I'm thinking of invoking Rule 2 at PG&E delivering only 214 Volts (AC) to my home (utility meter) and 220 Volts to my neighbor (utility meter) while I'm charging my car and using the clothes dryer and a few electric heaters when the sun isn't shining (mostly a weekend event due to off-peak rate plans -- during a simple load testing I did last night, I peaked at 17.7kW), but if I'm seeing the current revision and quotation of Rule 2 by PG&E and others (i.e., the lack thereof), it looks like not only is charging a Tesla considered unsupported, but that because of solar & wind and EV's, Rule 2 is in flux, waiting for a new connected EV utility standard to be made (such as PowerWall 2 charging cars, solar panels charging cars, and utilities charging cars, with or without variable supply-load programming). This has given me pause, because if I invoke Rule 2, then PG&E may cite the segments of Rule 2 against me that it can, and then make a rule that is otherwise in flux and mostly irrelevant today suddenly re-enforced when it doesn't make sense and even get a restriction placed on our account and my EV charging.
The problem is I currently draw 11kW to charge the car plus other house draws, and I want to eventually enable drawing 19kW for car charging, but asking for that would put me at odds of the utility's language in Rule 2. I'm guessing that the neighborhood PIG supplying my segment of 11 houses is 100kVA, so could support either 9kW per home or about 4 cars being charged at a full 19kW at once, but not more, and that is why PG&E would be loathe to move me to a less far PIG or increase the number of PIGs (they look like a few thousand dollars, plus labor and overhead, or about $6K including waste, well under their recent $10K increase in our bill during our solar system lifetime due to NEM2 rule changes over NEM1 for our solar panels, intended to supply money for grid improvements).
Here's the outdated but nominally current stuff:
https://www.pge.com/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_RULES_2.pdf
Here's the excerpts of PG&E's Rule 2:
Sheet 4: 240 service has minimum 228 Volts and maximum 240 Volts (or 252 Volts for Class B).
Sheet 8: "For any single-phase service, the maximum demand as determined by PG&E is limited to the capability of a 100 kVa transformer unless otherwise approved by PG&E."
Sheet 15: "PG&E reserves the right to refuse to serve new loads or to continue to supply existing loads of a size or character that may be detrimental to PG&E's operations or to the service of its customers. Any customer who operates or plans to operate any equipment such as, but not limited to, pumps, welders, saw mill apparatus, furnaces, compressors or other equipment where the use of electricity is intermittent, causes intolerable voltage fluctuations, or otherwise causes intolerable service interference, must reasonably limit such interference or restrict the use of such equipment upon request by PG&E. The customer is required either to provide and pay for whatever corrective measures are necessary to limit the interference to a level established by PG&E as reasonable, or avoid the use of such equipment, whether or not the equipment has previously caused interference."
"Any customer causing service interference to others must diligently pursue and take timely corrective action after being given notice and a reasonable time to do so by PG&E. If the customer does not take timely corrective action, or continues to operate the equipment causing the interference without restriction or limit, PG&E may, without liability, after giving five days written notice to customer, either install and activate control devices on its facilities that will temporarily prevent the detrimental operation, or discontinue electric service until a suitable permanent solution is provided by the customer and it is operational."
Has anybody tried to invoke Rule 2 at PG&E to get better service and been bitten by the blowback from PG&E telling them to stop it, to stop charging EV's at those rates and in fact enforce worse service than they already had? Since for normal commutes it takes me the entire time from the beginning of the EV low rate weekday period to the time I have to get in my car and start driving to charge it, reducing my charging speed would end up costing me a lot more due to higher cost periods, turning driving a Tesla's energy use from being less expensive than gas by about 2/3rds to being more than 3 times the cost of gas.
