As Southern California Edison (SCE) begins to roll out its new “time-of-use” plans to its residential customers, many solar panel owners are seeing their energy bills increase. For years, SCE operated on a tiered energy billing system, where customers—spanning across Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties—would pay based on the amount of energy they used. Now, under the new time-of-use plans that will be rolled out to 2.3 million SCE customers from November through April, customers will be charged a different rate per kilowatt used depending on when the electricity is utilized, with the most expensive rate being between 4–9 p.m. The change comes due to how SCE’s energy grid works: During the day, there is an abundance of energy because of solar panels, driving down the price. Yet during dusk and nighttime, when fossil fuel plants begin to rev up to maintain power to homes, it costs …
RSS Feed | The Epoch Times