Marylanders need bigger discounts for night electricity
Maryland won't really start to address its looming electricity shortage until households get better incentives to use electricity during off-peak hours. In the old days customers on BGE's "time of use" plans got huge discounts if they ran dryers and dishwashers at night or on weekends instead of at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday. Now the savings for the one in a dozen households using the plan are much less, and they just got a little worse. BGE has published prices for June -- September. The differential between peak prices and offpeak prices is a little less than it was last summer.
If you're on the plan (most households aren't), electricity burned from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays will be most expensive -- 15.298 cents per kilowatt hour. (This doesn't include charges for transmission and delivery, which are extra.) That's actually a little less than last year's peak price.
But the offpeak price has risen. This summer electricity used on weekends and from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays will be 8.917 cents per kilowatt hour, up from last year's 8.025 cents. The price for "intermediate" times -- 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays -- went up, too. With the offpeak price only a fifth less than the round-the-clock fixed price that most BGE households pay, it may not be worth the trouble.
This will change, and the sooner the better. Part of the problem is that the wholesale electricity market is sliced and diced differently than BGE's time-of-use price schedule. That needs to be fixed. But the biggest gains will come when BGE starts widely installing "smart meters." Smart meters will "know" when the cheapest and most expensive kilowatts are being offered at your doorstep, and you'll be able to buy accordingly.
Comments
When we bought our new home in 1997 it came with a TOU meter, and we worked hard to shift our washing, drying and dishwashing to the off-peak hours. We synchronized our setback thermostats so the AC ran harder at night. We closed the shades to keep the sun out and the cool air cool during the day.
Then, a few months back, as electric rates soared, I sat down and calculated just how much we were saving for all our efforts, and the inconvenience of doing the wash in the evening or weekends. The grand total most months amounted to a dollar or less. That's $1. I called BGE a few weeks back and had them double-check my numbers. Yup. $1.
So we bailed on TOU. But we're ready to rejoin once they make it worth our while.
Posted by: frank roylance | April 24, 2008 10:15 PM
With the Residential TOU tariff, your customer charge (on your bill), is probably higher than non-TOU, or R Tariff. I think it's a wash. Unless you NEVER use electricity on peak (or during intermediate peak this coming winter), there's no reason to have a TOU meter. By the way, BGE knows exactly what they're doing. BGE is supposed to post their rates 2 months before they go into effect. Last spring, they didn't post their prices until after June 1st, which is when their official "summer" rates kick in. And the PSC didn't do a thing - nor did they care.
Posted by: Renee Musicus | April 27, 2008 8:33 PM