Over December I had the distinct honor of flying to Washington D.C. and attending the 2014 Behavior, Energy, And Climate Change Conference. I was able to see lots of presentations on the latest analytics taking place in energy and energy efficiency. I was also able to present my poster above on the results of my latest project using Green Button Data to ascertain if electric vehicle customers are really saving money by going electric and potential barriers. Green Button Data is a file format that lets one easily go to their corresponding utility webpage and download their hourly or 15 minute energy usage profile. Using these files from electric vehicle customers from PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E I was able to ascertain that about 60% of these customers were on a higher cost tiered tariff instead of opting for the lower cost “Time of Use” option. Time of Use charges a customer based on the time that the energy was consumed. For example if the energy was consumed at midnight the demand is much less and the cost becomes much cheaper than during peak hours. This 60% base of customers paying more amounts to an extra cost of $800 a year per EV Customer and all the customer had to do was call their utility and ask to switch. Keep in mind that this is $800 a year extra, over the lifetime of the vehicle that could easily become $12,000 total lost simply by not calling your utility. This adds up to roughly 30 million dollars a year that California EV Customers are leaving on the table based on current EV ownership statistics. In order to realize full savings electric vehicle customers need a seamless method to not only purchase and charge their new electric vehicles but also make the upfront decision of switching to a more optimal electricity rate (AKA electric tariff).

Christmas Tour of the White House