planet4ever
Well-known member
PG&E has posted notice proposing rate changes for the (default) E-1 rate schedule, effective this coming summer. They claim that it will be revenue neutral, but that certainly doesn't mean it will be cost-neutral to most of their customers. They propose to reduce the current four tiers to three by combining tier 2 and 3, increase the tier 1 rate, reduce the tier 4 (which becomes 3) rate a bit, and set the new tier 2 rate between the old tier 2 and 3 rates, but closer to the old tier 2 rate.
I decided to plot this out to see what the real effect would be. I could have done it just for my area, but after a bit of thought, ended up plotting relative to baseline rather than kWh. That is less intuitive, but means that a single graph can show the effect for all E-1 customers. PG&E covers a huge and varied region, from coast to the crest of the Sierras, and from well south of Bakersfield to well north of Eureka. (Those two cities are about 470 miles apart, straight line distance.) The region is broken up into ten territories based on climate, and 4 different baseline quantities are assigned to each territory based on summer vs. winter and electric heating or not. (There are also special cases such as medical baseline.) The baseline is a claim of "normal" kWh usage per day for the territory and varies (assuming non-electric heating) from 7.5 kWh to 18.5 kWh. The price any customer pays per kWh depends on their usage relative to their baseline. Here are some sample baselines:
Here is the graph I came up with. Note that the $ figures on the left are for the baseline amount of electricity. Divide by your baseline amount to get price per kWh:
As you can see, people using about 160% or more of their daily baseline will pay less, while people using less than 160% of baseline will pay more. Since for many people just charging their LEAF would use up baseline or more, LEAF owners who stay on the default E-1 rate will probably save a little money, at the expense of people who try to use as little electricity as possible.
Of course this does not address LEAF owners who switch to the special solar or EV rates.
Ray
I decided to plot this out to see what the real effect would be. I could have done it just for my area, but after a bit of thought, ended up plotting relative to baseline rather than kWh. That is less intuitive, but means that a single graph can show the effect for all E-1 customers. PG&E covers a huge and varied region, from coast to the crest of the Sierras, and from well south of Bakersfield to well north of Eureka. (Those two cities are about 470 miles apart, straight line distance.) The region is broken up into ten territories based on climate, and 4 different baseline quantities are assigned to each territory based on summer vs. winter and electric heating or not. (There are also special cases such as medical baseline.) The baseline is a claim of "normal" kWh usage per day for the territory and varies (assuming non-electric heating) from 7.5 kWh to 18.5 kWh. The price any customer pays per kWh depends on their usage relative to their baseline. Here are some sample baselines:
Code:
City Summer Winter
----------------------------------
Bakersfield 18.5 10.9
Fresno 17.1 11.7
Stockton 15.3 12.0
San Jose 11.0 11.7
San Francisco 7.5 9.1Here is the graph I came up with. Note that the $ figures on the left are for the baseline amount of electricity. Divide by your baseline amount to get price per kWh:
As you can see, people using about 160% or more of their daily baseline will pay less, while people using less than 160% of baseline will pay more. Since for many people just charging their LEAF would use up baseline or more, LEAF owners who stay on the default E-1 rate will probably save a little money, at the expense of people who try to use as little electricity as possible.
Of course this does not address LEAF owners who switch to the special solar or EV rates.
Ray
