With a few days of eGauge power tracking under my belt, I began to look into the other half of our solar equation: the Time of Use electric billing. Duke Energy (formerly Progress Energy) be installing a new meter for us after our solar panels get installed. We’ll be billed at a much, much different rate once that happens.
Power companies offer optional Time Of Use (TOU) rates for customers who would like to shift their power consumption to off-peak times. This benefits the power company because it doesn’t have to spin up new power plants to handle the peak demand. Demand-generated electricity is very expensive compared to a plant that’s already online, so power companies obviously want to avoid it.
As an electric consumer on a TOU plan, the cost of your electricity differs depending on what time of day you use it, either on-peak or off-peak. If you adjust your consumption by running the dryer at night and keeping your usage low during the day, you can save some serious money.
I’m still working out the ins and outs of the TOU and the similar Time Of Use – Demand (TOU-D) plans. I hope to build a spreadsheet which will better track these costs. In the meantime, read this enlightening thread on the plans written by another Progress customer (also reprinted here in case the first link goes away someday).