Does it make sense to charge at home in High Cost States for electricity (such as CT -3rd highest rates)

[VTbuckeye]

What happens if you are at a DCFC that has a problem in a per minute state? Your truck can take 150kw and the charge station can deliver 350 when working properly, but sometimes they only deliver 30kw. All of a sudden a planned charge at 120kw average (2kw per minute) can become a 0.5kw per minute and it would either cost 4 times as much or you would get one quarter the charge that you are expecting in a given timeframe. In per kWh states is the charge station is wonky, you only pay for what is delivered and it just takes longer.

In VT we are a per kWh state for dcfc. We have some per hour level 2 charging and it is at a reasonable rate if your car can accept 7kw, but if your car, often PHEV can only accept 3.3kw, then the cost for charging doubled. Our residential electric rate is around 0.186 per kWh with all costs factored in and it will go up by 2+ percent in a month. We just added solar, and VT has a net metering rule so that we get credit for all of our excess solar at one cent per kWh less than we pay for grid power. Our utility also provides EVSEs for free with a time of use discount. Our net metering credits expire after one year. There are between 20 and 25 dollars per month in non-bypassable charges.

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[monsterlag]

Three things that have helped us change to a fully EV household in Upstate NY.

1. Solar - Incentives in NY are massive and you can be well under $1.4/kW after Fed Incentives

2. 1:1 Net Metering - this is an obvious one but very common in the Northeast. We can use the grid as a battery and doesn’t require additional power storage investment

3. Off peak rates - I sell energy to the grid at higher rates during Peak hours and charge my EVs at significantly discounted Off peak rates at night. With 2 EVSE, both the wife and I have fully charged EVs everyday.

On the other hand, DCFC prices here are well over $0.35/kWh meaning I would always try to prioritize charging at home.

 

[Wsh68]

I am in CA with PG&E and my rate would be around $0.4/kWh for charging at home and EA around me charges higher than that. Tesla charges $0.58.

So if I don’t already have solar, I won’t buy EVs, does not make economic sense.

I also live in Ca and have homes in PG&E and SCE locations. Both have EV rates after 11 PM when we charge our EV’s, heat our hot tub, run our electric dryer, dishwasher etc. as a result of shifting our energy time of use and owning EV’s, our electric bill has gone down. We added solar as well on one property so we sell Electricity to the grid during the day at (let’s just say $.45/KWh) and then consume energy at night at let’s just say $.15) so I get 3 KWH for every 1 we gave….I’ll further translate, I have no electric bill and I drive for free. I have a handful of friends that are smart people but simo,y don’t see the math on this even though I explain time and time again. They also seem to love to “inform me” that my energy is really derived from coal, and my panels are on the verge of going to the landfill, and that my battery will either catch fire or degrade so fast that I’ll be replacing it next week. yesterday a buddy tried to grid Shame me by saying our cars were breaking the California grid.

 

[Roy2001]

I also live in Ca and have homes in PG&E and SCE locations. Both have EV rates after 11 PM when we charge our EV’s, heat our hot tub, run our electric dryer, dishwasher etc. as a result of shifting our energy time of use and owning EV’s, our electric bill has gone down. We added solar as well on one property so we sell Electricity to the grid during the day at (let’s just say $.45/KWh) and then consume energy at night at let’s just say $.15) so I get 3 KWH for every 1 we gave….I’ll further translate, I have no electric bill and I drive for free. I have a handful of friends that are smart people but simo,y don’t see the math on this even though I explain time and time again. They also seem to love to “inform me” that my energy is really derived from coal, and my panels are on the verge of going to the landfill, and that my battery will either catch fire or degrade so fast that I’ll be replacing it next week. yesterday a buddy tried to grid Shame me by saying our cars were breaking the California grid.

Apparently your situation is different from mine. If I switch to EV plan, lowest off peak rate is still $0.24/kWh, and during summer peak time that I must turn on AC, the rate is $0.6/kWh.

I haven’t done any further calculation yet but currently I am fully covered so I am good. I may think about that later but I doubt it will work for me given my house size and temperature in Central Valley.

