Charge Your EV For Free!

It'll be 103 in Dallas tomorrow. Hmmmm ... free juice for the car / 103 ... free juice / 103 ...
I'll pass

 

I'm a little confused by the part about raising regular rates to offset. I guess it depends on exactly how much daytime rates are raised by (and how much one uses) to determine if there are any savings.

It seems an odd way of doing things, but my guess is TXU is gearing this plan towards only EVs but realizes that others will use their dishwasher/washer/dryer at night (something they should be doing anyhow) or crank up their A/C higher than they otherwise would.

It seems it would make most sense to just charge a penny/kwh while keeping daytime rates the same. But that would mean they would have to know what part of the electricity in a household is going towards EV charging as opposed to other purposes. The only way to do this would be for the EV owner to 'declare' the size of EV battery they have, and have this number of kwh's set aside for the penny rate -or- the EV/home charger would have to be grid-networked and report to TXU the exact amount used per night.

 

You need to use a certain amount of energy to not get charged a $10 fee, but that electricity can be at night. terms are free 10 pm to 6 am. I saw rates of 12-14.4 cents/kwh probably based on when people signed up, for the 6am-10pm usage.

It wants to time shift A/C (I do already, and make it colder before bed) and capture the EV users. Peak power in texas summers is 3pm-7pm, so cranking the ac when getting home from work is expensive to utilities. Cranking it at 10, and shutting it down in the morning, is much more cost effective for them. EV users are likely to go for a wind plan or install solar though. I am curious in a couple of years to see how many EVs they capture.

They want to capture the EV users. TXU often in the future may have to pay the grid to produce coal electricity on winters nights. Getting no money is cheaper than paying Really by 2030 night power in texas will be close to free anyway most of the year, but utilities need to figure out how to shift demand.

 

Awesome! If only we had something like that in CA...

I've so far been charging my Leaf for free, courtesy of free L2 juice at work.