By: Rebecca Kucznski, Valley Clean Energy
Yolo County, CA. — What if you could see what electricity costs in every hour and had the choice to shift your use from high to low-cost hours? This is exactly what a new innovative pilot program created by Valley Clean Energy (VCE) allows our customers to do. In partnership with PG&E, making it seamless for customers, VCE is introducing the Hourly Flex Pricing (HFP) pilot program to help participants take advantage of lower-cost energy periods during the day.
How it works
Based on VCE’s award winning AgFIT pilot launched in 2021, the new Hourly Flex Pricing pilot will publish market-based hourly rates 24 hours in advance. If you’re enrolled in the pilot program, you can then schedule the best time to run your appliances, EV chargers, or manufacturing processes. You can also set up your smart devices or automation software to automatically monitor the hourly flex rates, so you don’t have to pay attention to hourly rate changes in order to save. The pilot program begins in November 2024 and runs through the end of 2027. VCE’s residential, business, and agricultural customers may be eligible to participate.
What about market-based pricing risks? Customers who participate in the pilot will continue to be charged VCE’s standard rates for electricity – you won’t see any changes to your monthly utility bills. At the end of each 12-month period, we will tally up all your credits. We will send you a check (or apply a credit on your bill) for the savings you accrued over the year. We won’t send you a bill if you did not save on the pilot rate, so the pilot is very low-risk for customers.
VCE residential customers already pay at least 2% less for electricity than PG&E customers. Low-income and medically vulnerable VCE households enrolled in CARE, FERA, and medical baseline receive a 4.5% discount on PG&E’s standard electric rates.
Hourly flex pricing prepares us for the future
The goal of introducing flex pricing is to incentivize homes and businesses to use power when electricity is plentiful, and rates are low. That way, customers can have more control over their electricity bills while helping make California’s electric grid more reliable.
“Hourly flex pricing is a win-win for our customers,” said Mitch Sears, Executive Officer of Valley Clean Energy. “Customers get more control over their electricity bill and by providing the right cost incentives to shift electricity use, they are helping the grid avoid costly, disruptive, and dangerous power outages.”
A new generation of smart devices and automation software makes it convenient for homes and businesses to take advantage of dynamic electric rates. VCE pioneered this approach in California with its AgFIT (Flexible Irrigation Technology) pilot program, which has shown that farmers can save up to 5-10% on electricity bills when they irrigate their fields during low-cost hours.
To learn more about how VCE customers can participate in the Hourly Flex Pricing pilot program, visit https://valleycleanenergy.org/programs/hourly-flex-pricing/.
VCE customers can also get free expert advice on participating in the pilot, or on ways to reduce your electric bill for your home or business through our newly launched Electric Advisor service. Electric Advisors are available Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm by calling 1 (855) 699-8232, requesting a contact, or through live chat on our website here: https://electricadvisor.valleycleanenergy.org/
About Valley Clean Energy
Valley Clean Energy — or VCE — is the official electricity provider for residential and commercial customers in Woodland, Winters, Davis, and unincorporated Yolo County. We’re a not-for-profit public agency, which means that we’re working 100% for our customers. VCE keeps program control and revenues right here at home, where we can create jobs and build local clean energy projects. We reinvest dollars to boost our local economy while taking control of our clean energy future. More information is available at https://valleycleanenergy.org/.
