The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[biotech_researcher]

Rates- jbog, you have been paying the cost for demand side management (DSM) for decades. It is a highly successful program that adds a sliver of charge to each kWh to pay customers to replace their old, inefficient equipment (air conditioners, water heaters, insulation) with the purpose of lowering the peak demand the utility experiences at the power plants. At FPL, this has eliminated the need to build 9 medium sized power plants. Each plant would have been added to the rate base, so the rates remain low.

I think you should sit down with your utility rep. as there many rate options. One that I expect PGE will implement for their charging stations is Time-of-Use rates. Run your plant during the on-peak period, and you pay a demand charge, run it off peak, and the demand price is zero. No cost demand. You no doubt will have to modify your operational times.