Do you have "peak demand" electricity pricing?

[KYErik]

I have a friend that works for the power company. He told me that TVA (main electricity supplier in much of the Kentucky/Tennessee area) mandated that customers should be charged based on their usage during peak demand/off peak hours. It seems that since they pay more during the hours when usage is high, they want to pass the cost on to consumers.

The new digital self-reading electric meters that were installed on all houses/businesses in this area was initially thought of as a good thing- saving us from having to read our own meters. I guess now we know the real reason that they were installed... to track our power usage so we can be charged on an hour by hour basis

How many of you are paying more for your electricity during peak demand hours? If so, what part of the country are you in and what are your rates?



On another website, one guy posted this info- but I never found out where he lives:

On Peak Period Energy Charge per kWh
June - September $0.150180
Other Months $0.119850

Off Peak Period Energy Charge per kWh
June - September $0.016040
Other Months $0.019560

 

[RobS]

A buddy of mine in the power industry explained peak demand to me years ago. At that time, it was for large industrial installations. The logic is that if you need XXX KVA and have to have special lines run to your plant, then you should pay for the capacity, not just what you use. Sounded good from a selling point of view.

I guess this peak demand is different, it too makes some sense, at least from a selling perspective. As far as I know, I do not have it.

 

[ToadHill]

Our power is supplied by the local government, Little Valley Electric, they get a power allotment from the Niagara Power Authority in Niagara Falls. Once they use their allotment and have to purchase power on the open market we are charged a surcharge to make up the difference between the 2 prices.
As the area builds up, the amount purchased has increased dramatically. When we first got the property 25 years ago we would get a surchage in only a couple months each year, now we see one every month.

 

[Bird]

I have a friend that works for the power company. He told me that TVA (main electricity supplier in much of the Kentucky/Tennessee area) mandated that customers should be charged based on their usage during peak demand/off peak hours. It seems that since they pay more during the hours when usage is high, they want to pass the cost on to consumers.

The new digital self-reading electric meters that were installed on all houses/businesses in this area was initially thought of as a good thing- saving us from having to read our own meters. I guess now we know the real reason that they were installed... to track our power usage so we can be charged on an hour by hour basis

How many of you are paying more for your electricity during peak demand hours? If so, what part of the country are you in and what are your rates?



On another website, one guy posted this info- but I never found out where he lives:

On Peak Period Energy Charge per kWh
June - September $0.150180
Other Months $0.119850

Off Peak Period Energy Charge per kWh
June - September $0.016040
Other Months $0.019560

Assuming the decimal point is in the right place, that would mean his electricity cost was less than 2 cents per kWh is off peak hours and up to more than 15 cents per kWh during peak hours. That's sure a big difference. I've read some things in the news and understand the peak/off peak thing applies to large industrial businesses, but I don't know what the cutoff size or usage is. I know a person still comes around on foot reading the meters in my neighborhood so I don't think we have that sort of thing here, although the rates do vary a little bit month to month, but not drastically. I just looked at my bills for the past year and found my rates were:
Jan. - 12.54 cents per kWh
Feb. - 12.48
Mar. - 12.85
Apr. - 13.08
May. - 13.00
Jun. - 13.70
Jul. - 13.67
Aug. - 13.61
Sep. - 13.64
Oct. - 13.70
Nov. - 13.09
Dec. - 12.69
So a low of 12.48 to a high of 13.70 isn't even close to the variation mentioned above.

 

[KYErik]

Our power in this area is roughly 8-9 cents per KWH and hasn't yet gone to the new demand pricing scheme. The date I heard mentioned was October of this year. I would guess that the peak demand hours will likely be late afternoon for the summer months, but I'm not sure.

The new digital meters were installed in this area about a year ago on every house and business. They are read electronically, either through radio waves or somehow through the power lines themselves. The old analog meters were read once a month either by paid meter readers (for the city folk) or read by the customer (for those of us that live out in the country).

I suppose we may all eventually be talking about doing our arc welding projects late at night (during off peak hours) to save money HA!

 

[Bird]

Well, after I said I didn't think we had that peak/off peak business, I got to thinking about it and went back to my file cabinet. The costs I listed before are supposedly the Average cost for that month. But I also have a sheet of paper from the electric company, dated July 2006, that shows:

Off-Peak (Nov-May) 0-600 kWh 13.058 cents
Off-Peak (Nov-May) 601 + kWh 11.636 cents
On-Peak (June-Oct) All kWh 13.355 cents

It appears that, instead of peak/off peak hours, we have peak/off peak months.

 

[dmccarty]

We just pay a flat rate which is abou 10 cents per KWH. That is all based on all charges on the bill and the number of KWH we used during the period.

The digital meters replaced the old ones a year or so ago and we no longer have a meter reader driving up to the house which was a pain. Now we, aka the dogs, don't get bothered by the meter reader.

The cities around us are moving to different rates on water usage, the more gallons of water used, the higher price per gallon. Some cities have been doing this for a few years, others are getting on the bandwagon due to the drought. The cities/Govenor are telling people to use less water but that means the utilities are loosing revenue and their costs are not declining at the same rate as lost dollars. So they will have to charge more per gallon to make up the difference. People might very well use less water but pay more for it.

Thank you Mr. Well. I found a G'ment website that tracks well depths around the state. The wells are not deep, one hand dug well was only 60 feet, the other monitored wells near me are around 100 feet. They all have lost depth due to the drought but its only about 10%.

I use to pay $50-125 a month for water. Hate to see the bill if we where still in the city.

Later,
Dan

 

[ToadHill]

One advantage to being on the shore of Lake Erie, water bills run about $60 every 3 months.

 

[AlanB]

I was watching Dirty Jobs last night, and they were smelting steel. They were doing it late at night, you guessed it, because the electricity was considerably cheaper.

I think it is much like Cell phone plans. Peak times cost more, idle times cost less, I see it as an incentive for folks to help steady out usage and demand.

 

[the_sandman_454]

Seems like with some discipline, you could stand to save a fair amount on your electric bill. Run the dish washer, washing machine, dryer and all that crap at night/off peak, and so forth. For electric water heaters, I have heard of people putting at least one heating element on a timer and turning the other one down quite a bit so it only kicks in during off peak hours.

I still have standard electric pricing though, so I can't comment on how it actually works.