Time Variable Rates Could Save You THOUSANDS on Energy Bills

Tired of deciphering confusing electricity bills? Join Rachel Bryant and Nico Johnson as they explore the surprising world of dynamic electricity rates and how they can benefit both customers and the power grid. Discover the innovative approaches being developed to simplify these options and unlock potential savings.

Utility bills are often complex and difficult to understand.
Time variable rates can better align costs and balance grid demand.
Technology is making rate options more accessible and understandable.

The original video by Suncast Media can be found here.

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the time variable rate is designed so
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that the rate that you’re paying as a
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customer whether or not you’re a
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commercial customer or a residential
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customer more accurately reflects the
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cost at that time of day i think we all
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know what that we call it the duck curve
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but that often times you see a lot more
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demand at a time when supply is actually
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pretty low and so by using these kinds
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of rates that more closely align the two
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you can actually see a better balance
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across the grid within the ecosystem of
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how we think about deploying these
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distributed energy
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resources there is a special concern
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paid and and we’ve had numerous
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conversations on the power of life stage
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about this too specifically the
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interface from the utility with the
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homeowner and that is the tariff through
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which you pay your electricity bill it’s
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complex it changes and uh it’s dynamic
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uh from depending on how much
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electricity you use thankfully we have
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experts that are not only helping to
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shape the way uh these tariffs are uh
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are formed but have developed software
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to help utilities match the users and
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their experience to better time rates
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time variable rates uh and and to
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hopefully overall reduce the load on the
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grid and improve the experience of the
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customer here to talk exactly about that
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on our powerup live stage is Rachel
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Bryant from Grid X the PowerUp live
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stage live in Boston at Rory Plus
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Northeast is brought to you by Conductor
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Solar Encore Renewable Energy and Solar
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Simplified rachel welcome to the show
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thanks for having me so you know it’s a
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lot of folks do get confused about or
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even
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overwhelmed with the the data that comes
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in from the utility in particular most
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people don’t really get a chance to pick
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their rate schedule it’s either assigned
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to them or they’re not even aware that
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they do have options can you talk a bit
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about the ways that folks are actually
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beginning to understand that they have
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options with their utility and how does
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that translate to bill savings for them
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in real time so my joke that I always
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say as somebody in this profession is
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I’ve been both an engineer and a lawyer
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in this space for almost 20 years and I
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still don’t understand my own utility
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bill oh my goodness and so the point of
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that is is that we’re seeing a
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transition now where we’re going away
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from just traditional cost of service
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rate making to more innovative rates
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that more accurately reflect what
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customers are charging and being charged
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for on the grid and so one of the ways
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that we see that a lot is a time
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variable rate and the time variable rate
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is designed so that the rate that you’re
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paying as a customer whether or not
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you’re a commercial customer or a
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residential customer more accurately
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reflects the cost at that time of day i
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think we all know what that we call it
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the duck curve but that often times you
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see a lot more demand at a time when
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supply is actually pretty low and so by
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using these kinds of rates that more
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closely align the two you can actually
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see a better balance across the grid
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rachel I uh certainly as solar uh
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generators and battery energy come
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online homeowners can wrap their heads
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around the value of especially if in if
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there is net metering available a time
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of use rate but what is ultimately
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driving the prevalence or increase of
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import for these time variable rates at
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the utility level all right now the big
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aim of all TVR is usually peak load
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reduction also sometimes referred to as
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PLR we have an acronym for everything
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yeah but the the peak load is where if
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you’re a utility you have to make sure
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right that the lights will go on no
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matter how constrained your grid gets
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and so all the planning is done for when
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you reach peak load and so to the extent
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that you can reduce peak load even by a
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nominal percentage that has huge cost
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implications to a utility that then can
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be passed down through to the customer
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so I feel like there’s a variety of
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things i spoke on a panel today about
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virtual power plants and how different
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grid edge technologies can work together
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from my perspective TOU is something
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that can be used in a complimentary
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fashion to align when people are are
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putting solar into the grid plugging in
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an EV at night as opposed to during the
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middle of the day and making sure that
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we use everything that all the tools in
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the toolbox to try to make this work you
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know I feel like there
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are often not just the confusions around
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how to read the utility bill but a lack
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of awareness or understanding of options
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as consumers what do you see utilities
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doing to make these options more uh more
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accessible and visible to uh to their
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rateayers so we work with huge clients
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on both coasts and throughout the United
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States but what we’re seeing a lot more
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of is actually in a customer portal on a
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utility website we are able to work with
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the utility to make it all customerf
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facing so while a utility can design
