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San Diego: SDG&E Rate Help for New MS85 Owner

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I did a search and was only able to find q&a regarding dedicated meters. I'm not going with a dedicated meter and am trying to figure out whether or not to switch to a EV TOU 2 rate or remain at my current Tier. I'm currently at a Tier 4 and am paying on peak 0.37 cents an hour. If I switch to EV TOU 2 rate I'll be at 0.44 cents an hour on peak (rates went up) but 0.16 cents super off peak.

1. What are you typically pulling per month with your MS? 800kw? Less? More?
2. If you're at a Tier four like me have you seen an increase or drop in billing?

I'm just worried about running the AC during the Summer. The representative told me that I needed to juggle my usage and try to run the heavy load (AC, dishwasher etc) during off peak hours in order to save.

What had me worried is that she said running 800kw on the MS could potentially bring me a $300 bill.

I take ownership May 28th and am trying to figure out if changing to EV TOU 2 is the best choice for me. She said I had 3 mos to test it out and after I'd be tied in for a year on that tier.

Any feedback is appreciated.
 
Try signing up for bidgely.com. They can download your "green button data" from SDG&E for the last 14 months. It has your usage sampled every 15 minutes, so you can look at how much electricity you use typically during peak and off peak hours throughout the year. If you tell it you have a TOU rate plane, it draws the graphs down by Time, while if you tell it you have the tier plan, it graphs the costs that way.

Keep in mind that some things can be changed easily if you are on a Time of Use plan (start the washing machine/drier/dishwasher, before or after peak etc.

Also, solar can play a huge roll here, by reducing your peak usage to 0 (or less), leaving only the cheaper rates.

Our rates actually went down when we added the Volt and switched to TOU2. They are higher now that we added the Model S, but still cheaper than gas by a long ways.
 
I work for the utility and I think you're on the right track with your comments about the EV-TOU2 rate...Moving loads to off peak where possible (like pool pumps or AC), adding solar if possible and charging after midnight will reduce your charging cost. The car gets roughly 3 miles per kWh, so if you know how far you'll be driving you can do the math and see what your energy needs will be.

Feel free to PM me if you have additional questions...
 
I added solar a little over a year ago which took me from being in Tier 4 every single month down to Tier 1 most months, with occasional forays into Tier 2. For that reason, I decided not to switch to TOU rates when I take delivery of my MS85 next week. Tier 1 rates are cheaper than super off-peak TOU rates, and Tier 2 rates are only 2 cents more expensive. No sense in restricting myself to TOU when I am getting low rates at any time of day. I expect the car might kick me into Tier 2 and even occasionally Tier 3, but I still don't think TOU gives me enough savings to switch. Honestly I think if SDG&E was really serious about getting people to conserve during the day and use more at night, the off-peak and super off-peak rates would be much lower and TOU would thus be more attractive.

If I wasn't on solar, I'd probably switch to TOU given my prior history of always being deep into Tier 4. However living in Chula Vista, you might find it kind of brutal to not be running the AC in the middle of the day because of TOU. Heck, I live in Carlsbad, and had to run it for 4 days during last week's brutal weather. Normally I'm only running the AC for a couple of weeks in September/October.
 
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How much of your power is in tier 4? If you have a reasonably large house, you will save lots of money by going to TOU-2. A house uses more energy at night and in the evenings than most people think it does. Peak usage is still at peak times, but there is enough usage at other times to make TOU-2 attractive. And it helps that you can charge your car at super off peak (after midnight).

I would suggest just switching to TOU-2 and comparing bills. You can always switch back...
 
I added solar a little over a year ago which took me from being in Tier 4 every single month down to Tier 1 most months, with occasional forays into Tier 2. For that reason, I decided not to switch to TOU rates when I take delivery of my MS85 next week. Tier 1 rates are cheaper than super off-peak TOU rates, and Tier 2 rates are only 2 cents more expensive. No sense in restricting myself to TOU when I am getting low rates at any time of day. I expect the car might kick me into Tier 2 and even occasionally Tier 3, but I still don't think TOU gives me enough savings to switch. Honestly I think if SDG&E was really serious about getting people to conserve during the day and use more at night, the off-peak and super off-peak rates would be much lower and TOU would thus be more attractive.

If I wasn't on solar, I'd probably switch to TOU given my prior history of always being deep into Tier 4. However living in Chula Vista, you might find it kind of brutal to not be running the AC in the middle of the day because of TOU. Heck, I live in Carlsbad, and had to run it for 4 days during last week's brutal weather. Normally I'm only running the AC for a couple of weeks in September/October.

GoBlue,
The one thing you're missing that is worth factoring in...in the summer season, the on-peak solar power you're selling to the grid is credited at EV-TOU2 peak price (44 cents) and if you charge your car after midnight then you're billed at 16 cents. So you make that margin - almost 3 to 1....In the tiered rate scenario, the credit is 1 to 1.

Of course, this assumes that you're not making more power than you consume on an annual basis...Any production in excess of what you consume annually is paid at a wholesale rate...But in the meantime, you can really be racking it up on your PV system production on the EV-TOU2 rate...
 
