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Comment by wgjordan | Hacker News Reader

Related: SDG&E offers a special 'Electric Vehicle' pricing plan with much lower rates ($0.09/kwh), but this special rate is only available midnight to 6am [1].

Most residential EV users will enjoy the reduced overnight rates, but probably not useful for public-service charging which usually takes place during the day when time-of-use electricity rates are at their highest.

[1] https://www.sdge.com/residential/pricing-plans/about-our-pri...

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You know your stuff. A major problem the utilities face with EV charging is that there's only 1 meter per house. Utilities actually want to offer lower rates for EV charging, but with a single meter they can't tell what's being used for EV charging vs others. Currently it's the special rate over night. We have a smart switch prototype coming out in a week that can add internet to a switch and supposedly revenue grade metering. Of course, getting things approved by utilities could take months if not years.

PG&E's EV-B tariff is specifically for a dedicated EV meter, but the installation cost of a dedicated meter + box + charger is so much that it really doesn't make sense for residential applications.

eMotorWerks especially is experimenting with chargers that have wifi + a lot of smarts built into them.

Yes, I'm also trying to talk to residential charger OEMs on potential partnerships. I want to stay out of the hardware business if possible.

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