Dominion EV charging plans

There a several discussions about this on the Tesla Motors forum, but since there is no search function on that site, you have to scroll through the Mid Atlantic forum to find them. I went with the EV Only Pricing Plan. More expensive since you have to pay an electrician to install (and pull permits and get inspections) the Dominion-provided (free) dual meter (one meter for house, one meter for your EV outlet). Plus your house will have no power for about 4 hours, since Dominion will disconnect you from the grid while your old meter is removed, new one put in, and inspections are completed. You charge between 1 am and 5 am to get the rock bottom electric rate. And Dominion Va Power gets to pull Ev charging data and better understand the coming load on the infrastructure to accomodate EV charging.

Oh...I forgot to add that I am averaging $33/month (at the $.0508 rate from 1 am to 5 am) an average of 1,000 EV miles.

Have the Whole house + EV plan. Jan '13 S delivery with just under 60K miles. If nobody (pets incl.) is home during the afternoons while at work, I believe this plan is a no brainier as I know of another owner who's electric bills have actually decreased with said plan after getting their S. I am often around the home during the killer 16.23 cent afternoon rate jump, however, I a) supercool the house 12:15-12:59, b) am fortunate to have partial afternoon shade, c) have a fairly well insulated house, d) I load shift the dishwasher (almost all have a delay timer), H2O heater, and of course charge the S between 1-5a. We are ~$13 dollars increase/mo. on average. I would like to install a 2-3 gang Powerwall if and when they become available to non-solar homes that I can take with me when we permanently re-locate back to The Sunshine State and go "all-in" with solar.

Is the super high mid-day rate also in effect during weekends when people could be home?

On the House+EV plan since Jan 14. I don't have comps to prior years since we also upgraded our attic insulation and had to swap out HVAC around the same time. As close as I can tell, net "home" costs are roughly comparable, if not a bit less. I've changed behavior to run the dishwasher at night and trying to think of other ways to load-shift.

Curiously, we had an electrician come to add a sub-panel in the garage to run a 50amp circuit for the car off the current meter and they mistakenly had Dominion come out, thinking it was for a second meter for just the car. The Dominion crew said there wasn't a line nearby that they could tap to run power to a dedicated meter, so I would have had to go House+EV anyway.

If you're on the H+EV plan, you can't participate in other Dominion programs like having them cycle off your AC.

Max* said:

Is the super high mid-day rate also in effect during weekends when people could be home?

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yes

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Half Dollar Bill said:

If you're on the H+EV plan, you can't participate in other Dominion programs like having them cycle off your AC.

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yup, they promptly came out and removed the A/C cycle box (Schucks!)

scaesare said:

Appreciate the feedback.

Based on some more calculating and some of the comments above, I suspect the whole-house + EV plan for me would end up being more expensive overall, or at lest not any real savings.

Have to do some more looking at ROI on the EV-only plan...

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I can tell you there is probably not a satsifactory RoI on the EV Only Pricing Plan. Dominion does not charge you for the meter, nor do they charge you to have a crew come out and disconnect you from the grid and then reocnnect you. Your cost comes to play in that you need a licensed elctrician to pull the permit(s), work for approximately four hours removing old single meter and installing new dual meter, get the city or county to inspect the installation. Then you need to connect that second meter to the fusebox location where your EV connection will be made. All told that is probably 6 hours or so of labor, plus cost of permit and inspection. This assumes, of course, you already have the required EV connection running from your garage to the fusebox. One other thing: New dual meter is not as tall but significantly wider than your old meter. If you have siding where your meter is, you will need to also relace some of the siding.

But the cool thing about the EV Only Plans is you now can see on your monthly statement exactly what it costs for you to charge your car. The first part of your statement is for your house, the second part for your EV. Oh, and don't freak out at the large dollars for my house usage - I am on the level pay plan and they use some funky math to do the calcluations. My monthly bill (house and EV) is $132.99 every month.