No sense in restricting myself to TOU when I am getting low rates at any time of day.

You might want to check out Bidgley.com as well to try both types of rates using your last years worth if data.

Because you are credited at the peak rates for energy you do not use during the day, and billed at the low rates at night, your effective rate can be much lower than even tier 1.

Last year I produced 8MWh and used an additional 3 MWh. My cost for those 3MWh was below 6 cent a kWh.
 
GoBlue,
The one thing you're missing that is worth factoring in...in the summer season, the on-peak solar power you're selling to the grid is credited at EV-TOU2 peak price (44 cents) and if you charge your car after midnight then you're billed at 16 cents. So you make that margin - almost 3 to 1....In the tiered rate scenario, the credit is 1 to 1.

Of course, this assumes that you're not making more power than you consume on an annual basis...Any production in excess of what you consume annually is paid at a wholesale rate...But in the meantime, you can really be racking it up on your PV system production on the EV-TOU2 rate...
That's a fair point, but if the top rate is 44 cents why does the SDGE website show TOU and TOU-2 summer peak rates of only 29 cents?

EV Rates | San Diego Gas Electric
 
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You might want to check out Bidgley.com as well to try both types of rates using your last years worth if data.

Because you are credited at the peak rates for energy you do not use during the day, and billed at the low rates at night, your effective rate can be much lower than even tier 1.

Last year I produced 8MWh and used an additional 3 MWh. My cost for those 3MWh was below 6 cent a kWh.
How do you import a years' worth of historical data into the site and get the analysis? Far as I can tell, it only wants to start tracking going forward, and it wants me to buy an energy monitor to do so.

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That is a very out of date example on the SDG&E site.

The current rates are here: https://www.sdge.com/sites/default/files/regulatory/Schedules EV & EV-TOU-2 May2014_0.pdf

Peak is 0.44071 in the summer, 0.19842 in the winter.
Thanks.
 
How do you import a years' worth of historical data into the site and get the analysis? Far as I can tell, it only wants to start tracking going forward, and it wants me to buy an energy monitor to do so.
The site has changed quite a bit recently, so I'm not familiar with where everything is now.

Tthere was an option to import data from SDG&E, when it does that is should get the historical data as well as data going forward (unless they changed that feature). I think the historical data took a while to show up (it's a lot of data, reading for every 15 minutes for 14 months)

There is a confirmation page on SDG&E you go to to allow Bidgley to access the green button data.

Also, there is a comment on the top of the page saying they don't calculate cost correctly for Solar users (they are working on that), but it's pretty close from what I've seen.
 
The site has changed quite a bit recently, so I'm not familiar with where everything is now.

Tthere was an option to import data from SDG&E, when it does that is should get the historical data as well as data going forward (unless they changed that feature). I think the historical data took a while to show up (it's a lot of data, reading for every 15 minutes for 14 months)

There is a confirmation page on SDG&E you go to to allow Bidgley to access the green button data.

Also, there is a comment on the top of the page saying they don't calculate cost correctly for Solar users (they are working on that), but it's pretty close from what I've seen.
Yeah, I can't find any option to do that. They either took it away, or it is not very obvious.
 
Did you hook it up to your SDG&E account?

Sorry, since I'm already signed up, I can't easily try the signup process to see what step collects the past data.

You might send them an email. They've always been pretty friendly when I contacted them.
There doesn't seem to be an option to put in the SDG&E account number. It asks for details such as rate plan and territory, but it doesn't ever provide an opportunity to enter an account number or SDG&E login or anything.

I've sent them an e-mail.

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FYI - I do know that I produced about 7 MWh in the first year of solar and used about another 4.5 MWh off the grid.
 
FWIW I tried signing up for bidgely and linking my SDG&E account, but failed miserably. Doesn't seem to do anything once you hit save. Sent them a message.
They responded to me. Turns out you have to do it on SDG&E's website, by loggin in there and activating "Green Button Connect".

Bidgely's website is woefully inadequate in communicating that information.
 
Hmm, all that page does on the SDG&E site is serve me a broken image. Must be because I am net-metered and/or have a separate EV meter, too.
I am net-metered as well, but that was a browser issue with Chrome (for me anyway). When I opened it in IE, it worked.

Turned it on at SDG&E's website, then got an e-mail from Bidgely to activate it, and it all worked. Now looking at the summary of my data over the last year. Pretty nice, actually.
 
Turned it on at SDG&E's website, then got an e-mail from Bidgely to activate it, and it all worked. Now looking at the summary of my data over the last year. Pretty nice, actually.
I'm not a fan of the new dashboard graphs.

I suggest click on the "Go To Old Dashboard" link on the bottom right of the screen. Then pick "year" and "$", it will show you each month, how much was in each rate or tier:

bidgley.JPG

(We got the Model S in late November, and you can see why we need to expand our PV system. :) )

You can then change your rate plan in the preferences and see the graph for that plan:

bidgley2.JPG
 
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