Electricity: Off-Peak Pricing

[Anxious Mo-Fo]

Here's a really dumb question I've always been curious about -- if you're running an appliance that requires a ton of electricity, do the power companies charge less if you do it during off-peak hours? I can't tell from my bill.

[warthog]

I don't think so. If anything, they will start to charge more during off-peak spikes.
Those 'lectric cars are gonna make everybody rich.

[DirkaDirkaJack]

Every city I have lived in has different peak and off peak pricing. It would probably take one minute to find their prices on their website. Were do you live and what is your power company?

[Anxious Mo-Fo]

It would probably take one minute to find their prices on their website. Were do you live and what is your power company?

Before I posted, I looked through this, specifically page 79, and didn't see anything.

[Danno]

Depends on your power company, this isn't something standardized. I just got something in the mail yesterday about how my power company wants to start two-tiered pricing.

[splat]

There are a variety of pricings that go into the variety of plans you are offered by your utility. Peak pricing is that time when the most demand is put on distribution, transmission and generation so, in it's simplest form, off-peak is that time when the generation systems are not heavily taxed with demand and the rate is lower to coax people into using power during these off hours to better balance the load. So if you ramp up the heating or cooling during peak demand periods, you are essentially penalized for doing so. This is where energy efficiency incentives mandated by the government for utilities to offer customers can pay off. In California, I've seen manufacturing plants change their hours of operation to take advantage of off-peak pricing. During peak hours, generators at coal fire and nuke plants are spooled up to handle the peak load demand enough that a failure at one generation location can cause rolling blackouts or worse and the off-peak pricing is an incentive to lessen that possibility, as well as a way to avoid building new coal fire generation and it's inherent pollution.

At the same time you can get hit with demand charges, which means you will pay for the max demand you use during a set timeframe and will pay that amount for the following year. For instance, if ski resorts have to make a shitload of snow in the fall and their own peak demand is determined during that time (snowguns burn a lot of juice), they pay for that max amount of power for the next year, or some set period, for that amount of electricity to be held for availability to them. I have seen resorts roll the dice to avoid that charge and either get the storms to save them or have to wait until they made enough snow after the peak demand was ascertained to open late.

You would have peak and off-peak usage outlined on your bill if you have that option with your utility. If you use enough power, you can request a rate change that includes off-peak if it will save you some money.

[bucbanzai]

Typically, commercial customers are charged a 'demand charge' and residential customers are not.

Commercial customers do not have the ability to change their use patterns and therefore the utility has to be able to provide the capacity they need.

The residential and commercial use patterns are almost exactly opposite so that the highest residential use is actually during 'off peak' times.

[splat]

Typically, commercial customers are charged a 'demand charge' and residential customers are not.

True.

Commercial customers do not have the ability to change their use patterns and therefore the utility has to be able to provide the capacity they need.

Meeting capacity is indeed the challenge. That's why 'smart' meters typically turn off home water heaters during the day.

The residential and commercial use patterns are almost exactly opposite so that the highest residential use is actually during 'off peak' times.

The exception being in times of intensified heating and cooling. The most common and constant energy consumer is lighting, hence, the advances in bulb tech. The big home energy consumption lies in hvac, hence, advancements in incentivized a/c and thermal storage, as well as residential off-peak pricing.

[boarddad]

California is in the process of upgrading meters to the new "smart" meters that have the capability to meter usage and time of day. The old meters are just dials that measure usage only. I sincerely doubt they'll eventually give you a discount for off peak usage, but it will give them the ability to charge more for peak usage and why wouldn't they take advantage of that? They're not spending millions on new meters to be nice.

[TWINS]

^^^Word. My brother works for Edison International here in California.He told me they will start charging for peak/nonpeak residential usage once all the meters are installed.Just a matter of time.

[QuikR12]

I was about to say, yes, this was a really dumb question, then realized it's location/power company dependant. In some areas, rates are determined by peak/off peak usage, but i guess in most, it's not.

[Pegleg]

I just signed up to access my account online at Xcel Energy in Colorado, and holy shit - there's a goldmine of information there on energy usage thanks to the new smart meters. I can track my electricity usage in 15-minute intervals, which is great for figuring out where all that power usage is coming from. We just started tracking when we're running various appliances for a few days - that way I can look back in a week and correlate what's sucking the most juice.

We're also part of a pilot plan here where we pick one of a variety of billing programs that's based on peak or off-peak usage. It's kind of a pain, but it's also definitely having the intended effect of making us take a hard look at our energy usage and figure out how we could be more efficient.