The electric utility here in the Chicago area, ComEd, offers a couple of programs for lower rates during non-peak periods (i.e., evenings and overnight), but they’re voluntary, and one must sign up for them.
We don’t have tiered pricing (Long Island NY) but I’m familiar with it because of spending weeks with a family member in Ontario; she has a chart of the times on her fridge and is careful to run the washing machine and dishwasher only at off-peak times.
In 2019 I attended a focus group where the main question was finding out how consumers felt about tiered pricing; most people hadn’t heard of it, and when it was explained to them, they didn’t want it.
I’ve lived a dozen or so different places in the US and never encountered anything other than flat pricing. But I’m assuming it’s more common now than in decades past.
The smart meters that allow for the time of use pricing have only really been common for about a decade or so.
Again, you don’t need smart meters for time of use pricing; at least, not for a basic period with a couple of pricing times. I had day/night rate pricing with a meter designed for it back in 1987, and I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t a new thing then.
ETA: the meter shows two different sets of figures, one for the day rate and one for the night rate; only one of them will be increasing at any given moment. The person who comes out and reads the meter (once a month when I first got here, every other month for some years now) just records both of them. They put a new meter in a few years back, but it’s still not a smart meter and needs to be read by somebody physically looking at it.
We have a meter than can be read from mission control. No one comes by anymore. They also know immediately if we have a power outage. So, I think they could institute time of use metering, but have decided not to for some reason
We have time tiered pricing available, but a calculation I made showed that it wouldn’t save us much, based in our usage. So I kept the flat rate.
The utility I have now only offers a single flat rate at all times. At the previous house I was renting, you could opt-in to a program that offered tiered power rates based on time of day but also had the utility installing their own thermostat and a box to cut power to the water heater. The previous tenants or landlord had opted into that system but I found that even intentionally running all laundry and the dishwasher using the delay functions so it wouldn’t start until later only saved me like $1 per bill. And that was in a month that didn’t have any fourth “emergency” rate hours in it - the tier plan had low/mid/high and then during certain power crisis type events an even higher “emergency” rate. So I swapped back to the flat rate there too.
We can opt into tiered power rates but if when we did, we would get “fined” for using too much electricity at the wrong time of the day. At the time, we were working so didn’t run the AC that much during the day, but did our laundry and such on the weekends. We did our best, but went back to the flat rate in about three months.
Back when I retired, there was a brief period of time (less than 30 days) when we were low income eligibility for a 25% discount on our electric bill. Of course we were all over that, so a year later when they sent us a letter saying we needed to prove financial eligibility again, we sent them our taxes…which showed that we were over income. They approved us for two years and at the end of that sent us another letter. We sent them our tax stuff showing that we were over income and they approved us for another two years. We are due a letter in a couple of months, fingers crossed that it will work again.
Now, ask me if I feel any shame over this? Nope, nada, none at all, those greedy grasping bastards paid our last State Governor into passing laws forbidding competition. Who the fuck needs clean energy after all!?!
I posted this yesterday.
A few hours later I got this email from my power company:
PSE Up & Go Electric is using the results of the recent survey to develop upcoming managed charger offerings for our EV-driving customers. In the meantime, avoiding charging from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekdays will help mitigate the need for additional grid capacity while also taking better advantage of renewable energy sources.
So, I can only conclude PSE is reading our posts.
I am unaware of any timed pricing in Quebec. In our old house, we did have temperature pricing. In return for a 20% discount most of the year, our rate tripled when the temperature fell below -12C (around +10F). Plus, our electric heat was replaced by an oil furnace. But this was all controlled by a thermometer in the meter itself which was mounted on a wall facing SE. When the sun was shining, we would get cheap rates in the morning well below -12. I could always tell since there was an indicator showing oil or electric heating. Now in my condo it is all electric.