Customers may transition to time-of-use rate plan

Some Humboldt County electric customers are going to be transitioned to a new rate plan in June as part of a statewide initiative to support cleaner energy use.

Pacific Gas & Electric and Redwood Coast Energy Authority is set to transition 55,000 residential electric customers in Humboldt, Trinity and Siskiyou counties to a time-of-use plan, with higher rates between 4 and 9 p.m. and lower rates at all other times, in June, according to a news release. The transition will be done in stages through 2022 by geographical region until about 2.5 million eligible customers and affected customers will receive notifications in the mail starting this month to allow them to choose another rate plan.

“To ensure our customers are fully aware of the transition to the time-of-use rate and how the program works, we’re communicating this change more than 90 days ahead, and we’ll continue to share information before each regional transition takes place,” Laurie Giammona, PG&E’s senior vice president and chief customer officer, said in a statement. “And, customers can choose the rate plan that best fits their needs and lives at any time.”

All customers being transitioned to the new rate plan are getting a 12-month trial period, during which their energy bill will be reduced to match what they paid under their old rate plan if their bill exceeds that amount.

Matthew Marshall, executive director of the energy authority, said most Humboldt County residents can expect for their rates to be lower after transitioning to the plan.

“We did an analysis,” Marshall said, “crunched all the data for historic energy usage for all the different households in the county and almost every single customer in Humboldt County — even if they didn’t change their behavior at all — are going to actually save money if they go with the new time-of-use rate.”

That’s because the county’s climate is mild resulting in a lower air conditioning load, unlike hotter parts of the state, so there aren’t large energy use periods, Marshall said.

“People can pretty much not change their behavior and still save money on this because most of the day is going to be lower cost,” Marshall said.

The transition is being required of utility companies in the state in order to support using lower-cost renewable energy when it’s in more abundant supply, such as the middle of the day for solar energy.

The five-hour time period when energy will be more costly reflects a period of time when renewable energy is less available and companies need to ramp up power plants and natural gas to fill the gap, making that energy as dirty as it is costly, Marshall said.

“If you don’t acknowledge that in the rate structure then there’s not really any sort of incentive or motivation to shift usage,” Marshall said. “So the state wants to pass through more realistic pricing that reflects both the environmental impacts and the true cost of power during those evening times.”

Customers can change their rate plan anytime by going to their account at pge.com/TOUchoice or calling 1-866-743-7945, though that number will only be available through April 2022.