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their rate and we can help them model
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their tariffs and understand what’s
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going to happen well before it’s in
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place from a customer side you can
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actually have something as simple as
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drop- down menus to say “Yes I have
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solar i have an EV i work from home or I
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don’t work from home.” And based on
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actual historic smart meter data
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sometimes referred to as AMI data you
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can actually predict exactly what a
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customer will be charged under different
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available rates okay wow that is
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actually is that something that
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uh that gridex software platform enables
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okay so you guys have basically built a
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platform that allows the utility to uh
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to service their customer in a more
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user-friendly way absolutely and it’s a
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way to actually consolidate a lot of
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different options related to grid
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flexibility all at once they there’s a
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famous statistic I think at least it’s
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famous in our realm right from Accenture
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that the average customer spends less
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than 10 minutes a year engaging with the
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utility so the fastest we can get kind
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of the most amount of information in a
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very accessible way to our consumers the
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more likely they are to know what rates
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are available which most of us don’t
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without that kind of availability and
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know their options so attention is the
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currency of the 21st century and my
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question to you Rachel is how is Grid X
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and your c your utility customers
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capturing the attention of the homeowner
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to say “Hey by the way we have this new
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service for you.” like what what have
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you seen that worked to get the
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customer’s attention either to increase
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it from 10 minutes to something else or
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to in that 10 minutes of time capture
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them to say you have options here’s a
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way you can actually like you know run a
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a scenariobased uh assessment absolutely
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it’s a valid question I think you’re
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going to have a lot less engagement in
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fact I know you will have a lot less
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engagement if a customer thinks that
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they might save money I think a lot of
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marketing before products like Grid X
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were out a utility could say we’re
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pretty right that based on where you
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live or based on some of your habits you
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might save money under a time of use
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rate that is a lot less compelling than
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what Grid X is able to do which is
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actually saying we know exactly how
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you’ve used your data historically and
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we know exactly based on all of our
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research what an EV will do to that what
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solar will do to that what all of it
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will do to it and so it’s letting
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customers know down with penny level
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accuracy basically what the cost of
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their energy choices will mean for them
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and are you incentivized to get these
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customers to engage meaning like are you
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incentivized in a way that you would
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even run ads that say for example you’ve
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seen these like don’t buy this Patagonia
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jacket until you’ve seen this YouTube
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video right us certainly we are not as a
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company gridex is not but from a utility
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perspective any customer engagement
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program that you have is only as
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successful as the amount of people you
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get to participate in it so I think from
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that perspective a utility has a heck of
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a lot of incentive to get as many people
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enrolled as possible and what we have
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seen we’ve been working with the
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Northeast utility and in that Northeast
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utility they were running a TOU pilot
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and it’s a perfect example of they had
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their normal strategies to give customer
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awareness let customers know what was
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going on but with the help of us and
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letting and letting it be more apparent
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really focusing on customer engagement
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strategies we were able to get double
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the enrollment they originally expected
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and show sustained peak load reduction
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for multiple months on end what are
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examples
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of this proumer approach to uh customer
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engagement what what kinds of grid edge
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assets do you see most consumers really
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bringing onto their their new
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electrified home or into this discussion
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that you guys are beginning to model i
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mean by far and away so far the most
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popular thing is EVs electric vehicles
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throughout i think we we’ve seen an
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uptick across the country in EVs and we
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have a growth in EV infrastructure but
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more and more consumers are wondering
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what can I do at home whether it’s with
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a smart battery wall or whatever they
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choose to do but what we do from the
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rate side is on charging patterns and
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we’ve heard lots of people mention that
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sometimes there’s a concern right you
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don’t want to shift your peak to just a
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different time of day by encouraging
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charging at night for example that can
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be problematic and so with careful and
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thoughtful rate design you can actually
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have staggered charging incentives for a
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utility across the customer base so that
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you’re not seeing these spikes and you
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have more of a sustainable resource that
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the utility can pull from with grid
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flexibility simply by making it more
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apparent to customers what their options
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are and people with flexibility are
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going to do it at the cheapest time yeah
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it’s an interesting point because the
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thing that uh I have been wondering is
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this idea of consumer behavior like can
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if someone had prior been spending you
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know 10 minutes a year thinking about
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their electric bill we know also that
