Detroit Edison's EV charging station pilot plan

[Dr Mordrid]

Detroit News....

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Detroit Edison, the state's largest electricity provider, will start offering the special rate today as part of an experimental program that will allow it to explore different pricing models and gauge the impact of these vehicles on the power grid.

"We view -- as do a lot of people -- electric vehicles as something of the future," said Edward Falletich, manager for pricing at Detroit Edison. "What this does is let us be privy to how much power is used to charge a vehicle."

The program will require a separate meter and will be available to 2,500 residential customers. They will have two pricing options: a lower rate for charging during off-peak hours from 9-11 p.m. or a monthly flat rate of $40 per vehicle.

Detroit Edison, which is owned by DTE Energy, will pay up to $2,500 toward the cost of installing a residential charging station and the additional meter. A typical 220-volt charging station can retail for about $600, Falletich said.
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[Brian Ellis]

The 9-11 pm option would be suitable only for topping up, surely? $40/vehicle seems the better option, equivalent to, say, ~14 gallons gas (pricewise, not energywise)

[Dr Mordrid]

The 9-11 pm option would be suitable only for topping up, surely?

Volt fully charges in 3hrs on a 240V line and 8hrs on a 120V. 120V can be done on any wall/outdoor outlet. All houses in our 'hood have outdoor outlets front & rear and most have 240V outlets in the garage.

$40/vehicle seems the better option, equivalent to, say, ~14 gallons gas (pricewise, not energywise)

A full 12 kWh* Volt charge runs <$1 at the off-hour rate in these parts, so the $40 plan wouldn't make sense for its battery size but might for pure EV's; Leaf, Tesla etc. Tank is ~8 gallons.

(* 12 kWh because that reflects Volt's 16 kWh battery not being allowed to fully discharge to extend its life)

[Brian Ellis]

Volt fully charges in 3hrs on a 240V line and 8hrs on a 120V.

9-11 pm is 2 h or, at least it was when I was at school, not 3 h

[Fat Tone]

And its still fairly peak time here for home usage.

[Dr Mordrid]

Actually "off peak" rates here already apply to 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM. After hearing contemporaneous TV interviews I think he was talking about potential start times.

[Fat Tone]

Here we don't get any lower rates until midnight.

Fortunately my dish-washer has a built-in timer. So does the clothes drier (it's actually a condenser washer-drier) but that doesn't really work so well as a concept.

[Dr Mordrid]

We use the dishwasher timer set to ~11:00 PM all the time, unless we need something right away then we use a short wash cycle. Clothes washer/dryer have the features, but wife and daughter in law seldom use them.

OTOH Volt's computer can 'talk' to a smart meter through that IEEE/ISO connector and it can also be programmed and report all manner of info to the owner via iPhone/Android apps and text messages.

[Brian Ellis]

Our reduced rates tariff (8 h at night + 1½ h at noon) can be used only for space (storage) + water heating. All other electricity use is at full rates 24/7. This what we have and pay base rates of €0.03/kWh for heating and €0.06 for household use.

There is another optional tariff of all circuits switched between reduced rates and exaggerated rates. If my memory is good, the reduced base tariff is about €0.03/kWh but the ordinary daytime rate is at an exorbitant €0.26/kWh.

Before you go ooooh!, that's cheap, be aware there are numerous surcharges and taxes on top of the base rates. The surcharges are about €0.06/kWh on all tariffs and VAT is charged at 15% on the tariffs+surcharges.

[Dr Mordrid]

Daytime: $0.08136 kWh

Off-Peak: $0.06726 kWh

A/C rate: Off-Peak rate, but interrupt-able in case of high system load. This has happened only once in past 5 years. (separate, remotely controlled meter @15 min off/15 min on)

+ delivery charges & taxes, of course.

[Marshmallowman]

We have 4 rates

off peak $0.108

weekdays (the shoulder and peak swap during winter)
shoulder $0.204 7am-11am,5pm-9pm
peak $0.401 11am-5pm

weekends
Peak/shoulder $0.169 7am-9pm

I used to get the same price for feed in to grid for my solar, but now I get peak $0.401 rates all the time for the first 10 years.

Our rates went up 30% a few months ago...