Editor’s note: This is from a Southern California Edison (SCE) press release

This coming December, 2,750 SCE households in Idyllwild will be switched to time-of-use (TOU) rates. They are among more than 107,000 Riverside County households SCE will transition to TOU rates next month.

One consumer affairs observer called it “one of the most sweeping changes to how [Californians] pay for energy.”

IMAGE COURTESY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON

Here are the most important things to know about this significant change:

  1. TOU rate plans benefit customers who can shift some or most electricity usage away from times of day when electricity costs more to deliver. Examples include using energy-intensive appliances, charging electric vehicles or programming smart thermostats to adjust home temperatures before or after the 4 to 9 p.m. on-peak period.
  2. When customers shift energy usage to morning and midday hours, they tap into an abundance of energy on California’s electric grid coming from cleaner, renewable resources and help make sure it doesn’t go to waste.
  3. They ease pressure on California’s electric grid at key times of day. The renewable energy production from large-scale solar farms, which feeds California’s electric grid during morning and midday hours, declines in the late afternoon, just as the collective demand for power from customers across California increases. To compensate for the decrease in solar production, conventional sources of energy (more costly, not as clean) get ramped up. This transition stresses the electric grid until later in the evening. Customers switching energy usage to off-peak hours help relieve that pressure.

Shifting energy use to morning and midday hours taps into cleaner, renewable resources.

  1. SCE offers three TOU options for residential customers. Plans include on-peak periods of 4 to 9 p.m. or 5 to 8 p.m. and a TOU prime rate plan specifically for customers with plug-in EVs, residential batteries or other clean energy technologies. SCE’s Rate Plan Comaprison Tool (www.sce.com/residential/rates/rate-plan-comparison-tool) can help compare options while SCE’s Appliance Energy Use Cost Calculator (www.sce.com/residential/rates/Time-Of-Use-Residential-Rate-Plans/Appliance-Energy-Use-Cost-Estimator) estimates customer savings from shifting appliance use to off-peak hours.
  2. Before switching their plans, SCE mails a notice to customers 60 to 90 days before their scheduled transition date and a reminder letter 30 days before. Customers who provided SCE their email address and agreed to be contacted may be notified electronically. The notification letter includes a comparison of what customers now pay each year and what they would pay under TOU rates. Review the comparison to see if you are benefiting from your new rate.
  3. Residential customers switched to a TOU plan now through April get 12 months of bill protection. If they pay more on a TOU rate plan for the first 12 months than they would have paid on their previous tiered rate plan, SCE will provide them a one-time bill credit for the difference. (Does not apply to TOU prime.)

TOU rate plans benefit customers who can shift electricity usage away from times of day when electricity costs more to deliver.

  1. Residential customers can opt out before their scheduled transition date. Just return the reply card included with the notification letter, complete the online form (https://pages.email.sce.com/toutransition/en/) or phone SCE’s dedicated TOU line at 1-877-287-2140. Customers may also choose to opt out after their scheduled transition date.
  2. Some SCE residential customers will not be switched to TOU rate plans, including those:

• Located in state-defined hot climate zones enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy or Family Electric Rate Assistance programs.

• Enrolled in the Medical Baseline program.

• Who’ve notified SCE they are people with disabilities.

• Who’ve opted out of TOU rate plans during previous transition periods.

• Who started service after Oct. 1, 2020.

However, joint customers of SCE and a Community Choice Aggregation will be included.

Learn more at sce.com/rates.

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