Lastly, the Dominion guys who disconnected my house from the grid said in some cases (but not mine) they've had to upgrade the distribution boxes (my term, not his!) to allow for a full 80 amp pull on the Tesla HPWC!

If jthompson's estimates are correct (and I have no reason to doubt them), let's say the install is $700 ($100 permits, + 6 hours @ $100/hr)

EV only pricing plan is 5.08c, and the regular rate is somewhere north of 11c. For a savings of 5.92c/kwh

Assuming 300wh/mi, to break even you need to drive about 40k miles.

scaesare said:

Yeah... I can run the circuit for the HPWC myself, and I have some other siding work I need to do anyway (which is one thing that prompted me to take another look).

Ultimately I have been considering solar, and figured I'd try and get it all done at the same time, but wanted to look a bit to see if phasing the EV plans in would make sense.

Thanks.

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We were on the whole house + EV plan, able to shift household loads, precool with AC etc and were happy. We increased our electricity consumption by 40-50% with the Tesla and only increased our electric bill by 10-20%. We chose not to do the EV only plan which requires a separate meter since our garage is detached and would have required significant expense to run a new service from the utility.

Then we decided to go solar which made things very complicated...

Dominion does not permit the whole house + EV plan (which is considered a pilot plan) to be used with any type of solar program.
Their solar programs are either:
1) Their SPP (solar purchase plan) where they buy all of your solar generation from you at a 15c per kwh generated (requires a dedicated meter that solely measures your solar generation). Oh yeah, and one other thing they don't point out is you get TAXED on the "income" from the SPP. So every 1kWh=15cents paid to you but then you have to pay income tax on that money.
or
2) Net metering where your meter spins forwards or backwards depending on whether you are generating more solar than consuming. No taxation issues here but you want to size your system to not generate more than you use in a typical year.

The separate EV only plan is compatible with either solar plan but you have to be careful about sizing your solar system here. If you generate too much solar, Dominion won't credit you for excess generation on the net metering plan. Since the EV is metered/billed separately, your EV consumption will not be included in your overall household consumption against what you are generating with solar.


We currently have no special EV rate, just net metering for the solar. We actually tried a time of use plan (schedule 1S) for a while but that plan gouges you with very high "demand" charges that penalize you for having a high consumption during on-peak energy times (such as running your AC in the afternoon). So we switched back to the regular rate plan (regular schedule 1) which is about 11cents per Kwh.
The sad thing is, there is now no financial incentive for us to charge the car during the deep night even though it would greatly benefit the grid/Dominion for us to do so. It also creates a disincentive to go solar if you have an EV because you must choose between good EV rates and getting maximum credit for your solar production.

It's complicated, PM me with questions

I have the whole house + EV plan, and my monthly bill has stayed about the same or gone down since I bought the Model S. But nobody is home on most weekdays during the peak summer rates, we tend to run the dryer and dishwasher during off peak hours, and I drive "only" ~1,000 miles per month with >15% charging outside the home (mostly superchargers on road trips).

Note that peak winter rates are only slightly higher than the standard ~11c/kWh; it's the peak summer rate (~17c, from 1pm to 7pm, Apr 16 - Oct 15) that you really need to watch out for.

Yes the peak rates apply on weekends too. For us it still works in our favor.

Edited to add: Prior to the House+EV plan we were on Dominion's Smart Cooling plan, which pays you a $40 rebate at the end of each summer if you allow them to shut off your AC remotely for brief periods of peak demand. The House+EV plan isn't compatible for some reason, but the savings for us (~$10/mo) is enough to stick with it.

Hello Virginians -- I'm planning to attend TMC Cconnect in Reno July 28-30 and gigafactory tour that Friday. I'm interested in meeting up with others from Virginia. Feel free to message me if you're planning to attend.

Hi all,
I've just ordered a CPO Model S 60, and I'm working with an electrician (HavePower) to come install a NEMA 14-50 outlet for me to charge. The electrician quoted me an incremental ~$400 to setup for the dual metering under the Dominion EV-only plan.

