dynamic pricing Archives | Citizens Utility Board

Demand response: a win for you, the environment, and the grid

Hannah — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 19:47:23 +0000

Demand response programs are opportunities for consumers to take an active role in lowering their electric bills, reducing stress on the electric grid, and cutting pollution. Sounds like a good deal. But what are “demand response” programs? At their core, all demand response programs incentivize consumers to shift their electricity usage away from “peak” times—when electricity demand threatens to outpace the available electricity supply. For example, a hot summer afternoon or a cold winter morning. By choosing to put off energy-demanding chores until off-peak times, like running the dishwasher overnight or doing laundry early in the morning, consumers help reduce demand. But what does reducing demand do? For one, it helps lower your power bill. Utilities often offer bill credits or lower rates to consumers who successfully participate in demand response programs. For example, participants in ComEd’s Hourly Pricing program save an average of 15 percent on the supply portion of their bills. But shifting usage doesn’t just save you money. Demand response lowers the cost of electricity in wholesale markets, too, meaning lower rates for everyone. Power grid reliability also benefits from these programs, leading to fewer power outages. And they help protect the environment. During peak demand times, “peaker” plants come online to help meet the extra demand, even if it’s only for a few hours a year. These plants are often polluting fossil fuel generators, so reducing peak demand also means you reduce pollution. You may not realize it, but there’s a lot of opportunity to participate in demand response. See what options your utility offers: ComEd’s Hourly Pricing and Ameren’s Power Smart Pricing These programs charge customers a supply rate that changes hourly, instead of the standard price that changes only a few times a year. ComEd’s Peak Time Savings and Ameren’s Peak Time Rewards These two programs reward participants with bill credits when they reduce electricity use during certain “peak” savings events, usually hot summer afternoons when electricity demand is highest. These are the easiest demand response programs and CUB recommends them for most anybody. ComEd’s Central AC Cycling program Through this program, ComEd sends signals to your home to “cycle” the flow of power to your cooling unit (i.e. to turn the cooling on and off) at peak times of energy usage across ComEd territory. Cycling is only done when needed, and it will occur on specific days for limited periods of time. Many program participants have noted that they haven’t even noticed a difference in their homes during cycling events. For signing up, you get a monthly credit on your bill from June through September.

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Utility Diaries: A Month of Bills in Urbana, Illinois

Hannah — Tue, 11 May 2021 13:55:47 +0000

In Utility Diaries, we look at what different households across Illinois pay in a month for utility expenses. Today’s household consists of two people in a rented house in Urbana. Housing Background Location: Urbana, IL Household Size: 2 people Housing Type: House Rent or Own: Rent Square Footage: 1,215 Year Built: 1954 Energy Usage Heating: Gas forced-air furnace Cooling: Central air Average Monthly Gas Usage: 65 therms Highest Gas Month: February, 194 therms Average Monthly Electric Usage: 361 kilowatt-hours Highest Electric Month: August, 591 kilowatt-hours Water Usage Average Monthly Water Usage: 4,000 gallons Highest Water Month: July, 4,500 gallons Telecom Plans Internet Speed: 200 Mbps Cellphone Plan: Unlimited calls, text, and data (1 line) Utility Companies and Charges Last Month: Gas: Ameren Illinois, $61.81 Electric: Ameren Illinois, $34.35 Water: Illinois American, $52.44 Sewer: Urbana & Champaign Sanitary District (paid by landlord) Internet: Xfinity by Comcast, $50 Cell Phone: Verizon, $42 Garbage: Mel’s Disposal, $18 Recycling: U-CYCLE (free for Urbana residents) Last Month’s Total: $216.60 Do you have an alternative electric or gas supplier? We do not. The City of Urbana has a municipal aggregation contract for residential electricity supply with Homefield Energy that expires in January 2023, but we opted out of the program. Instead, we are signed up for Ameren’s Power Smart Pricing program, where we pay the real-time hourly rate for electricity. Even counting the monthly program fee of $2.25, over the last 12 months, we have saved $9.74. Have you participated in any programs to save on your bills? In addition to Ameren’s Power Smart Pricing program, we are enrolled in Ameren’s Peak Time Rewards program. Every summer, we are notified on days where Ameren expects high electricity use, and if we lower our usage that day, we get automatic credits on our bill. While we do not qualify for Ameren’s Income Qualified energy efficiency program, we were able to get a “free”* smart thermostat from Ameren, as well as discounted LED lightbulbs. *We didn’t pay anything for the thermostat, but like all Ameren customers, we pay into the energy efficiency programs through a tax on our monthly bill. What do you do to save energy and water at home? We use LEDs and faucet aerators on the bathroom and kitchen sinks. We also unplug nonessential appliances (not the fridge) when we’re not using them and wash clothes on the cold setting. In the winter, we keep the temperature around 66 degrees, and in the summer, 78 degrees. We’ve thought about putting a plastic bottle with rocks in it in the toilet water tank to retrofit our toilets into low-flow toilets but haven’t done that yet. Because we rent, we aren’t in control of the efficiency of our furnace, AC and refrigerator/freezer. Our home is older, very drafty and could use better insulation, but that’s out of our control. We have patched up some cracks in the baseboards with caulk as DIY air sealing. What are the details of your telecom plans? If you have internet service, do you own your modem and router? If you have cellphone service, do you own your phone? We are on […]

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CUB Q&A: Why did real-time prices get so high for a few days after the winter storm?

