So my smart electricity meter enables me to automatically charge the car, and to set on the dishwasher etc when the (changes every half hour) incoming price rate is low, and to then discharge the car to the house to cover the house load when the incoming rate is higher, and to discharge to the grid when the outgoing rate is very high. It's not that I use less electricity, it's that the smart meter enables me to buy lower and sell higher. I think a lot of people with batteries, particularly if coupled with solar, get benefit from variable rates, as do a lot of people with EV's. .... We do find that it's very little effort to shift loads to times when the rates are lower, so we pay less, and also help to balance the grid.
Ah, I think that puts you appreciably ahead of most of the rest of the field at present, since my understanding (perhaps wrong!) is that dynamic TOU tariffs such as you obviously have are currently pretty rare.
However, if I had no reason to use TOU (time of use) rates I'd still have a pre smart meter - apart from anything else, it seems a waste of resources to replace something that still works fine.
That is obviously the situation I was thinking/talking about and, as above (albeit, again, I might be wrong) a situation which I think probably currently applies to the great majority of people - who, as I implied, can therefore only reduce their electricity bulls by using less electricity.
However, I also wonder to what extent the situation with TOU tariffs will prove to be largely a relatively brief 'honeymoon' period, even if/when a high proportion of consumers have such tariffs. From the point-of-view of generators and distributors of electricity, hence also suppliers, these tariffs are all about trying to flatten out the circadian variation in electricity demand, since the ideal for them would be for demand to be spread evenly over the 24 hours of a day - so, at present, electricity is at its cheapest at times of day when demand is lowest.
If/when the current attractions of these tariffs result in consumers being 're-educated' as regards their pattern of electricity use to the extent that the demand does become fairly constant throughout the 24 hours of a day, then there will be little/no reason for price to vary during the day - so, if these tariffs have the desired effect they might thereby largely self-destroy the need for them!
At a more 'philosophical' level, these tariffs can also be said to be fairly discriminatory, since they favour those whose domestic and employment situations, and their ('intellectual') ability to optimally 'manage' their electricity usage, allows them to make what may be quite substantial changes to the way they run their lives. Delaying an evening meal until late at night may not be practical for a lot of people and, as for being 'encouraged' (by cost saving) to let things like washing machines, dishwashers and (particularly) tumble dryers run whilst they are asleep has adverse 'safety' implications.
Kind Regards, John
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