When customers use energy is as important
as how much they use
SCE’s transition began with an opt-in pilot in July 2016 and a default pilot of 400k customers in 2018. The full rollout started in Oct 2020 and ran through June 2022, with over 1.9M customers defaulted.
To ensure customers were aware of their rate options and able to make an informed decision, SCE provided a rate analysis prior to their default to a TOU rate. These analyses displayed customers’ historical usage over the last 12 months and highlighted clearly how each rate could impact their bill.
However, rates were originally calculated manually by SCE staff, which was labor intensive. Updates could only occur semi-annually, and there were customer complaints about old data and lack of access to the tool.
Realizing there was opportunity to improve that experience, SCE leveraged the GridX Enterprise Rate Engine on the next iteration of the Rate Plan Comparison Tool (RPCT).
The benefits of using GridX include accuracy, scalability, more timely and relevant data, and an internal user interface that enabled what-if scenarios on both an individual and whole-population level.
Increased Enrollment: An increase in TOU enrollment to 2.6 million residential customers on Time-of-Use rates, representing 58% of residential customers as of Feb 2023.
TOU Rate Awareness Surge: Awareness of Time of Use rates from Residential customers eligible for the TOU transition jumped from 46% in Spring 2020 to 77% in Fall 2022, exceeding the performance target of 70%.
Educated Consumers: Awareness of rate plans that can help you save money from Residential customers eligible for the TOU transition jumped from 45% in Spring 2020 to 59% in Fall 2022.
Bill Impact Realization: Understanding how electricity use can impact bills from Residential customers eligible for the TOU transition jumped from 5.63 out of 10 in Spring 2020 to 6.38 out of 10 in Fall 2022.
Significant Demand Response Shifts: Demand flexibility benefits are strong: At the peak August load in 2022, Residential TOU (4-9PM and 5-8PM peak rates) was expected to provide up to 75MW of load reduction. In SCE’s Demand Response line-up, this is equivalent to their third largest program.
View all of the results and take a deeper dive into the GridX SCE partnership.
“We have in California the desire to transition to a hundred percent renewable energy, and Time-of-Use rates are a critical part of that effort. Making sure that we’re able to have customers shift load away from those peak times allows us to maximize our renewable energy investments and support our decarbonization and electrification efforts.”
Eva Molnar
Senior Manager, SCE