Time-of-use electric rates coming soon to east Kern

Thousands of eastern Kern County residents will soon be given a chance to make an important choice about how they pay for electricity.

The area’s electrical power provider, Rosemead-based Southern California Edison, is about to roll out a new rate structure in the region that could bring substantial savings — or, potentially, significantly higher bills — depending how well individual residential customers succeed in rescheduling their use of electricity.

Time-of-use rates, as they’re called, charge people more money per unit of electricity during certain peak hours when demand for power is greatest. In return, these TOU rate structures also bring lower costs during non-peak times of the day.

It’s important to note that customers can opt out of the transition before or after they are switched over by the utility. Plus, at the end of their first year under a TOU plan, customers will be reimbursed the difference if the arrangement ends up costing them more money than they would have paid under conventional rates that charge according to net monthly usage.

As mandated by the California Public Utilities Commission, the idea is to reduce demand for power in late afternoon and early evening hours when renewable energy sources like photovoltaic

solar arrays taper off. If variable rates persuade people to cut their use of electricity during these peak hours, then grid operators won’t need to turn on more expensive, polluting power plants.

“Customers switching energy usage to ‘off-peak’ hours helps relieve that pressure,” SCE spokesman Ron Gales said in a recent blog.

The TOU system has divided ratepayer advocates. Some say they introduce too much risk of unexpectedly high bills, while others say the rate differentials should be higher than what’s generally available in California in order to make sure people are adequately rewarded for rescheduling their power usage. In both cases, advocates say more customer outreach and education is better.

SCE announced this week that in December it will switch almost 5,000 eastern Kern households — most of them in Ridgecrest but also in Boron, California City and Inyokern — to one of three TOU rate plans. Another 16,000 or so customers in the area will be similarly transitioned to TOU rates come February. By the end of April, nearly 2.3 million households in SCE’s territory are expected to transition to TOU rates.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s residential customers have gone through a similar process under somewhat different rates but the same general idea of paying more for power during peak hours and less at other times.

SCE offers three TOU options: one with “on-peak” hours of 4 to 9 p.m., another with a higher price differential that defines the peak as 5 to 8 p.m., and a third for customers with plug-in electric vehicles, residential batteries or the like.

Customers should receive a notice in the mail 60 to 90 days ahead of time explaining the transition.

Some customers won’t be transitioned to TOU rates, such as residents on subsidized rates programs, people with disabilities and ratepayers whose service started after Oct. 1, 2020.

SCE customers with questions about the program are advised to call the utility’s TOU line at 877-287-2140.