Why is Time of Use happening now?

Many of us work or study from home, and the electricity bills may have gone up for many households. Yet, the Time of Use rate plan encourages all Californians to initiate energy savings during the peak hours of 4 pm to 9 pm. With that in most of your flexible schedules, we can learn how to optimize our energy usage during different times of the day.

[BEGAN TRANSCRIPT] We know there’s a lot going on right now, and with many people working or studying from home, electricity bills may have gone up for many households. But now with our flexible schedules we can learn how to optimize our energy usage during different times of the day, which is perfect timing for the roll out of TOU. Time-of-Use (TOU) rate plans have been in the works for a long time. In 2015, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) began an effort to simplify rates and encourage conservation by offering customers of San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) the option of switching to a Time-of-Use rate plan.

Most business customers across California have already been on Time-of-Use rate plans forseveral years, and PG&E actually started testing Time-of-Use among residential customers in 2018. About 150,000 customers used the plan for a year, and at the end of the trial period, over 80% chose to stick with it. In 2019, SDG&E customers switched to Time-of-Use. Now it’s your turn.

California has always been a leader in the environmental movement. Energy Upgrade California’s “Keep it Golden” initiative encourages all Californians to use electricity during the hours when it’s more likely to be sourced from clean energy, so together we can reduce air pollution, normalize renewable resources, and preserve the environment in our state for future generations.

If helping the environment and saving energy and money sound good to you, consider reviewing your Time-of-Use rate plan options and shifting when you use electricity. Most electricity providers have Time-of-Use rate plans that Californians can choose from at any time. Check with your local utility provider, or visit energyupgradeca.org/time-of-use.

[END TRANSCRIPT]