PGE new EV rate plans

[bjwong731]

The new plans are up. Thoughts?

https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/rate-plans/rate-plan-options/electric-vehicle-base-plan/electric-vehicle-base-plan.page

Tariffs
https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_EV (Sch).pdf

I switched to the now old EV1 plan last week, before the 7/1 deadline.

 

[miimura]

The new EV2-A rate plan is not much different for non-solar customers. It has the added benefit that you can run your A/C until 3pm to pre-cool the house and let it coast through the Peak period as long has you have reasonable insulation.

For solar customers, it's a huge problem because it devalues most of your generation down to Off-Peak rate. That means that solar generation and overnight EV charging are 1:1 kWh instead of getting extra credit at Part-Peak or Peak rates for your generation while charging your cars at Off-Peak.

If you are already on the EV-A rate plan, you will get at least 5 years since enrollment as a grandfather period.

 

[egolfEr]

Yes, we have the same issues in socal. The EV rate plans are disadvantages to solar customers unless of course your panels are mostly westward mounted but even then it's hardly of benefit.

Net Meetering plus retaining your abillity to have peak periods in the summer between 11am-6pm, far outweigh the 4-9 especailly if you overproduce with your rooftop solar system.

 

[2016golfse]

Strangely, the time periods for peak/partial peak/off peak on the graphic DO NOT match days and time periods stated in the tariff sheet. I have not found an EV2-A tariff sheet online, but I did see a draft. It appears that the peak/partial peak/off peak time periods are the same regardless of day of week. It looks like it's been tweaked compared to EV-A to increase revenue when you're most likely to be home (weekends and later into the evenings) while also making it harder to run other appliances when rates are the lowest.

For example, with EV-A I could do laundry anytime on weekends except between 3-7 pm. With EV2-A you'd be limited to between midnight and 3 pm. By concentrating my usage to the cheapest time periods of EV-A, I was able to pay an average 18.5 cents per kWh during "Summer".

As a side note, I switched to CleanPowerSF that maintains the EV-A time periods, but:

1) "Winter" is 8 months long and "Summer" is 4 months long (6/1 - 9/30).
2) The generation rates are always 4-8 cents less for each kWh.

 

[miimura]

Strangely, the time periods for peak/partial peak/off peak on the graphic DO NOT match days and time periods stated in the tariff sheet.

As a side note, I switched to CleanPowerSF because:

1) "Winter" is 8 months long and "Summer" is 4 months long (6/1 - 9/30).
2) The generation rates are always 4-8 cents less for each kWh.

It will probably take a little time for the CCA providers to update their information to match this new rate plan. It just went into effect today.

 

[2016golfse]

It will probably take a little time for the CCA providers to update their information to match this new rate plan. It just went into effect today.

True, but my CCA has been shortening the "summer" window compared to EV-A for at least 2 years. Secondly, I'm hoping I can still "grandfather" the EV-A framework for years to come.

 

[miimura]

It will probably take a little time for the CCA providers to update their information to match this new rate plan. It just went into effect today.

True, but my CCA has been shortening the "summer" window compared to EV-A for at least 2 years. Secondly, I'm hoping I can still "grandfather" the EV-A framework for years to come.

According to PG&E, you should be grandfathered for 5 years from when you first took the EV rate.

I don't know about SF Clean Power, but Silicon Valley Clean Energy uses the exact PG&E rate schedules. In fact, the way the billing works, I don't think they even have the ability to do the interval metering rate period totals - they just get the totals for each period in the billing cycle from PG&E. Their web site rate sheet does not include this new EV2 rate yet.

 

[johnnylingo]

The real news here (for me at least) is there appears to be no more EV-B plan offering where the car has a separate meter.

I switched from EV-6 to EV-A last year and while it's been saving me $5/mo on average, the peak rate for $0.49/kWh is insane while I only get $0.06 per generated. My end conclusion is it's worthwhile to install a second meter just for the car, then get a battery system to power the rest of the house and live of the grid. Seems to no longer be an option though. Sucks.