 

[sotek2345]

Three things that have helped us change to a fully EV household in Upstate NY.

1. Solar - Incentives in NY are massive and you can be well under $1.4/kW after Fed Incentives

2. 1:1 Net Metering - this is an obvious one but very common in the Northeast. We can use the grid as a battery and doesn’t require additional power storage investment

3. Off peak rates - I sell energy to the grid at higher rates during Peak hours and charge my EVs at significantly discounted Off peak rates at night. With 2 EVSE, both the wife and I have fully charged EVs everyday.

On the other hand, DCFC prices here are well over $0.35/kWh meaning I would always try to prioritize charging at home.

Where are you seeing great off peak rates. In the Albany area (National Grid), the off peak rate is less than a 1 cent discount and the regular rates are up several cents. Totally not worth the shift.

 

[monsterlag]

Where are you seeing great off peak rates. In the Albany area (National Grid), the off peak rate is less than a 1 cent discount and the regular rates are up several cents. Totally not worth the shift.

VTOU Rates -

https://www9.nationalgridus.com/niagaramohawk/business/rates/5_supp_charge.asp

Under (SC1V) for Capital Region.

The rate does vary from month to month but supply charge can be as low as 0.04/kWh

Whereas the Solar is paying more during Peak. The first year is also a trial where any cost difference from the regular rate is credited back to you.

 

[sotek2345]

Yeah,

VTOU Rates -

https://www9.nationalgridus.com/niagaramohawk/business/rates/5_supp_charge.asp

Under (SC1V) for Capital Region.

The rate does vary from month to month but supply charge can be as low as 0.04/kWh

Whereas the Solar is paying more during Peak. The first year is also a trial where any cost difference from the regular rate is credited back to you.

Right. But right now I am only paying about $0.06 to $0.07 flat rate for supply. I have Solar but it doesn't generate enough to send anything back to the grid (roof can't support a big enough system).

Switching to the VTOU plan would raise my bill considerably even if we did all EV charging during off peak hours.

 

[LightningShow]

What happens if you are at a DCFC that has a problem in a per minute state? Your truck can take 150kw and the charge station can deliver 350 when working properly, but sometimes they only deliver 30kw. All of a sudden a planned charge at 120kw average (2kw per minute) can become a 0.5kw per minute and it would either cost 4 times as much or you would get one quarter the charge that you are expecting in a given timeframe. In per kWh states is the charge station is wonky, you only pay for what is delivered and it just takes longer.

I'm pretty sure if you call EA customer service they'll give you the session for free.

 

[monsterlag]

Yeah,

Right. But right now I am only paying about $0.06 to $0.07 flat rate for supply. I have Solar but it doesn't generate enough to send anything back to the grid (roof can't support a big enough system).

Switching to the VTOU plan would raise my bill considerably even if we did all EV charging during off peak hours.

We have a 10kw system(25 panels) that’s generating when we are mostly not home and we are getting paid anywhere from 0.18 to 0.22 /kWh.

So the difference is significant due to the variable pricing.

To be fair, I don’t think this plan makes any sense unless you are exporting energy consistently. My heating system is also full gas, so we won’t be affected by the peak pricing in the winter.

 

[sotek2345]

We have a 10kw system(25 panels) that’s generating when we are mostly not home and we are getting paid anywhere from 0.18 to 0.22 /kWh.

So the difference is significant due to the variable pricing.

To be fair, I don’t think this plan makes any sense unless you are exporting energy consistently. My heating system is also full gas, so we won’t be affected by the peak pricing in the winter.

We have gas heat too, but still use quite a bit for AC in the summer and the dryer year round. We could only fit a 2kw system on our roof. 120 year old main house, so we could only put it on our addition.

 

[jefro]

I am on very simple electric contracts.
The original post here was a good question I thought.
My mother mentioned her choices. Thought she was nuts until I actually tried to figure out what plan was best for her. Like the old cell phone plans. Confuse you with too many variables.

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