[djao]

I'm in Ontario. 90% of my electricity usage consists of charging my electric car. The ultra-low overnight rate of 2.8 cents per kWh, introduced during the past year, is a big win for EV owners. This rate is seven times cheaper than the cheapest rate mentioned in the article, and ten times cheaper than the peak rate in Ontario. It is very, very easy to schedule your car to charge during overnight hours if you have a home with a garage. You better believe that smart pricing has shifted when I charge my car! I think this kind of benefit will become more pronounced as more people shift to electric vehicles. People won't shift demand for small appliances, but when 90% of your usage is made up of one single thing that is easy to shift, you'll get some returns.

[eldaisfish]

there are some big assumptions here.

that you own a garage, that your electric bill is in your name, that your driving distance makes this worth it, that your other electric consumption is small and so on. It works for you, that's great but something you didn't mention is the higher on-peak rate.

If you have electric heating or need to charge your EV during the day, the increased rate there can easily offset your overnight rate savings.

[djao]

These assumptions are not at all unreasonable. We are not talking about a tiny minority. More than half of Americans have a garage. Utilities aren't concerned about individual households; they're concerned about average behavior. I'm just guessing here, but my guess is that if even (say) 20% of households do what I do, that alone probably makes it worth it.

I drive about 15000 km per year, almost exactly the Canadian average. There are a lot of potential households fitting this profile.

(If you're needing to charge your EV during the day, then the higher daytime home electricity rate is irrelevant. My EV has a 300 mile range, which is typical. I cannot think of any scenario where I simultaneously 1) drive 300 miles in a single day, and 2) somehow also remain close enough to home to charge at home, so that the daytime home electricity rate matters, and 3) can't wait until the night to charge.)

[j45]

Interesting. I sense night time use could extend well to charging an array of batteries until Solar is fully up and provide some options.