Celeste — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 20:17:12 +0000

In the wake of the snowstorm that brought subzero temperatures and up to a foot of snow to parts of Illinois, CUB received several calls from consumers complaining about high prices they were paying for a special program in which electricity rates can change by the hour. CUB is a big proponent of real-time pricing programs—called Hourly Pricing by ComEd and Power Smart Pricing by Ameren Illinois. Most utility customers pay a flat rate for electricity that changes only a few times a year. But Hourly and Power Smart Pricing allow consumers to take advantage of the fact that the actual market price for electricity is lower than that standard rate most hours of the day. There are peak times of the day–when energy demand is high, and prices go up. But if your household can avoid heavy electricity usage–running the dishwasher or doing laundry—until off-peak times, you will be able to save money on these programs. (See CUB’s Big Energy Data Center for research we’ve done on the efficacy of these programs.) In fact, while savings are not guaranteed, participants in these programs have saved on average about 10-15 percent on the supply side of bills. These programs are also good for the environment and reliability, because they ease stress on the grid and reduce peak usage, when some of the dirtiest power plants are operating. But during extreme weather events, like what we saw with the recent snowstorm, prices can get quite high. Read CUB’s Q&A to find out what happened. How high did the Power Smart Pricing and Hourly Pricing rates get? Members of CUB’s staff who are on these programs alerted CUB after the snowstorm that prices for those programs were unusually high: Up to 46.6 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for Ameren’s Power Smart Pricing customers on Wednesday morning and up to 32 cents per kWh for ComEd’s Hourly Pricing customers Tuesday night. That’s much higher than the standard rates most customers are paying now: About 7 cents per kWh for ComEd customers and about 4.5 cents per kWh for Ameren customers. How long did these price spikes last? About a week, between Feb. 14 and Feb. 21. The worst days were Tuesday through Friday. A CUB review found that by Friday, Feb. 19, the prices were beginning to come down to more normal levels as the weather warmed. Get up-to-date pricing information for Power Smart Pricing here and for Hourly Pricing here. Why did we see these price spikes? During this extreme cold snap: More people across the nation used electricity and natural gas to heat their homes, driving up demand. Natural gas pipelines and wellheads froze in Texas and other areas of the South, limiting supply across the country. Power plants that use natural gas to produce electricity became much more expensive to run. These factors helped lead to the spike in wholesale electricity prices. ComEd and Ameren Illinois do not set hourly market prices for electricity–these programs follow the ups and downs of the energy markets. In fact, the utilities under law are not allowed to profit off supply prices: The wholesale cost of electricity is passed along to participants without markup. Will people on these programs […]

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Home Heating quiz winner no stranger to energy efficiency

Hannah — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 19:29:01 +0000

Congrats to Joel of Evanston! He was randomly selected to win a free CUB energy efficiency kit out of more than 1,000 people who took CUB’s Home Heating Quiz. Joel has won two LED light bulbs, a Kill A Watt electricity-usage monitor, a smart power strip, and an insulated CUB tote bag. “Naturally, I’m excited,” he said. “I’m glad the quiz had good participation, and I was lucky enough to win!” No stranger to energy efficiency practices, Joel has done away with most of the incandescent lighting in his house, opting instead for LED bulbs. He recently upgraded some of the older windows in his house and has plans to soon replace his inefficient boiler. Joel also takes advantage of his programmable thermostat. On average, 45 percent of a home’s energy is used for heating and cooling, but according to Energy Star, properly using a programmable thermostat can save consumers about $180 every year. “I just took the quiz just to see what I knew and to see if I could be doing more,” he said. “I’m an advocate for the rest of my family to step it up.” To maximize his money-saving opportunities, Joel is also enrolled in Commonwealth Edison’s Hourly Pricing program. Instead of paying a flat rate per kilowatt of electricity, program participants pay a rate that varies from hour to hour based on wholesale market prices. If program participants use electricity during low-demand periods such as nights and weekends, they can potentially save. Joel runs his dishwasher on a timer set to 2 or 3 a.m., and he does laundry on the weekends when running the washer and dryer will cost less. ComEd estimates Hourly Pricing participants like Joel have saved more than 15 percent on the electricity supply portion of their bill. The lifelong Illinois resident said he is “definitely” saving money, and he says he will continue to depend on CUB for his energy and utility questions. “CUB is one of only a few organizations that can give you good utility and efficiency information,” he said. “I’ll be happy to proudly carry the CUB tote bag.” Below are the quiz questions and answers: Question: My gas bill measures usage in? Answer: Therms. Your gas meter measures the volume of gas in cubic feet, but then it’s converted to therms on your bill. A therm is about 100 cubic feet. Megawatts measures electricity, and gallons is a measure of…milk (among other things). Question: I’m a fixed monthly charge–I NEVER go down, no matter how careful you are about saving energy (tee-hee). CUB calls me an enemy to energy efficiency, and utilities just LOVE to increase me. I am…? Answer: The monthly customer charge. It never goes down, no matter how energy efficient you are. That’s why utilities push to increase the customer charge in rate cases before the Illinois Commerce Commission. A CUB review in September found customer charges for residential heating customers ranging from about $16 a month to more than $32 a month (for Peoples Gas). Question: Which of these actions is your best bet for saving energy and money and staying comfortable? Answer: Installing attic insulation or […]

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