Clean Power Alliance is testing a new approach to electricity pricing with its two-year TOU-SMART pilot in Southern California. More than 4,000 participating households will receive a $0-per-kilowatt-hour CPA generation rate between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., when solar power is abundant. Developed with input from UCLA researchers, the program encourages households to move activities such as EV charging, laundry, pool pumping, and heating or cooling into daytime hours. Bill protection prevents participants from paying more because of the pilot.
The pricing model could help electricity providers better align consumer demand with periods of high renewable generation. For CPA, data on household behavior can inform future rate structures, customer communications, and energy programs. Customers could lower generation costs, while shifting demand toward solar-rich hours could support more flexible use of California's growing renewable electricity supply.
Image Credit: Clean Power Alliance
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Solar-timed Pricing
- Zero-cost daytime generation creates room for utilities to redesign rates around renewable abundance and reduce dependence on evening peak demand.
- Behavior-based Energy Programs
- Household usage data can shape personalized energy plans that make flexible activities like EV charging and laundry more responsive to grid conditions.
- Daytime Load Shifting
- Solar-rich hours become more valuable as homes adopt automated appliances, batteries, and smart thermostats that optimize consumption around clean power availability.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Electric Utilities
- Dynamic rate pilots offer providers new pathways to balance renewable supply, improve grid efficiency, and test customer-friendly pricing models.
- Smart Home Technology
- Connected devices gain strategic relevance as consumers need easier ways to schedule energy-intensive tasks during low-cost solar generation windows.
- Electric Vehicles
- Residential EV charging can evolve into a grid-supporting asset when pricing incentives encourage drivers to recharge during periods of abundant daytime solar power.
