California electric rates in Relation to Electric Cars

[RningOnFumes]

So Cali has a complicated 3 tier electric rate system where it behooves you, the customer to use as little electricity as you can. I always wondered how this affected electric cars. Yes, like it or not, they are coming (electric cars), at least until other (more efficient) methods of energy translated to motion can be thought of. You see, even if you charge your car at night when total demand is low, you're stuck with the fees appropriate to the total monthly amount of electricity you used.

This news report I found hints at special rates for those who have electric cars:


News report (video):
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=7899553

Edison also has a special electric vehicle plan, where a separate meter is used for just the EV. Other utilities have similar plans.

I like it but now for the next question which is how much red-tape must one go through if they didn't buy an "Off the shelf" brand name e- vehicle"? I mean those who dare convert a vehicle either on their own or through a company.

Full article dated in January 2011:

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- 2011 is shaping up to be the year of the electric car: Two are already in show rooms and a few more will debut by year's end. But just plugging one into your home's electric circuit for recharging could produce a big bill at the end of the month.

"Well a customer that just goes home and plugs in right away, they're typically going to be on their standard rate for their home and so that's a tiered structure where the more you use the more you pay," said Steve Powell, Southern California Edison's manager of Plug-in Electric Vehicle Readiness.

SCE and other utilities have been preparing for the arrival of electric vehicles for a while. Anyone thinking of buying one should also prepare.

"Your utility can tell you about the electric rates, they can tell you about some of the considerations you'll need to consider when you're picking a vehicle and when you're getting the installation done for your charging equipment," said Powell.

What the power industry doesn't want is cars being charged during peak hours when the grid is under heavy load. Charging at night will solve that problem.

Just as technology has brought us electric cars, it's also brought us something called a smart meter that knows when you're plugging in. In other words, if you do it late at night, you'll pay less.

So there's a monetary incentive to charge an electric car at night, but it's not the only one.

"The additional benefits of charging during the off-peak are that there's more renewables at night, there's a lot more excess capacity in the system so it's easy for us to service load at night, which obviously allows us to give them that low rate at night," said Powell.

Edison also has a special electric vehicle plan, where a separate meter is used for just the EV. Other utilities have similar plans.

"In reality, California is going to be a great place to charge electric vehicles," said Powell. "We have some of the largest amounts of renewables in the nation so some of the vehicles charged are going to be the cleanest in the nation. And we are offering electric vehicle rates that will help customers save money at night."

(Copyright ©2011 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Relevance? Well most of these new gen E-V vehicles are hybrids whether the manufacturer states it or not so there will still be a Miles Per Gallon figure. The more electricity that these hybrids use, the higher the overall MPG. One of the crux of the plug-in hybrid situation is how high your electricity bill is at the end of the month. If your bill is substantially higher, why would one bother to go down the EV-hybrid route? The question is geared towards the average consumer who possibly has a few mouths to feed and many other bills to think of. ** There is also some complicated math to convert all electric car's electric usage to MPG equivalents.