As noted recently in a post on the Tesla Motors Club forum (tip of the hat to “lov2krz“), the current PEV (plug-in electric vehicle) pilot program in California is “ending” somewhat soon. So, for those interested, your last chance to sign up (for the time being) is approaching — so take advantage!
It’s an interesting program for those that charge an EV at home, allowing for various sub-metering rate incentives (depending on your utility supplier). The major Californian utilities — PG&E, SCE, SDG&E — each have somewhat different incentives on offer.
As I’m not signed up for the program (I don’t live in California), I can’t speak personally on the pilot program, but I can offer two comments from the forum thread that seem to offer very different views of the matter — hopefully fleshing the topic out somewhat. (I’d love to hear more from those enrolled in the pilot program in the comments section — experiences, issues, etc.)
The user “AB4EJ” commented: “I find this program quite remarkable. In my experience, most power companies wish to push EV charging to off-hours to keep it as part of base load, and set rates accordingly. This program runs counter to that. If a lot of people adopted this, it could increase peak loads (ie, necessitating starting up peaking power plants, which have higher costs than base load plants). [The] economics of this don’t seem to work. Is it a sort of subsidy to encourage more EVs? How did they get this thru the utilities commission? It seems like a great deal for EV drivers.”
This comment was followed by these statements from the user “ddimit” though:
Lov2krz,
PG&E EV-B rate classifies the following times. this is the tarriff that is used per PG&E’s website.
Off Peak after 11pm to 7am
Partial peak 11Am to 2pm and 9pm until 11pm
Peak 2pm to 9pm and 3 to 7 on weekends.
You would get a partial peak rate from 1 to 2 and Peak from 2 till 9 and partial peek until 11 pm.
if you plug in during the day your going to pay quite a bit.
looking over the EV-A and EV-B rates I dont seem an advantage to going the sub meter route.
in fact on the EV-A rate you get a Summer CA Climate Rebate of $24.76 which isn’t show on the B Rate.
I dont see why this would even make sense to do.
Im on the pilot for Socal Edison and the only advantage is they dropped the Super peak rate and you get longer off Peak Times.
Hmm. Still sounds to be worth it for those who charge an EV at home (which is almost every EV driver) — potentially saving owners a fair amount.