Putting California’s Solar Surplus to Work: CPA Launches Pilot to Explore Zero-Cost Daytime Electricity

CPA Programs

What if running your dishwasher, charging your EV or doing a load of laundry in the middle of the day could help make better use of California’s abundant solar energy and potentially lower your electricity costs? 

That’s the question Clean Power Alliance (CPA) is exploring through its TOU-SMART Pilot, a two-year research project designed to understand how households respond when electricity is significantly less expensive during the daytime hours when solar energy is plentiful. 

Over 4,000 residential customers are participating in the pilot, which will test whether a strong price signal can encourage households to shift high electricity use needs from evening peak hours to the middle of the day.  

Under the pilot, participating customers will pay no CPA generation charge from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., CPA’s super-off-peak period. Generation charges are already higher during the on-peak period from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will increase slightly during the overnight off-peak period from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., creating an incentive to shift activities such as electric vehicle charging, laundry, dishwashing, pool pumping, heating and cooling into the daytime.  

Southern California Edison delivery charges and other applicable charges will continue to apply. 

The pilot’s design was developed in collaboration with Professor Magali Delmas of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and the UCLA Institute of Environment & Sustainability. Her research on how information, incentives and other strategies influence behavior around household energy use is helping CPA develop a study that can generate meaningful insights for future customer programs and rates. 

CPA estimates that customers could save hundreds of dollars per year by shifting a portion of overnight electricity use and potentially save even more by shifting some on-peak-period use.  

Customers who charge an electric vehicle at home could have additional opportunities to reduce their generation costs by charging during the daytime window and by signing up for CPA’s EV SmartCharge program, which guides customers to charge when electricity is least costly.  

Additionally, pilot participants will receive bill protection to ensure they are not financially disadvantaged by taking part. If a participant would have paid less under the standard TOU-D-PRIME rate than under TOU-SMART during the applicable protection period, CPA will refund the difference. Participants can also opt out of the pilot. 

The pilot is about more than potential savings.  

CPA will study what motivates customers to change their energy-use habits, which approaches are most effective and whether those changes persist over time. Participants will receive behavioral messages designed to test different approaches to encouraging load shifting. Some communications will emphasize cost savings, while others will focus on environmental benefits. 

California is adding increasing amounts of renewable energy to its electric grid, including solar power that is most abundant during the middle of the day. Time-based electricity rates can encourage customers to use electricity when renewable resources are plentiful, but questions remain about how much households will shift their consumption, how long those changes will last, and which approaches are most effective.  

TOU-SMART is designed to help answer those questions using hourly electricity-use data, customer feedback and behavioral research. For CPA, the results could help inform future rates, customer programs and outreach strategies. For participating customers, the pilot provides an opportunity to explore new ways of managing household electricity use while contributing to research into how consumers can help create a more flexible, renewable-powered electric grid. 

To learn more, visit Cleanpoweralliance.org/TimeofUseSmartPilot.  


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