It exasperates me that we’re so slow to set up some form of time-of-use rates for electricity, since that’s such a straightforward way to get people to shift when we demand power, making it easier to balance a clean grid. The power of market incentives, the invisible hand, and all that.

There are, I realize, many complications because our current system of regulation and payment doesn’t fit with TOU but tough beans – get it done anyway! This is important, folks.

There’s a chance that time of use rates will start sneaking into New Hampshire by way of electric vehicles. Energy News Network has a nice writeup about this (read it here). A couple snippets to get you to click through:

“I think that the beginning of the age of electric vehicles is not just potentially great for transportation but also great for electricity, because it sort of cracks open the door for time-of-use rates,” said D. Maurice Kreis, the state’s consumer advocate.

…

Although commission staff recommended that electric vehicle drivers be allowed to adopt the new rate just for their car, this raises a question over how to measure that use separate from the rest of the home. Traditionally, it would have required a separate meter to measure electricity from the customer’s charger. If the utility owns that meter, it brings in revenue, but it can also hike customer bills.

Chargers now often have their own embedded technology that can measure electricity use. ChargePoint, a developer whose chargers offer this capability, submitted comments noting this.