Last month at the HEAA (Houston Electric Auto Association) meeting, we had a guest speaker from Griddy talk about a new residential electricity provider concept. The idea behind it is that they don’t charge all the mark-ups that traditional electricity providers do. The only margin they make is in the form of a monthly membership fee. And it’s only $9.99. They aren’t raking it in hand over fist while customers are subsidizing the CEO’s new yacht. Check out the cool video on their site for a bit of a more detailed explanation.
So I signed up because I looked at my then-most-current bill and found out I was paying north of 16 cents/kWh and my mother told me to always try to get a deal. To deliver this service, there’s an app for that. The app shows the current price of electricity. Like right now. As I type this, I’m currently paying 2.9 cents/kWh (that’s only the generation cost, it does not include delivery, taxes & fees). And it changes every 5 minutes. And that is what they are charging. They aren’t out in the futures market trying to use a crystal ball to figure out how much electricity their members might use in 6 months. They sell real time.
Why is this important? And why does it make the cut for my Renewables/Energy Efficiency blog? So we all understand that electrons are all the same once they hit the grid, whether they come from a wind turbine or a solar panel or a natural gas plant or a nuclear reactor or a coal plant. However, the mix changes based on demand. So, renewables are the first things to hit the grid because they produce when they produce without anyone hitting any buttons or controlling anything. If they are able to handle the demand, all is good in the world and electricity is green! However, if they can’t handle the demand, other things need to come on-line to address the call the electricity or our lights would go out. That’s where the dirty things come into play. And, if you are a step ahead, you have figured out that when electricity is cheap, there isn’t a huge demand so renewables can handle things (or a big portion anyway). Therefore, by adjusting usage to when the price is lower, I am helping to green the grid.
I’m a bit of a nerd, and they feed my addiction to data and numbers like you wouldn’t believe. I have a nifty graph that shows how much electricity I used every hour over the last 6 weeks. And it gets summed by the day and the month. Can you tell when I dried a load of laundry yesterday?! I love it! And I might check the graphs multiple times a day. I know they only change once, but I have a short memory and an even shorter attention span.
So, have I made a change to how I use electricity? Yes. I work from home, so I’m home a lot. Pretty much anytime my a/c kicks on I pull up the app to see what I’m paying for electricity. If the price is high, I generally decide that I can be a little warm for a few until the price comes back down. And I have given up running the dishwasher during the day. And I make a concerted effort to do laundry early in the morning (ok, yesterday I didn’t put the clothes in the drier until I came home from Pilates). I also have made an effort to turn the lights off, even though they are LEDs and how much do they really cost to run?!
With these changes and with the different pricing structure, I have cut my electricity bill by 35%. Not too shabby. Especially considering that my typical summer bill has been south of $70 with a traditional electricity plan. I didn’t have a whole lot to cut, however I have seen a savings. And I feel a little better about the electricity I do use because I’m adjusting my usage to be when the grid is a little greener.
