How PSEG's time-of-day rates are impacting Long Island electric customers

Art Pushkin of Dix Hills figures he’s saved more than 10% on his oversized summer electric bill since he was switched to PSEG's new time-of-day rates a year ago.

But don't get Bill DeCarlo of Huntington started on how the new rate has cost him money and time after the utility switched him in January. He switched back to the old rate in February.

More than a year after PSEG Long Island began implementing an innovative time-of-use rate across Long Island, the utility says the results are mostly positive, with about 95% of customers staying with it despite an easy opt-out program that provides a credit for those whose bills went up as a result.

Pushkin, who has central AC, a heated pool and an electric car charger, estimated his average peak summer bill of $1,300 a month may have gone down to around $1,100 a month since the utility announced the changes. He’s shifted everything but his AC to the off-peak period of 8 p.m. to 2 p.m. each day.

"I’m trying to adjust anything but the home AC," he said. "I turn it up, but I can’t turn it off."

Pushkin said he’s also planning to look into the super off-peak rate that gives a further discount for those who charge their electric cars after 10 p.m. and before 6 a.m. The super off-peak charge for power goes down to 5.24 cents a kilowatt-hour, compared with the standard time-of-day off-peak rate of 10.93 cents/kwh in summer.

But DeCarlo's issues with the new rate started the month after PSEG converted him in January. His bill jumped $35 immediately, and he called at once and asked to get off the new rate. The utility complied and he got a credit for the month’s higher charges in March.

The problem was that PSEG zeroed out his solar bank after the switch, eliminating more than 1,457 kilowatt-hours of credits which, in the past, led him to have no bill at all for the early months of the year.

Now, even after PSEG switched him back, he was receiving bills as if he had no credits, for $82.59 in March, $101.73 in April and $121.17 in May. He’d initially been told credits from his bank would be applied to those bills, but then the utility balked.

DeCarlo, who had assumed the bills would be paid once the utility applied his credits, even received a "final termination notice" in June, saying that if he didn’t pay $98.96 his service was soon to be turned off. It came during a period when PSEG said it had ceased shutoffs after the Public Service Commission launched a probe of PSEG collection practices following reports of aggressive tactics in Newsday.

In August, DeCarlo took his complaint to the Department of Public Service, the quasi-watchdog agency that has "review and recommend" authority over LIPA and PSEG. The agency launched an inquiry that is ongoing.

After several interactions with PSEG, DeCarlo said he was told his credits were worth $25, but was offered $50 as a goodwill gesture. He says they're worth between $133 and $189. "Their big mistake was, they didn't treat solar customers any differently in their communications," he said.

PSEG spokeswoman Katy Tatzel in a statement said DeCarlo was credited "in accordance with the [time-of-day] program’s guaranteed bill protection policy," but she didn’t address questions about his past solar credits.

She added that while the program continues to have a "high participation rate" with most customers saving on their bills, "we continuously look for ways" to enhance it, including "with the net meter banking process." She noted that the termination notice to DeCarlo was sent on May 5, three days before PSEG suspended terminations following reports of its practices.

Overall, PSEG said its figures indicate most customers are acclimating to time-of-day rates. The rates are "providing both peak demand savings and opportunities for customers to save on their bills," Tatzel said in an email.

Customers who shaved peak usage with time-of-day rates helped the utility reduce overall peak summer demand by some 32 megawatts, Tatzel said, "reducing overall power generation costs for customers and lowering emissions." Bills still are up this year, however, because of generally higher power supply charges, including a 20% jump in the charge just this month.

PSEG says around 56% of its more than 1 million residential customers benefited with savings from time-of-day rates, cutting bills by an average $59.89 over the year.

Of the 44% who saw their bills go up, PSEG issued average refunds of $33.25, Tatzel said.

The first-year refund program has ended, but customers can still opt out of time-of-day rates and sign up for a standard flat rate at any time, Tatzel said.

PSEG says the energy savings from the time-of-day program are "passed along to customers in the form of lower peak-peak rates and bills." She noted that 88% of the hours in an average year are the lower, off-peak rate, while summer peak hours — the most expensive — comprise less than 5% of the total hours in the year.

But it’s important to watch the meter and stick to the off-peak schedule. The peak summer rate for those on the super off-peak rate jump to 29.79 cents a kilowatt-hour in summer, well above the standard flat rate of 10.64 cents a kilowatt-hour (for the first 250 kwh).

For customers who haven’t been following the trend that closely, watch your mailings. PSEG has begun sending anniversary messages to those who’ve been on the rate for a year.

The mailers will give ratepayers "additional insights into their usage over the last year and how they [can] shift their usage to save more," Tatzel said.

But DeCarlo suspects he’s not the first to complain about what he termed a "quasi-scam" for those with solar panels, and is still waiting for his credits.

"I’m not the only guy who called up and had a heart attack," he said, after getting off the rate. He has no plan of getting back on until they allow solar users to automatically shift solar credits for usage regardless of when they were generated.

"Their mistake was they made it very complicated for people on solar," he said.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.