a city with 6% sales tax, so the franchise fee and sales tax apply and are included in my calculations:

Base charge: $13.57

Summer Standard rates: Base charge + (first 650 kWh)*$0.1143 + (651-1000 kWh)*$0.1617 + (kWh over 1000)*$0.1657
Winter Standard rates: Base charge + (first 650 kWh)*$0.1069 + (651-1000 kWh)*$0.0967 + (kWh over 1000)*$0.0956

PEV Summer: Base charge + (On peak kWh)*$0.3124 + (Off peak kWh)*$0.1251 + (Super off peak kWh)*$0.0603
PEV Winter: Base charge + (Off peak kWh)*$0.1177 + (Super off peak kWh)*$0.0529


I have a more detailed spreadsheet where you can put your own sales tax and usage if you want, let me know. You can also try the basic GA power calculator which will help break down the actual cost of each fee, but this only works for the Standard rate and not the PEV rate http://www.psc.state.ga.us/calc/electric/gpcalc.asp . Since my calculations are with my sales tax and my city's franchise fee, it won't be as accurate for you but should be within a few dollars (less than $5, unless your usage is wayyyy high) of your actual costs.

I hope this helps!

I leased my leaf 6 months ago and am now considering the Ga Power TOU rate plan. Curious what you guys think of it now that you have been on it for a while. Also, have you experimented during the summer with cooling your house down significantly overnight, say to 70, so the AC doesn't run as much during the day? Or cooling it down midday to minimize AC usage from the dreaded 2 - 7pm timeframe? Any advice on using the TOU rate plan would be appreciated.

I'm trying to determine if the TOU would be good for me. My household is a pretty stinger user of electricity already. We keep the AC on 77 during the warm months, use LED light bulbs, and have relatively new washer/dryer and fridge which are fairly energy efficient. We rarely use over 1000 Kwh of power in a month, even during the summer months in GA. Of course now with the Leaf, that adds 200 or more Kwh per month.

I think you could benefit from the PEV Time of Use rate for EV cars, especially since you don't run your AC a lot during the day. We both work, so during the day we keep the temperature at 84 while we're away and cool back down to 77 when we get home around 6pm. We charge the car starting at 11pm at night to take advantage of the best rate. I compared my costs over what they would have been on the regular rate and find that we have saved over $275 in the past 12 months. We average about 1200 kWh/month.

Unless you have people inside your house during the day, i would keep the temperature very high - it is much more efficient to cool the house from a high temperature to a comfortable one when you need it than running the AC all day to maintain the temperature. If people are in your house during the day, giving it a boost overnight would help, but I don't think you need to get it as low as 70 - that's cold!!! Better to get it to around 74 closer to noon, right before the rate and the afternoon sun kick in.

I bought an Efergy E2 wireless monitor on Amazon to help me manage our energy usage. It took about 3 minutes to figure out how to install on my breaker panel and I can monitor my kWh usage in real time or see the history on the computer. You could always buy one and monitor your usage for a week and see if the savings would add up for you. You can use my calculator on google docs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/141rDOGscr5MYHa_So2GUFajyK51Do8KDgqAsy4cENco/edit?usp=sharing, just remember that your edits are automatically saved, so either delete your entries on your way out or download a copy for yourself. Also change the sales tax for your area. The numbers have been updated per the last April 2015 fees update.

Just remember to avoid other energy-hungry appliances: dryer, steamer/iron, electric oven, etc.