Not seeing EV savings

That doesn't sound anything like anything I've ever read about PG&E
Do you like that price in your area?
Do you think others in Cali might be jealous about how much you're paying for electric service?

 

Here is my illustration:

Suppose 200 kWh/month of that total is for a PHEV. That would be $14 for energy rate, plus you are allocating $4 of the base account charge to the PHEV too, for a total of $18.

Now suppose you change things up, quit plugging in and instead use just gasoline for those miles. The electric bill goes down as total electric use falls to just 800 kWh/month, while the gasoline bill goes up.

Q1: How much does your electric bill fall?
(1) $18?
(2) $14?
(3) Something else?

Q2: What is the savings per kWh of that 200kWh energy use reduction?

 

It was much simpler to calculate charging costs when we had an 8kW PV solar array on the roof.
$0 for running the house, charging two cars as well as enough solar credit at the end of the true up year to pay for the hook-up fees, taxes, and sometimes even get back some chump change.
.

 

FWIW: that's SMUD pricing; NOT PG&E or Southern Edison. He lives in my utility district and those are off-peak rates. Peak rates are approaching PG&E rates - assuming you stay within your allotments.

 

To put it in perspective, Sacramento is the state capital and it just happens to have it's own utility with it's own power generation. From their web page... SMUD's Upper American River Project (UARP), with 11 reservoirs and 9 powerhouses, is the cleanest and most economical and flexible power source we have. They also had their own nuke power plant, but that's been shut down for quite a while.

So they get nice low rates, and PG&E charges twice as much even on the TOU EV plan.

 

Seeing EV savings... I currently charge off peak hours at home, so it's $0.24 per kWh incremental cost, or about 5.5 cents per mile. Gas is $5.99 per gallon at the nearest stations. I get right about 60 MPG, so that's 10 cents per mile.

On the other hand, I only drive a couple hundred miles per month if you exclude monthly interstate travel. 200 times the 4.5 cents per mile is a savings of only $9 a month. I don't notice such small amounts.

And on the third hand... I do like the versatility that comes from being able to power the car both ways. If / when there are gas shortages I can still drive the area like I always have. I'm working on getting solar installed, and that will remove the time of use restrictions and allow charging the car during semi planned power outages.

 

In California, the cost for electricity depends entirely on whether you are served by one of the big corporate electric utilities (like PG&E in the north or Southern California Edison in the south), where you get soaked, or a publicly owned utility like SMUD. And smaller cities with their own electric utility, like mine, have even lower rates ($0.11/Kwh and no TOU).

 

In defense of the "big corporate electric utilities"... they got shafted rather badly in the legislation that deregulated them. They were saddled with the obligation to supply power to all customers on demand, but prohibited from long term contracts with energy providers. The high density population centers with equipment in place were allowed to opt out and get their power elsewhere. Those were high profit customers.

After going through 2 bankruptcies in 20 years, PG&E is no longer the customer focused company that it was when I worked there in the 1990s. But then again, they've had times when they burned through their huge reserves ($12 billion if I recall correctly) in order to meet their obligations.

I'm not feeling much loyalty towards PG&E myself. Battery backed solar is in my near future.

 

Ouch! But it must be getting close to breakeven with gas headed the way it is. The recent rise in the cost of gas had me look at this sort of question again, but from a bit different angle, that is for figuring out when to buy kWh at charging stations when away from home. I'm in $.10/kWh Washington state for home charging, and use 4 mi/kWh on EV and 55 mi/gal on HV for calculations. Back (well, not that far back) when gas was less than $3/gal, I eschewed the stations that cost $.25/kWh or more. It works out that away from home charging at $.25/kWh (what lots of Chargepoint spots cost) works out to about the same as $3.40/gal. So where I used to pass these up, I now will use them vs. >$5/gal gas costs if I'm not going to get home without running out of my EV battery. I'm even willing to pay up to nearly $.40/kWh as gas passes the $5 mark.

 

at 24 cents/kwh, gas has to be about $3.20 or higher to be more expensive.

so at $5.40, i'm saving a few sheckles

 

Hmmm. I sell my excess electricity to the utility for about 3 cents/kWh, so that's what it cost me to charge. Gas is about $4.50/gallon. I think EV is quite a bit cheaper for me.

Edit: fixed gas price error

 

Wow, you still have 1974 gas prices in Florida.

Fact #915: March 7, 2016—Average historical annual gasoline pump price, 1929–2015 | Department of Energy

 

Oops!! Usually this bluetooth keyboard give double letters. Skipping is rare. Too late to edit it now. Should be $4.50 per gallon.

 

YOU CAN USE THIS CALCULATOR.

Save Money (fueleconomy.gov)

HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE.