When Tideland rendered residential time-of-use (TOU) electric bills on Sept. 3, the average savings per participating member was $42.08. A handful of TOU members didn’t save, with the average loss being $12.06 (individual losses ranged from $1.59 to $21.94). Almost all of the members who experienced a loss in September stayed with the TOU rate due to anticipated winter savings. Those members, who have already been curtailing energy use three hours a day during summer, will drop back to two hours a day starting Oct. 16 when we enter the winter demand period.
If you are interested in the time-of-use rate, you can conduct your own trial run of the program without any equipment change or rate switching. Just pick a start date, jot it down, and begin living the schedule. Between April 16 and Oct. 15, TOU members reduce their energy use between
3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Oct. 16 through April 15, the on-peak hours are 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.
After following the TOU schedule for a week or two, reach out to program manager Heidi Smith (phone: 252.945.7891; email: heidismith@tidelandemc.com) for an analysis of the days you observed a time-of-use schedule.
You can also track your own daily results via the online member portal. Start by logging into the Member Portal. Select “My Account” then “Usage History”and scroll down to select “Compare Usage Data.” Note that the default data set is 60 minutes. If that default fails to return kilowatt hour (kWh) data for you, change the time stamp to 15 minutes and click the green search button again to bring up a single day’s interval readings. You will be able to see exactly how many kWhs you used during the on-peak hours you are targeting for reduction.
With that date, return to Tideland’s home page, tidelandemc.com, and select the calculator icon in the top navigation bar. That will open a time-of-use rate comparison calculator. There you can input your on- and off-peak kWh consumption to see how the TOU energy costs compare to both our standard summer and winter residential rates.
Keep in mind that if you have a storage electric water heater that does not have a timer you will want to stop hot water use 30 minutes to an hour before the on-peak period so the tank has time to reheat during off-peak hours which will ensure it doesn’t operate on-peak as long as you don’t remove water from the tank. While some members report shutting off HVAC systems during the on-peak hours, most TOU members utilize precooling strategies in summer and preheating schedules in winter in an effort to minimize on-peak HVAC runtimes rather than avoid them entirely. That’s why we recommend a trial run so you can experiment with different strategies to see what works for your household. There really is no one-size-fits-all energy solution and the TOU experience is entirely customizable to any number of lifestyles.
What excites us most is the opportunity for some of our most economically challenged members to save with TOU rates. That’s particularly true if you have an electric furnace or are entirely dependant on electric space heaters. If you could move all of your home heating to the 22 hours that are off-peak each day in winter you would reduce your home heating costs by 36%. This is our most powerful tool is rolling back the impacts of inflation and energy market turmoil for individual members.
Please give the program serious consideration as we transition to winter hours.
Time-of-use rates
The time-of-use program is a rate option available to Tideland EMC’s residential members. Savings are not guaranteed so you must be vigilant about maintaining an off-peak lifestyle to reap benefits from the program. The time-of-use rate does require that we replace your existing meter with one programmed to track energy use during the on-peak and off-peak hours.
More news from Tideland EMC
October 16 peak hours change
Take time-of-use rates out for a test drive
