Mandatory E9 for EV users

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Glenn

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 4, 2010
Messages
281
Location
Oakland, CA
Here's what I've both read and heard from a seemingly knowledgeable PGE rep at this weekend's tour stop. "Pacific Gas and Electric Company offers a special discounted rate for our Electric Vehicle (EV) customers, the Experimental Time-of-Use Low Emission Vehicle rate (Schedule E-9). The E-9 rate is mandatory (my emphasis) for those customers that are currently on a residential electric rate and who plan on refueling an EV on their premises."

E9A uses your existing meter (which I assume has to be a Smart Meter??) and calculates everything at a new rate; E9B leaves your existing situation as is and adds a second meter for the E9 portion. This new meter can be used only for charging an electric vehicle!

If true, this scenario seems to increase the cost of a gallon of electricity quite a bit. With E9A we'll see a significant increase in our peak usage rate ( for everything but the EV.) By significant, I mean an increase from about 11-13 ¢/KwH to to 28.4 ¢/KwH from 2:00pm to 9:00pm during the summer. With E9B we'll incur a hefty one-time expense of installing, permitting, and possibly rewiring for a second meter and panel which can then be used only for the EV.

My questions:

1) Am I misreading something? I'd love to think so and hope there's a PGE/PUC guru on here who can clarify.
2) Is this (as we were told in San Jose) a PUC thing and if so does it apply to all utility companies in California? What about other states?
3) Any suggestions for dealing with this? We were told, and it sorta makes sense, that dealers will be notifying PGE about EV purchasers, so it doesn't look like one can "fly under the radar."

I'll try to attend the upcoming CVRP workshop in SF ( http://tinyurl.com/29smwua ) for more information, but would love to get a headstart on understanding this.

Glenn
 
Glenn said:
1) Am I misreading something? I'd love to think so and hope there's a PGE/PUC guru on here who can clarify.
As far as the E9 rate and residential PG&E customers are concerned that sounds about right. From the PG&E E9 document http://www.pge.com/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-9.pdf it states the following:

"This experimental schedule applies to electric service to customers for whom Schedule E-1 applies and who have a currently registered Motor Vehicle, as defined by the California Motor Vehicle Code, which is: 1) a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) recharged via a recharging outlet at the customer’s premises; or, 2) a natural gas vehicle (NGV) refueled via a home refueling appliance (HRA) at the customer’s premises. This schedule is required for customers with a BEV or PHEV."

Now assuming that the E9a rate will automatically increase the cost of a gallon of electricity quite a bit seems misleading to me. I have been on the E9a rate since I got my first EV in 1998 and my overall electric bill actually went down as a result if I delete the cost of charging. Since I always did my EV charging off peak I was charged at the lowest rate at around 5 cents a kilowatt hour.

Each household really has to do the math and determine what would work best between the two E9 rates and also factor in second meter installation costs as well. One thing to pay attention too when doing the math is how the tiering works, it can be quite the gotcha depending on your energy use pattern. I suggest taking the time to read through the linked document since all the rate and tier information is included.
 
Call PGE, ask for a comparison of total cost for last years E1 if it were E9, they can do this, then you will know. I have solar so I wont be hit like E1 users but I'm only going to change to E9 if it makes more sense, not sure how they will know how I have an EV since I have had three for seven years and I'm not on E9.
 
This topic is misplaced. It should be under Local/Regional Discussions >> Utilities, since it applies only to northern California PG&E customers. It also duplicates extensive prior discussion there. See

Official California PG&E thread: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=661

PG&E EV Charging Rates: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=661
 
planet4ever said:
This topic is misplaced. It should be under Local/Regional Discussions >> Utilities, since it applies only to northern California PG&E customers. It also duplicates extensive prior discussion there. See

Official California PG&E thread: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=661

PG&E EV Charging Rates: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=661

Sorry, planet, I'm just learning my way around the site and didn't see the other thread. Please ask the moderator to remove this one. I have no idea about the bad link, it should have gone to the PGE charging site - http://www.pge.com/myhome/environment/pge/cleanair/electricdrivevehicles/charging/index.shtml

I'll stop trying to post here and just remain a lurker.

Thanks,

Glenn
 
Glenn said:
I'll stop trying to post here and just remain a lurker.
No, no! I didn't mean to scare you away! We like hearing from new people, and we realize there is way too much information here to be able to absorb it all before you post anything. It is just when I know of an area where the topic has been discussed I sometimes try to steer discussion there so we don't keep trying to recreate knowledge.

The one suggestion I might make is that since this is a huge board with hundreds of topics it might be better to start by trying to find in an existing related topic before starting a new one. One trick that some of us have found useful is to use Google to search the board, like this:

some keywords site:mynissanleaf.com

where "some keywords" is replaced by whatever you are searching for.

But please, whatever techniques you use, keep talking to us.
 
planet4ever said:
Glenn said:
I'll stop trying to post here and just remain a lurker.
No, no! I didn't mean to scare you away! We like hearing from new people,

...

But please, whatever techniques you use, keep talking to us.
I'll second that suggestion, Glenn. :)
 
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