 

[jeffy1021]

For solar customers, it's a huge problem because it devalues most of your generation down to Off-Peak rate. That means that solar generation and overnight EV charging are 1:1 kWh instead of getting extra credit at Part-Peak or Peak rates for your generation while charging your cars at Off-Peak.

This... I will be hanging onto EV-A till the bitter end!

But for non-solar customers having more flexibility to charge during the day is nice.

 

[miimura]

The real news here (for me at least) is there appears to be no more EV-B plan offering where the car has a separate meter.

I switched from EV-6 to EV-A last year and while it's been saving me $5/mo on average, the peak rate for $0.49/kWh is insane while I only get $0.06 per generated. My end conclusion is it's worthwhile to install a second meter just for the car, then get a battery system to power the rest of the house and live of the grid. Seems to no longer be an option though. Sucks.

EV-B is still available and requires a separate PG&E meter wired to your service. The typical installation price is about $2,500 to install that kind of metering. People rarely find that it makes financial sense unless they've planned for it ahead of time or their particular service entrance allows for a cheaper installation. There should eventually be sub-metering like they did with the pilot project, but as far as I know, it's not available today.

 

[miimura]

The other thing that was pointed out in another forum is that EV2-A has re-balanced what is generation and what is distribution. If you are on a CCA and are a near zero or surplus generator, EV2-A may work in your favor because the Winter Off-peak generation component is bigger than the EV-A Winter Part-Peak generation component. This may lead to a larger payout from your CCA for surplus generation because EV2-a Winter is 8 months instead of 6 months.

Here are the two unbundled rates from the tariff sheets.

 

[stevestrange]

> "If you are already on the EV-A rate plan, you will get at least 5 years since enrollment as a grandfather period."

It looks like this is not the case. I just got a letter from PG&E saying my EV rate plan is changing to EV2-A effective in November 2019. Anyone else get this notice?

- Steve

 

[miimura]

> "If you are already on the EV-A rate plan, you will get at least 5 years since enrollment as a grandfather period."

It looks like this is not the case. I just got a letter from PG&E saying my EV rate plan is changing to EV2-A effective in November 2019. Anyone else get this notice?

- Steve

Lots of people got the "60 day notice", likely every single account on EV-A. Some people have reported that they called the Customer Service number (solar department) and upon further investigation they were told that they were sent the notice in error and would be grandfathered and were given a date that their particular grandfathering would end.

Contrary to my earlier post up-thread, it looks like you only get grandfathering based on your NEM PTO date, not the date when you took the EV rate. If you're not on NEM (solar), it looks like you don't get any grandfathering and will be changed over to EV2 at your regular billing cycle that starts on or after November 1.

 

[coupedncal1]

Any idea why the utility (PG&E in my case) is not proceeding forward with a sub metering solution? I was part of the pilot and it worked great for me. But it's been about three years and there is still no word they have any plans to productize it. It was such an easy solution and it fit the need so very well.

 

[stevestrange]

> "If you are already on the EV-A rate plan, you will get at least 5 years since enrollment as a grandfather period."

It looks like this is not the case. I just got a letter from PG&E saying my EV rate plan is changing to EV2-A effective in November 2019. Anyone else get this notice?

- Steve

Lots of people got the "60 day notice", likely every single account on EV-A. Some people have reported that they called the Customer Service number (solar department) and upon further investigation they were told that they were sent the notice in error and would be grandfathered and were given a date that their particular grandfathering would end.

Contrary to my earlier post up-thread, it looks like you only get grandfathering based on your NEM PTO date, not the date when you took the EV rate. If you're not on NEM (solar), it looks like you don't get any grandfathering and will be changed over to EV2 at your regular billing cycle that starts on or after November 1.

Yep -- click on the “Find information on EV-A” pdf here. https://www.pge.com/.../electric-vehicle-base-plan.page . Basically if you have been a solar customer for more than five years, and have been taking advantage of NEM, you get no grandfathering of EV-A. I got solar in 2004, so the long honeymoon is over for me. Ah well, worked great while it lasted! My wife will be happy that the period of "cheap" electricity is now greatly expanded into much of each weekday. But our days of near-zero-dollar electricity are over.