What is best TOU rate format?

The MA DPU has started to investigate TOU rates. While I'm sure they'll look at other state's plans and get plenty of input from corporate stakeholders, I'd like to provide them with a consumers point of view. So, if you use TOU rates where you charge:

What do like about them?
What don't you like?
What would you like to see that you don't have?

Personally, I'd like to get the full rate for my solar net metering during the day and charge dirt cheàp at night, but there's a 99.9999999% probability that won't happen. Still, since it's physicàlly possible, this could be the one universe in the multiverse where it happens?

being using TOU rates for almost 2 years in Georgia. Super off peak rate of $0.013 per KWH from 11pm to 7 am year round. With taxes and fees it come to less than 5 cents a KWH. All other hours except from June to September go for about 12 cents a KWH inclusive of fees and 30 cents a KWH during the Summer hours of 2-7pm - but only for weekdays (weekends and holidays we get the regular rate during those hours).

Using Nest Thermostats and self programming, and having my spouse at home at all times, we have been able to save about 50% off our previous electric rates. Even that now we own two EV's (Leaf and iMiev). How we do it? We supercool the house to 69 degrees, delay dishwashing during the Summer and thus transfer 30% of all our usage to the super off peak rates. we minimize usage from 2-7 pm via NEST by cooling the house again before 2pm, letting the second story a/c idle until 7pm. The downstairs and 1st floor stay comfortable(below 73) and upstairs gets to about 80 degrees each day. We have extra insulation in the attic, but this summer we had a lot of days over 90 degrees. Nevertheless, the house was very comfortable. We have two ac units, a 3 ton heat pump for upstairs 14 SEER and a 2.5 ton 10SEER older unit for the 1st floor. All this to heat and cool a 4,300 ft 3 story house. Max electric cost before. TOU was $600 now it is $300 (last year was cooler and we only had a single $300 month, all other summer months were around $200). All other non summer months of the year the average use is $100. In KWH, we use a max of about 2,400 total, 800 during super off peak, 400 during the peak hours during this a 31 day August 2014 billing cycle.

I have ordered a 1 KWH indiegogo solar liberator system with 2kw included batteries, not yet delivered that will allow me to almost eliminate my super off peak electric usage and saving me about $100 per month during the Summer.

TOU has been great for me.

I've been in TOU for more than 3 years and solar PV with NEM for 18 months.

What I like is the ratio of KWHr earned during the day that I can use later that night or weekend or next winter when my PV generation is much lower. I would like for the credits I have earned but not used roll over into the next year instead of being reset to zero. The other dislike is the billing periods don't start on month boundaries and at least two of the bills mixes summer and winter rates which can be difficult to understand having 5 price tiers and 3 time of day slots for 15 rates for summer and 2 time of day slots for winter for another 10 rates. Balancing the electric bill is not a trivial exercise.
I do like having a smart meter than can be equipped with a home area network (HAN) so you can read the meter in real time. I do wish the HAN would show me the lines voltage though.

The major dislike for TOU was the way your baseline is determined. PG&E has 10 climate zones in an attempt to adjust for different energy requirements. Where I live one can get along with out AC but some areas cannot so some leveling or balancing of needs is attempted. But having an electric car doesn't change your baseline allowance even though for my use the car represented 40% of the electric consumption. Now having this on off peak low rates is good but it quickly consumes your base allotment and the electricity used during the day is much more expensive. Before getting the PV, I found half of my electric cost came in the last week of the billing period when the use entered into the pricey upper tiers. I looked at adding a second meter but it had to be run from the transformer and underground which was costly at between 3K and 5K. I think submetering would be the best solution but it's not ready. And given the loss of use taxes on gas a sub meter provides a means to enable a use tax similar to the one we have on gasoline.

Interesting. Thanks for the replies. First I've heard of "baselines", will have to research that.

I suppose there is no "one size fits all" plan, everybody's usage is different, but from what is posted above, and looking through some other threads, TOU can get pretty complex, not just changing rates at different hours, but adding in seasonal changes, and add ons for usage over a threshold. CA seems particularly complicated. Are there any simplified versions? I wonder if an average consumer with an EV ever just throws up their hands and says, heck with this, I'll stick to the easy plan. But it does sound worth the effort. Seems you save big bucks with TOU. Especially if it covers the whole house, and you can adjust your usage pattern. We already have a TOU plan, but its only available to customers who use over 2500 kWhs/month consistently, and I don't think most folk here use much more than 1000-1500. I hardly use more than 900 on avg, even with the LEAF.

I do like the idea of a sub meter, even if there's an expense to install it. I think that may be the way they're leaning anyway. I have no doubt that they'll try to tax it. We don't call it Taxachusetts for nothing. Maybe we can get into a pilot program. It would be great if the sub meter allowed me to keep the solar net metering separate, as it powers the rest of the house on average over the course of the year.

As a fellow BayStater, I'll be interested in the TOU investigation. We get our electrons from Western Massachusetts Electric Company and they have been of little help in providing any information about possible TOU cost structures.

Thanks for following this.

Theo

DNAinaGoodWay said:

Interesting. Thanks for the replies. First I've heard of "baselines", will have to research that.

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The baselines are at http://www.pge.com/myhome/customerservice/financialassistance/medicalbaseline/understand/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I'm in area X and have code B as I have nat gas furnace and water heater.

In PG&E land, our monthly baseline is the daily amount there x # of billing days. http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/saveenergymoney/plans/tiers/index.page" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; kinda explains tiers.

If you're curious, you'll want to look at E-1, E6 and EV plans at http://www.pge.com/tariffs/ERS.SHTML" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. You just want to look at the total rates. Forget the unbundling crap. You can't avoid individual/any items anyway. You'll also need to look at how the peak, partial-peak and off-peak periods are defined. They're different between E-6 and EV (EV-A/EV-B).

I'm on E-6 Smart (http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/saveenergymoney/plans/smartrate/index.page" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?).

In "summer", if I use over 303 kWh in a month, I've passed my tier 1 baseline and will start paying tier 2 rates... (101% to 130%). Tier 3 is 131% to 200% of baseline and so on... Also, since I'm on Smart:

SmartRate™ gives you a discount at 3¢ per kWh on your June through September monthly rate, or the equivalent of 23% off your Tier 1 usage. In exchange, you pay a surcharge of 60¢ per kWh for your 2-7PM usage for between 9 and 15 PG&E SmartDays™

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