Time of Day Pricing in Texas
A CleanTechnica reader recently sent a story on Texas time of day pricing to me, with a few notes.
Quickly, the general news: “TXU Energy has rolled out a new three-tiered rate plan designed for customers who watch their household budgets and are willing to make some changes in when they fire up the dishwasher or do laundry. The power retailer also says its new plan is a sensible option for homes with solar installations or an EV in the driveway.
“Offering lower rates during specific periods – time-of-use rates – mimics the fluctuations in wholesale electricity costs that occur throughout the day. Perry said TXU has structured its new rate plan so over 90% of the hours in a year are nighttime or off-peak hours. And the difference between peak and nighttime rates is substantial: Compare peak rates (from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, May through October) of 21.9 cents per kilowatt hour to the discounted nighttime rates (10 p.m. to 6 a.m. all year) of 6.8 cents per kilowatt hour.”
Here’s a table of the rates from the press release:
Now, some notes from our insightful reader:
- $0.068 per kWh nighttime means 2.4 cents per mile for your Nissan Leaf.
- $0.219 per kWh for part of the day means that your PV system will pay off sooner. It might be worth tilting it west to do a bit better than $0.155 avg.
- The fact that only 10% of all hours are peak is telling. Tells you why it makes no sense to build stuff like nuclear that has to run 24/365 when tight supply hours are limited. Sure argues for more solar in Texas.
Totally! And as discussed before, Texas has an insane amount of solar energy potential.
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