Featured The impact on utility rates in CA of EV charging

From the link:

• Electric cars are helping push electricity rates down in the US, according to a new study.
• So utilities and their shareholders are getting rich off of Tesla drivers? Not quite: Since utilities are highly regulated and revenue-capped, they need to return excess profits to their customers in the form of lower rates. (In California and some other states, this is done through a mechanism called "revenue decoupling."

Yet states with high EV ownership percentages have the highest electrical rates: Electric Power Monthly - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

What gives?

 

The following raise rates the most

1. Deregulation
2. Municipal substation taxes
3. Grid “fuel” mix

Natural disasters notwithstanding Deregulated markets have some of the highest rates and worst reliability

Places like Rhode Island (and nearby states ) have egregious Municipal Substation taxes which if you live there usually silently account for half your bill (even though they are charged to the utilities themselves)

Make those taxes more reasonable and Rhode Island and even Massachusetts would be “middle of the road” on utility costs.

The one you would think most important (fuel) has an effect but much less than the first 2. The best rate controls would be reliable nuclear baseload placed in regions with minimal natural disasters. Then the rest would be a political and management issue.

Municiple Substation taxes are applied to all electricity delivered nationwide and are the main reason that I believe BEV road taxes should be illegal as you already are paying a higher percentage of tax on your electricity than you pay on gasoline.

 

we were just notified by our provider to expect a 25% jump on our next electric bill

 

The study was of the California market only. The over all rate drops from increased use form EVs were because of profit caps in the Ca regulations.

Plug ins lead to more electricity use. The Utility makes more money until they reach those profit caps. Then they have to refund, give discounts, or something for their customers to reduce the profits that went over the cap. Note that California's published rates still has them in the high group.

The important findings of the study were that time of use rate plans and other programs to get people to shift useage to off peak do work. Surprise, offer people a discount, and they'll take advantage of it. In addition, the utilities don't lose profit from people doing so, because increased utilization of resources reduces their loses. Power plants stay operating at an efficient point during off peak instead of going idle, for example.

I'm guessing people in those other high rate states may not have the option of such programs, nor profit caps, if their effective rates are staying at retail with an EV.