By this point, you’ve likely heard about Time-of-Use electricity pricing plans being rolled out in our region. You’ve seen it on social media, and you’ve heard about it on the radio. You may have even seen it on billboards around town or in commercials on television.
Chances are, you understand that the goal of Time-of-Use is to shift some electricity use outside 4-9 p.m. Many of you may wonder how California came up with the idea.
The truth is, California energy companies aren’t the first to implement Time-of-Use pricing plans. Many energy providers around the United States offer some type of Time-of-Use option. Arizona Public Service Co., for example, launched their first Time-of-Use plan back in the 1980s and has more than 50% of their residential customers on Time-of-Use plans today.
Time-of-Use plans are also offered by energy providers elsewhere in America, including Maryland, Delaware, Oklahoma, Ohio, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New York.
Time-of-use is simply a way to balance the demand and supply on the grid by encouraging customers to move some of their energy use away from peak hours, which are the times the strain on the grid is the highest.
For all energy companies, Time-of-Use plans can help increase grid reliability and decrease the need for additional power plants to be activated simultaneously to meet demand. Not having to ramp up massive amounts of generation to meet peak demand can result in both environmental benefits and cost savings.
In California, Time-of-Use also allows us to make better use of the substantial amount of cleaner, lower-cost renewable energy on our grid.
For More Information
You can learn more about California’s energy goals at energyupgradeca.org, and visit our Time-of-Use page at sdge.com/whenmatters for more information about our Time-of-Use plans, as well as tips for how to make these plans work for you.