Electric Rates for EV Drivers

The CPUC has approved several residential time-of-use (TOU) energy rates for customers of PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, Bear Valley, and Liberty Utilities who drive EVs to allow them to charge their vehicles at home at a more reasonable price. EV-TOU rates have a very low super off-peak price at the times that energy is at its lowest cost to encourage customers to charge their vehicles during those hours.

The CPUC has also approved commercial EV-specific rates for the three large IOUs. SCE’s commercial EV rates offer a five-year period without demand charges. PG&E offers a commercial and industrial subscription-based EV rate, in which the subscription charge is designed to replace demand charges. PG&E is also implementing a dynamic commercial rate for EV customers that incudes day ahead hourly real-time pricing. Lastly, SDG&E is implementing its Electric Vehicle High Power (EVHP) rate for commercial and industrial customers. The CPUC is additionally reviewing an application from SDG&E for a commercial EV dynamic rate. That proposal was consolidated with Application (A.) 21-12-006, SDG&E’s Real-Time Pricing pilot rate Application.

Beyond EV specific rates, much of the work on rates development is taking place through the Rulemaking 22-07-005 focused on advancing demand flexibility through electric rates. One of the key objectives of this rulemaking is the enablement of widespread transportation electrification.

Table 1: Currently available EV rates offered by California IOUs

Utility

Rate

Eligibility

Tariff

BVES

BVES TOU-EV-1

Residential

EV Only

Schedule No (bvesinc.com)

BVES

BVES TOU-EV-2

Commercial

EV Only

Schedule No (bvesinc.com)

BVES

BVES TOU-EV-3

Commercial Only

 

Schedule No (bvesinc.com)

Liberty

TOU-D1-EV

Residential

Whole house

D1 TOU EV March 1.pdf (libertyutilities.com)

Liberty

TOU-A1-EV

Small Commercial

Whole facility

A1 TOU EV.pdf (libertyutilities.com)

Liberty

TOU-A1

Small Commercial

Whole facility

CPUC Sheet 107-109 - Schedule No. A-1.pdf (libertyutilities.com)

PG&E

EV-A

Residential

Whole House

ELEC_SCHEDS_EV (Sch).pdf (pge.com)

PG&E

EV-B

Residential

EV Only

ELEC_SCHEDS_EV (Sch).pdf (pge.com)

PG&E

EV2-A

Residential

Whole House

ELEC_SCHEDS_EV2 (Sch).pdf (pge.com)

PG&E

BEV

Commercial EV charging metered separately.

Subscription Bases

ELEC_SCHEDS_BEV.pdf (pge.com)

SCE

TOU-D-PRIME

Separately metered customers who have EV, storage or heat pump.

TM2 - ELECTRIC_SCHEDULES_TOU-D.pdf - All Documents (sharepoint.com)

SCE

TOU-EV-7

Commercial

Monthly Max <= 20KW

EV Only, separately metered

TM2 - ELECTRIC_SCHEDULES_TOU-EV-7.pdf - All Documents (sharepoint.com)

SCE

TOU-EV--8

Commercial, mthly. max demand > 20 kW and <= 500 kW

Separately metered

TM2 - ELECTRIC_SCHEDULES_TOU-EV-8.pdf - All Documents (sharepoint.com)

SCE

TOU-EV-9

Commercial, mthly. max demand > 500 kW

EV Only- Separately metered

TM2 - ELECTRIC_SCHEDULES_TOU-EV-9.pdf - All Documents (sharepoint.com)

SDG&E

EV-TOU

Residential

EV Only

ELEC_ELEC-SCHEDS_EV-TOU.pdf (sdge.com)

SDG&E

EV-TOU-2

Residential Whole House with EV

ELEC_ELEC-SCHEDS_EV-TOU-2.pdf (sdge.com)

SDG&E

EV-TOU-5

Residential Whole House with EV (cost based)

ELEC_ELEC-SCHEDS_EV-TOU-5.pdf (sdge.com)

SDG&E

VGI

Electric Vehicle to Grid Integration Pilot Program.

EV Only, Individual or Site participating in the pilot.

ELEC_ELEC-SCHEDS_VGI.pdf (sdge.com)

SDG&E

GIR

Individual or host participating in Green Shuttle Project

EV Only

ELEC_ELEC-SCHEDS_PUBLIC_GIR.pdf (sdge.com)

SDG&E

EV-HP

Commercial and Industrial

EV Only

Subscription Based

ELEC_ELEC-SCHEDS_EV-HP.pdf (sdge.com)

 

Submetering

The CPUC issued a decision in August 2022 that adopted a Plug-In Electric Vehicle (PEV) Submetering Protocol. This decision allows any customer to manage the load from EV charging separately from the facility’s load, which has the potential to enable more advanced load management and VGI capabilities. Through the PEV Submetering Protocol, customers can utilize submeters already embedded within their EV charger, saving customers and ratepayers money and laying out the path for advanced load management.

Resale of Electricity

Providers of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty charging services are not regulated as public utilities. The CPUC issued a decision in 2020 that extended a previous CPUC determination that providers of light-duty charging services are not public utilities to providers of medium- and heavy-duty charging services and off-road EV and electric equipment charging services.

IOU Cost and Load Reports

The CPUC decided (D.13-06-014) that the utilities should continue conducting research about the grid impacts of the load associated with EV charging and costs associated with any new transmission infrastructure needed to service the increased EV load. The CPUC required the IOUs to report their TE program costs starting from program year 2019. These are to be included in the load research report that the three large IOUs (PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E) must jointly submit by March 31. Previous reports can be found here:

  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research and Charging Infrastructure Cost Report (10th Report) March 2022
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research and Charging Infrastructure Cost Report (9th Report) Apr 1, 2021
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Charing Infrastructure Cost Report (8th Report), Mar 31, 2020
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research Report (7th Report), Apr 2, 2019
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research Report (6th Report) Dec 29, 2017
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research Report (5th Report) Dec 30, 2016
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research Report (4th Report) Dec 24, 2015
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research Report (3rd Report) Dec 23, 2014
  • Joint IOU Electric Vehicle Load Research Report (2nd Report) Jan 31, 2013

Electricity Rates and Cost of Fueling