TOU for SCE customers - who has good results?

[MikeInRialto]

Does anyone have a year's data or close to a year?

I remember someone posting how to figure out which schedule works best using spreadsheets - please repost

Thanks!

[FFE]

Here is my example before I installed solar:

Old SCE TOU rates and times:
2014 Oct 510 kWh $0.142/kWh
2014 Nov 557 kWh $0.140/kWh
2014 Dec 559 kWh $0.146/kWh
2015 Jan 494 kWh $0.139/kWh
2015 Feb 457 kWh $0.132/kWh
2015 Mar 737 kWh $0.118/kWh Purchased Electric vehicle so big increase in Super off peak
2015 Apr 836 kWh $0.147/kWh

New SCE TOU rates and times:
2015 May 772 kWh $0.149/kWh
2015 Jun 1328 kWh $0.218/kWh
2015 Jul 1135 kWh $0.226/kWh
2015 Aug 1430 kWh $0.217/kWh
2015 Sep 1150 kWh $0.150/kWh
Ave price is $0.18/kWh for the year with over 50% usage in Super Off Peak. If I was on the regular plan it would probably averaged $0.20 to $0.30/kWh.

Now that I have solar:
2015 Oct Net 139 kWh -$0.150/kWh
So with TOU they owe me $20. If I was not on TOU I would owe them $20. So a $40 difference with TOU.

[silversaver]

proof....

[MikeInRialto]

Silversaver - what months do you rack up credits under the TOU plan? What month would be the most beneficial time to switch to TOU?


Thanks in advance!

[silversaver]

Silversaver - what months do you rack up credits under the TOU plan? What month would be the most beneficial time to switch to TOU?


Thanks in advance!

Spring from March to July.

Depends on your usage, but I say ASAP

[josefontao]

TOU is beneficial even if you dont have solar panels. I switched to TOU-D-B in February and it saved me, on average, $40/month. Now that I have solar panels (as of late last month), i switched to TOU-D-A and I expect to have, on average, $15/month of credits each winter month (Oct through May)

[MikeInRialto]

is there a bad time to switch? Are there any months it would be more costly than the standard rate plan?

[maximizese]

is there a bad time to switch? Are there any months it would be more costly than the standard rate plan?

I neither have solar panels, nor TOU, but I'll chime in. It seems that TOU benefits those who either produce excess electricity or use very little electricity during the workday hours of 9am-7pm. In addition, those who use a larger amount of electricity during the off-peak hours of 8pm-8am would also benefit from the lower rates. So if you charge an EV or PHEV overnight, you might see a benefit. Similarly you would benefit if you use an electric space heater, electric water heater, electric radiant floor heaters, steam shower, etc in the evening-early morning...…all of which are more heavily used in the winter months compared to spring-fall.

I would assume you'd want to switch off TOU during the months that you begin to heavily use your central AC during the daytime hours. Then switch back onto TOU when you're not running the AC until next summer.

[sensij]

There is no single answer that will be best for everyone. Generally, TOU works well with solar because the system is net generating during "peak" periods, essentially a multiplier that allows more energy to be offset during off peak periods than was generated.

For SCE's TOU-D-A, Summer is June, July, Aug, and Sept.
Peak is 2-8 pm non-holiday weekdays
Super Off Peak is 10 pm - 8 am every day
Off peak is everything else.

Current rates per kWh
Summer
Peak - $0.45
Super off peak - $0.11
Off peak - $0.29

Winter
Peak - $0.35
Super off peak - $0.11
Off peak - $0.25

I would guess that sometime in spring would generally be the best time to switch, but it depends a lot on the consumption patterns and maybe a little bit on the array orientation. Lower tilts usually perform best in summer, while higher tilts might perform better in spring/fall or winter. Summer gives the best multipliers, but if you aren't running heavy super off peak loads (EV), the difference isn't much.

The spreadsheet I had been sharing hasn't been updated in a while, so if you still want it, I'll want to double check it and make sure the rate information is current.

[josefontao]

OffTheSeven gave me a link once where if you feed it your SCE data for an entire year that you can get on SCE's website using the "Green button", it will tell you what you bill would be on the tiered and also the different TOU rates. It also allows for input of solar panel productions and even if you plan on using an EV car in the future. I tried the tool and I thought it was pretty good. Its results were congruent with my own spreadsheets and calculations (except perhaps TOU-D-T)

The tool is at http://www.kglad.com/Files/forums/sce.html and it works with SCE data.