Is TXU's free nights something that EV owners can benefit or abuse?

[KyleH]

For Texas residents, I just saw the commercial for TXU's free night from 10pm - 6am: http://www.txu.com/en/residential/pr...ee-nights.aspx

On their commercial, they suggested you can turn down your A/C as low as you want--which I know some people would love to do. On the other hand, this sounds great for any EV users.

The daily rate for the free nights deal is $0.139; this is compared to their current lowest rate of $0.101. But with 13kwh used each night, that is almost $39 (13 x 0.101 x 30). "free" each month.

(I wonder if you can charge up some batteries at night to let fans run throughout the day. I wonder how TXU would protect themselves from serious abuse. I do know that power companies that generate power from nukes in texas often pay wholesale buyers to take their excess energies, maybe TXU found some long term agreements. )

[KyleH]

Found a counter point, maybe it is too good to be true for Volt (and EV) owners: "People with plug-in electronic cars would almost certainly benefit from the plan. But there aren’t too many of those in Texas."

from http://www.vaultelectricity.com/texa...e-nights-plan/

-KyleH

[Einar]

Wow - I'd go for that in a heartbeat. For those of us out here in SoCal those rates are a dream. We're charged (by SCE) about $0.135 for the fist 318 KWh and then the price/KWh goes up from there as we draw more power throughout the month ending up with anything over about 900 KWh costing over $0.25/KWh. And the rates just keep going up!!! That's why I put the really big fan up in my backyard (windturbine - 10KW Bergey Excel - awesome performer) - to sever my dependance on expensive utility supplied electricity. Unfortunately, even though they are supposed to pay for the excess I generate, they pay less than $0.03/KWh. So I should send them essentially free electrciity that they can sell to someone else at exorbitant rates?? I think not - that's why I bought a plug-in car - my Volt! Might as well use the electricity I make if they (SCE) are not going to pay a decent price for it.

[saghost]

I'm not sure they'd even try to protect themselves from 'abuse.' Power companies these days are caught in a vise... Customers (and, in fairness, some power companies themselves,) want to go green (and some state have legal requirements for green power quantities/percentages,) but much of the installed renewable power is wind, while coal and nuclear are mainstays of the grid.

Nuclear reactors take days to cycle on and off, and coal most of a day in a traditional plant - meaning that if they're going to need power at high noon, they have to leave them running through the night. Meanwhile, a lot of potential wind power is idled at night, because it can easily be turned off. That makes it harder to meet green requirements (and they are legally required to come up with as much green power as their green power customers use,) while costing them coal keeping plants hot that aren't producing much power.

Folks that are on real time billing in Detroit (or maybe Chicago?) have reported negative billing rates on occasion in the dead of night - as in the company paying you to take power from them.

[Bob_Livonia]

Texas is in a world of hurt trying to meet peak electricity capacity, and their grid does not connect with other states. They are looking at raising the cap for buying power at peak from $3,000 per megawatt hour up to $9,000 per mW-hr. So per my math, if you charged up your Volt during the very peak when they had to buy high-cost electricity, the 10 kW-hr would cost the power company about $90! Of course this is peak, and night time is practically free to them, so of course, they would rather you charge your Volt at night, and get your home as cool as you could stand so you could store the energy in the form of cool air for later. The alternative is to have rolling blackouts, as they have had in the past when it got very hot.

The WSJ article is behind the paywall at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...=ITP_pageone_1

[SMBoss]

TXU's deal is too gimmicky to save you real cash...in terms of charging your EV. The rate is 3 cents to 4 cents higher per kWh than the cheapest I could find here in Houston. It cost you WAY more at peak times when you're awake and\or running your home's Air Conditioner as you fend off the afternoon heat. That portion would add up to way more during the hottest months of the year than the $1-$2 you'd save recharging your Volt at night.
About the only way it might be good is if you had an electric hot water heater, ran every washer, electric dryer and dishwasher load during the night -- and cranked your AC as low as you could get it while you sleep.
My household compromised and found a reasonable 100% renewable energy generating electric plan. At least the juice being pumped back into the Volt to keep from burning gasoline isn't spewing more CO2 into the air. Hats off to all you Solar people who drive a Volt, Leaf or other plug-in.

[KyleH]

Bob_Livonia....

...I think we are thinking the same thing. I was thikning of putting a few icemakers, and letting them run from 10pm-6am...just have them dump ice all over the place to keep the house cool during the day. Yeah, I bet they would appreciate that!

Seriously...I am trying to run the numbers. They are not too bad. Plus, I have an energy efficient house with programable timers...my energy use it only $50-$120 from winter to summer at $0.11-0.12. Changing that to $0.139 or 30% difference from the $0.101 makes me come out ahead by taking $39. to charge up my car. (too bad I do not have 2 EV car's to charge! That would be a deal!).

I am in the process of cleaning out my garage so my Volt can fit. I will most likely sign up in the next month, and see how far 8 hrs of charging will do.

-KyleH

[KyleH]

SMBoss..

...you need to stop by and charge up your car! But only from 10pm to 6am, alright? hahaha.

yeah, I thought I was running a MCPE rate and last year it killed me. Well, not really, but it stung a little. I usually pay $120 for a summer hot month, but because of the 10 days of continuous 100 degs, I paid $240. that month...hate it!

yeah, but I knew better. I called up my guys and they got me down to a 9.1c if I wanted to go with a locked rate. But I am thinking that $1/night or $30-39/month would put get me a few bucks ahaed. I'm still running numbers. Everythign I have is super energy efficient, so changing usage will probably not affecdt more than 10%. Still not sure...maybe if I can find a TXU promo for $100 gift card or something.

-KyleH

[cab]

Man guys, is that the best rates you guys can get at www.powertochoose.org ? I am seeing rates at cheap as 7.6c per kWh here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

[KyleH]

I just passed up on the free nights by TXU and locked in at 9c with my current provider. The service is okay, and I have been okay with them for the last few years. The 13.9 was too far of an increase to get my Volt charged up for free at nights. I only use about 10 miles a day on my commute, so I would be saving $0.25/day and paying 40% more in my bills. If only I had a few more cars to charge to take advantage...

-KyleH