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| Dallas promotes TXU's free nights plan. Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times |
DALLAS — In Texas, wind farms are
generating so much energy that some utilities are giving power away.
Briana Lamb, an elementary school
teacher, waits until 9 p.m. to run her washing machine and dishwasher. It costs
her nothing until 6 a.m.
Kayleen Willard, a cosmetologist,
unplugs appliances when she goes to work in the morning. By 9 p.m., she plugs
them back in.
And Sherri Burks, business manager
of a local law firm, keeps a yellow sticker on her house’s thermostat, a note
to guests that says: “After 9 p.m. I don’t care what you do. You can party
after 9.”
The women are just three of the
thousands of TXU Energy customers who are at the vanguard of a bold attempt by
the utility to change how people consume energy. TXU’s free overnight plan,
which is coupled with slightly higher daytime rates, is one of dozens that more
than 50 retail electricity companies in Texas have offered over the last three
years.
It is possible because Texas has
more wind power than any other state, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the
state’s generation. Texas runs its own electricity grid that does not connect
to the rest of the country, so the abundance of nightly wind power generated
here must be consumed here.
Wind blows most strongly at night
and the power it produces is inexpensive because of its abundance and federal
tax breaks.
“That is a proverbial win-win for
the utility and the customer,” said Omar Siddiqui, director of energy
efficiency at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit industry
group.
Similar experiments are underway
elsewhere.
In Italy, customers of Enel, a
leading utility, can receive incentives for keeping their electricity use below
a predetermined level at times of highest demand.
In Maryland, Baltimore Gas &
Electric allows customers to earn rebate credits on their bills for every
kilowatt-hour less that they use during certain high-demand times
In Worcester, Mass., National Grid
has installed a home energy management system in about 11,000 homes, connecting
a range of devices like smart plugs, high-tech thermostats and digital picture
frames that display the home’s energy use along with the photos.
But no major market has gone as far
as Texas.
“Texas is head and shoulders above
everybody else with really unique packages for the consumer,” said Soner
Kanlier, a retail energy markets expert at DNV GL, a consulting firm based in
Oslo, Norway.
Executives freely acknowledge that
the range of residential electricity plans they offer is overwhelmingly a
marketing tool.
“We’re all trying to grow, and it’s a very
competitive market,” said Manu Asthana, president of the residential division
of Direct Energy, which offers various plans.
Commercials on television and radio,
billboards on highways, and aggressive social media campaigns promise free cooking,
cooling and gadget-playing at certain hours.
When customers ask for information on
the phone or by Twitter post or Facebook comments, company agents go over their
electricity needs and habits to find the right plan for them. Otherwise, the
customer can easily be lost, power executives say,.
“Time of use” plans are growing in
popularity in Texas, according to figures compiled by Ercot, the operator of
the power grid and the manager of the deregulated market for 75 percent of the
state.
In June 2013, 135,320 households enrolled
in “time of use” plans in the Ercot region. That number climbed to 290,328 —
out of more than six million residences — in September 2014. And although
nearly 63,000 residences dropped out of the program over that time — in part
because rates are typically higher under the plans at peak hours — Ercot
officials believe that the number of households enrolled continues to grow.
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Sherri Burks in Dallas loaded her
dishwasher.
Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times
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