My own quick analysis:
I expect to drive about 12,500mi per year. That's ~4,140kwh, which under standard Dominion pricing ($0.11) will cost ~$455 per year.

If I sign up for the EV-only plan, I would pay (optimally) $0.0508/kwh, for a total of $210 -- annual savings of $245. That means I'd earn back the $400 in about 20 months and then be saving money each month.

BUT, I also see this on the Dominion website:
So assuming I take delivery of my Model S in late September and the Dominion program doesn't get extended, I'd only get about 6 months of net benefit.

Am I thinking about this the right way? Anybody have insight about whether Dominion is likely to extend the EV off-peak discount beyond the current program expiration?

flipb said:

Hi all,
Anybody have insight about whether Dominion is likely to extend the EV off-peak discount beyond the current program expiration?

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No insight, hopefully the would recognize the benefits of EV customers charging at off peak times in terms of stress on the grid, availability of excess production etc.

One other factor to consider in your decision is tax implications. I believe expenses for installation of EV charging equipment is tax deductible and your electrician costs for installation of your 14-50 and other upgrades may qualify for a deduction to offset your costs.

Hi Folks! I too am in NOVA and am under the EV Only Pricing Plan. The way Dominion advised me was to install the meters is in serial, meaning I run from my breaker panel (50amp), to the second meter, then to the NEMA 14-50 (I wish I had run 100amp service for the HPWC).

Has anyone else had any trouble with Dominion and inconsistent billing? During the first few months, they were only billing me for 50kWh on the EV, which we all know it should be closer to 500kWh when driving 1000+ miles a month. I called them and worked with them for months, I finally found a wonderful lady in that department that helped. They had to swap out the meter and backdate all of the billing for the previous 5 months to get it corrected.

Now recently, I'm seeing another discrepancy with charging more kWh in Off Peak instead of Super Off peak, and the detailed energy usage spreadsheet just doesn't line up. I'm working with them again after another call yesterday to a different person.

I'm curious of all of your other experiences. I also asked about what's going to happen when this Pilot program is over, and the lady I worked with for few months doesn't know exactly, but she expects some kind of program will continue.

Travis, I've been on the EV Only Pricing Plan for almost 4 years now (4 years this March) and never had a billing problem or discrepancy. I start charging at 1:10 am (with 100 amp service) just to be sure I am in the Super Off Peak hours. I've been averaging about $30/month (when you add in all the fuel and taxes and surgcahrges for that line) for 1000 miles of driving. Sorry to hear that the EV Only Pricing Plan will be going away next year - maybe Dominion will change their mind before then.

We currently have the EV+Home plan and have been happy with it. We are getting ready to sell our house and downsize to a smaller one. We called Dominion to ask about having the plan set up at the new house and, after talking to many people who knew nothing about the EV plans, we were finally told that because the enrollment date had passed (9/1/2016), even though we currently have the EV+Home Plan, they won't allow us to continue on the plan at the new house (also in VA, about 30 miles from the current home). We are going to keep trying...we got cut off after the 5th transfer today. Disappointing....

Do you think the plan really saves any money? Have you ever found it necessary to charge outside of the off-peak hours , especially on the weekends which because those rates are significantly higher than just the standard rates it might eat into any savings from the normal charging at off-peak times

dafootes said:

We called Dominion to ask about having the plan set up at the new house and, after talking to many people who knew nothing about the EV plans, we were finally told that because the enrollment date had passed ... We are going to keep trying...we got cut off after the 5th transfer today. Disappointing....

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We had a similar experience with Dominion when we first set up charging plan 4 yrs ago. Multiple calls/emails, frequent billing errors that required more phone calls/emails etc. It seems this is just a token program with little resources from Dominion invested. I agree this is disappointing since:
1) EVs increase electricity consumption which is what Dominion is selling after all
and
2) EVs can shift the consumption to off-peak times when overall electricity supply is greater than demand. This practice would be encouraged with tiered rate structures that Dominion has available but only coupled with antiquated and punative "demand" charges.