Electricity Cost Spikes

[one2many]

Natural gas price rises. And there's more to come soon because of the botched initial implementation of community solar that was tied to natural gas prices, and the cross-subsidies on that.

If you want to minimize your fuel costs here now, buy an efficient hybrid. EVs aren't expensive to fuel, but they're no longer cheaper.

I have no idea what this means. Nat gas is at an all time low. We go to propane cars??
I am going to get popcorn, carry on folks.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

a little bummed with Tesla who initially claimed that SCs aren't a "profit center" but here in Texas the rate per kwh at SCs is now nearly 3x of what a residential rate is (never mind that they pay lower commercial rates). I mostly charge at home but on road trips i can see that gasoline would be the same cost wise...

 

[Flybyglass]

Tesla used to charge what ever the local utility rate at the charger location. Now they charger either per kWh or per minute depending on location and charger type. The following table from Tesla:

Whenever possible, owners are billed per kWh (kilowatt-hour); in other areas, owners are billed per minute.

When billing per minute, there are four tiers to account for changes in charging speeds: ‘Tier 1,’ ‘Tier 2,’ ‘Tier 3’ and ‘Tier 4.’

Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
Charging at or below 60 kW	Charging above 60 kW, at or below 100 kW	Charging above 100 kW, at or below 180 kW	Charging above 180 kW
Lowest price per minute	Second-lowest price per minute	Second-highest price per minute	Highest price per minute

 

[dmurphy]

a little bummed with Tesla who initially claimed that SCs aren't a "profit center" but here in Texas the rate per kwh at SCs is now nearly 3x of what a residential rate is (never mind that they pay lower commercial rates). I mostly charge at home but on road trips i can see that gasoline would be the same cost wise...

I don't ever remember them saying Superchargers weren't a profit center. They said that about the other SC -- Service Centers.

In fact, they called out what the target margins are here for Supercharging:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1510691354623590410

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I don't ever remember them saying Superchargers weren't a profit center. They said that about the other SC -- Service Centers.

In fact, they called out what the target margins are here for Supercharging:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1510691354623590410

fair enough... but electricity costs didnt triple over the last years whereas SC rates certainly did up to that extent

 

[dmurphy]

fair enough... but electricity costs didnt triple over the last years whereas SC rates certainly did up to that extent

Residential electricity rates tend to be regulated; not sure about the wholesale rate (i.e. what Tesla would purchase from local suppliers.)

I agree though, it's probably not 3x. That said -- we're likely paying for the buildout of the network in those costs. It's not just the power supply, but the equipment, land agreements, transformers, etc.

My expectation is that it'll go down over time. How far out that is, and what the rate of decline looks like --> that's all still wayyyy TBD.

 

[jboy210]

I wish I knew how Tesla gets billed for power. I assume that, unlike consumers, Tesla pays a commercial rate as a big plant would pay. Those have a rate per kWh and a demand rate based on how fast they demand those kWhs. If so, that would explain the tier structure @Flybyglass referenced.

 

[BogStandard]

I live in Massachusetts and natural gas powers 70% of our electricity generation. With the recent (and one hopes, temporary) increase in natural gas prices, my electricity now costs $0.46 per kWh.

Wow, that's painful. My electric rates have only bounced between $0.11-0.12/kWh here in Minnesota in the last few years. I'm on an co-op though in a small town who buys their power bi-yearly from Xcel. Our power source is part nuclear and nat gas, maybe part of the reason our rates haven't fluctuated a ton. We do have a lot of solar farms around here, I'd be interested to know what percentage of our power comes from that. Only downside to our co-op is that there are only 2 electrical plans you can buy. Residential and commercial. No time-of-use options.

I only have 1kW worth of solar and ~12kWh of battery storage, it's really just for keeping critical circuits alive during power outages. Happens every so often here on our heavily outdated infrastructure. It's an old town with a fair amount of equipment from what looks to be several decades old. But, sunny days can keep those circuits powered off the grid.

 

[Travis64]

National grid has doubled in ny and the delivery fees cost more then the electric what a scam