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Texas Utilities Offering Free Electricity At Night, Even For EVs
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/11/14/texas-utilities-offering-free-electricity-at-night-even-for-evs/
November 14th, 2015 by James Ayre
Originally published on EV Obsession.
Owing to the nighttime overproduction of electricity via wind energy infrastructure in Texas, a fair number of utility companies in the Lone Star State have begun offering access to free electricity at night — mostly between the hours of 9 pm and 6 am — according to recent reports.
For some further explanation here, it’s worth remembering that Texas has its own electric grid, so production there is essentially only used there… or not — hence the offer of free time nighttime use. It should also be remembered that the use of free nighttime electricity access to users can thereby allow some grid burdens to be reduced.

Though this news may come as a surprise to some, Texas is, after all, actually the biggest wind energy generator in the US — nearly 10% of its current electricity generation is via wind energy projects. So nighttime generation levels are fairly high just with wind energy alone, regardless of other generating infrastructure that may be active.

There are further details available in the New York Times‘ coverage, for those interested.

As noted by “mspohr” on the Tesla Motors Club forum, this development could be a sign of things to come in other states/regions with substantial wind electricity generation infrastructure.

As also noted in that conversation, such a situation could probably work out quite well for those with an energy storage system and a grid connection — simply allowing such owners to charge their systems at night when electricity is free, and thereby avoid most electricity costs altogether.

That conversation turned into a bit of an argument on the merits of using energy storage systems (such as Tesla’s Powerwall) in places that get as hot as central Texas does — with some arguing that Tesla’s system isn’t well suited to the region, and others stating that it’s a simple fix, just locate the system in a climate controlled space, or in a basement (in parts of West Texas this may be more of an option than in the more flood-prone regions).

Interesting topic. Anybody in Texas care to comment? Anybody making use of the offer, and happy to be able to charge their electric vehicle for free at night?

Image by Chrishna (some rights reserved)