Real Time Billing of Electricity Usage

ComEd, the "electric company" here, has come out with a deal offering customers real time pricing of their power usage, based on hourly market prices, instead of the usual flat rate per kilowatt hours used each month.

"Customers participating in the program will have the financial incentive to change their electricity usage habits to take advantage of lower-priced time periods and avoid heavy usage during higher-priced time periods. Program participants will receive hourly pricing and other useful information from the program's third party administrator, Comverge.

The first 110,000 customers to enroll in the Residential Real-Time Pricing Program will pay an additional $2.25 per month service charge on their bill to cover a portion of the costs associated with the installation of a new meter, capable of maintaining hourly usage data. Additional program participants may face a higher monthly service fee and other program related installation costs."

I'm trying to figure out what the catch is here, they never do anything that will take money out of their own pockets. Has anybody here had any experience with this kind of program? Any opinions?

http://www.exeloncorp.com/ComedCare_Main/ComedCare/learn/RealTimePricingPrg/

http://www.thewattspot.com/

I have time of use metering--My plan is simple in that peak pricing is noon-6pm Mon-Friday, and off-peak pricing is all other times.

My low pricing is about $0.09 per kWhr and high pricing is around $0.29 per kWhour--Winter peak rates are about $0.11 / kWh (this is for base tier pricing, as I use more energy, my billing can go up to $0.53 per kWhr).

So, things I would watch out for--Do you have tiered pricing (the more kWhr you use, the more the price / kWhr goes up)--if yes, it may get very hard to predict your pricing without knowing your load...

Also, I took a look at your pricing and notice that it extends higher prices into 8-10pm at night--can you avoid heavy loads during the evenings (lighting, A/C, cooking, working in the shop)?

Is the price listed the "true price" of power you will be paying... The top rates for listed today are around $0.10 per kWhr and the lows are $0.02 per kWhr. Very cheap compared to California rates (your highest rates are about the same as my lowest rates, and my highest rates are 5x your highest rates).... However, in my rate plan, the price of generated power is broken out from the cost of distribution (and taxes + other charges). Is the $0.02-$0.10 the total price you will pay, or is this only for the "generation" charge--my generation charges are that low too--distribution itself is 1/2 of my charges.

Do you have a minimum contract period? Mine is typically 1 year, then I can drop out anytime I wish (or continue to use it). If it does not work for you, you don't want to get locked in for long a long period.

Are you going to use solar power and a grid tied inverter? Is this supported by this pricing scheme?

Lastly, are you doing this to be green or save money? I am not sure how "green" this program is--typically, peak power is made by natural gas and hydro electric--expensive, but relatively low CO2 output--off peak power is typically coal and nuclear.

Looks like an interesting program--depending on the answers to my rate questions, you could probably save some money by installing a battery bank and charging during off-peak and using battery power during peak periods (forget the solar panels).

-Bill