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when folks get solar they get batteries
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the amount of effort that goes into
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energy efficiency in the home
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statistically goes up meaning they
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reduce the amount of load on their home
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just by having the assets on hand um I’m
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curious what consumer behavior trends we
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see now that we have these this new
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electrified home approach and the
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software that helps to incentivize
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consumers to make smarter decisions i
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think it’s all focused on ease of use
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and customer awareness and so the more
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smart devices you see I think now I mean
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we used to have analog analog
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thermostats right that were impossible
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to decipher and now you can program it
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from when you’re on vacation when you
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come home and it can vary based on your
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load price so someone that works from
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home is going to use their energy a lot
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more than someone that works in a
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traditional office setting and things
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like that so I think it’s twofold is one
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you’re seeing a lot more of smart device
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interaction customers can set it and
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forget it which is a huge incentive we
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have several companies that we work with
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that are very successful in that space
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and generating home energy reports and
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letting you see exactly what that is
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costing you and then on our side it’s
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allowing sort of in that customer portal
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on a website for a customer to easily
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see within a couple seconds here’s the
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rate I’m on and what I’m paying here’s
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what I what I could pay should I change
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my rate structure why do we still see
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certain utilities I would say stuck in
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the stone ages not working on time
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variable rates so what what’s the
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underlying driver that prevents that uh
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sort of this evolution at a at a utility
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level i think I I mean I would hope it
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was just a lack of understanding or
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maybe a not knowing how effective or how
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sustainable the load shift would be i
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think people are resistant to invest in
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something if they think that it’s kind
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of a fleeting trend and might not be
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sustainable and that’s why what I said
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earlier when we we work with the
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Northeast utility is most recent we have
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several of these examples but with
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proper customer engagement and by
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engagement I mean letting customers see
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exactly what their what the impact to
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their bill is based on their day-to-day
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choices whether or not it’s you know
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shifting your laundry pattern all the
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way to when you charge an EV customers
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will continue to engage in that and if
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you keep your enrollment rates high in
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TOOU programs or if you’re in a state
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that ends up going to default TOUO
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you’ll actually see a sustained peak
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load reduction that then can have a
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variety of a very good impacts on the
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utility whether it’s reduced fuel costs
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reduced peaking plants like whatever it
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is that’s a tangible value that can be
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seen at all levels of a utility you know
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I think that uh underlying this is a a
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growing question
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of not just like what’s the logical
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evolution of our understanding around
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how energy efficiency and uh grid edge
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services and distributed energy
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resources can benefit both the consumer
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and the utility but is there a a a meta
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rationale for incentivizing this
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behavior um that allows us to achieve
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our you know our carbon uh reduction
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goals or that allows us to scale at a
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pace that we otherwise would not be able
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to scale to me you want to avoid
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infrastructure we’ve we’ve shifted and I
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I hate the word paradigm so I won’t say
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paradigm but we’ve shifted the paradigm
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from like
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traditional capital recovery being the
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one way to for utility rate cases to
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make money to more of an interest now
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where we’re actually wanting to avoid
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duplicative infrastructure we’re wanting
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to achieve net zero goals but we also
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know that we have more load coming
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online than we’ve ever seen before so
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how do you accommodate growing load with
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an existing infrastructure in a way that
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preserves cost for customers but also
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keeps the lights on and so you have grid
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flexibility is the most low hanging I
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said it is like most low hanging fruit
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you have and it’s to Cat Burnham’s point
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earlier it’s immediately deployable so
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if you actually need another
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transmission line I mean I wish you the
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best of luck but that’s going to take a
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while and it’s extraordinarily expensive
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whereas if you can say hey if this whole
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community puts solar up we get everybody
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on an innovative rate structure that
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times when we’re going to pull from you
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and how we’re going to compensate you
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and we’ll streamline billing so you’ll
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want to you’ll want to participate we’ll
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streamline incentives we’ll do
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everything then we don’t have to build
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as much well we’re grateful that
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companies like Gritex are finally
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helping to figure out how to communicate
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and translate a a very complex algorithm
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of decisions into effectively as you
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said a drop- down menu uh a choose your
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adventure with your utility based on the
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decisions you want to make at your home
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and your utility saying “Well if you if
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you choose this then we can do that.”
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Fascinating absolutely customers
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customers deserve simplicity finally and
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the customers uh deserve to win 100%
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thank you for having us and thank you
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for everything you’re doing at Good Ice
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thank you nice to meet you all right