Dominion EV Pilot Program opens today!

Dominion Virginia Power Electric Vehicle Charging Pilot Program Begins

As I've indicated numerous times before, I'm very keen to make my Power Utility, Dominion Virginia Power, aware of my intent to use an Electric Vehicle so that they can better prepare for the load I would be drawing and be able to provide sufficient power at times optimal for charging.  Fortunately, like most EV drivers, my intention is to charge my car overnight, when the demand for electricity is already at its lowest, which allows my PU to balance generation between the peak daylight hours and the nighttime hours when my car draws energy.

In return for this, I've asked my PU to set me up to be charged a Time-Of-Use rate which would reduce the cost to charge the EV when it's charged over night versus during the daylight hours.  Back in February, I reported that Dominion Virginia Power was proposing two new pilot program rates specifically for electric vehicles which would use new smart meters and allow the calculation of rates based on Time-Of-Use.  Excited, I sought more information and was able to calculate a $200 savings by switching over to either of the new EV-based TOU rates.

Dominion Virginia Power EV Rates Revealed (Part 2)

I explained how rates are calculated back on Valentine's Day because I ♥ calculating this kind of stuff.¹  And although the rate for Fuel has gone up slightly since I wrote Part 1 — it's now ^3.289¢⁄_kWh — all the calculations remain the same.

So take for example the Nissan LEAF with its 24 kWh battery pack.  If we estimate the LEAF's wall-to-wheel efficiency to be 3⅓ ^mi⁄kWh (5.364 ^km⁄_kWh), with a 38 mi (61 km) commute each way, this represents 22.8 kWh (2 × 38 mi ÷ 3⅓ ^mi⁄kWh) or 95% of the 24 kWh pack on the LEAF.  I then assume the weekend driving consists of more local, around town driving equivalent to exactly half of the weekday driving or about 38 mi (61 km) per day or 11.4 kWh.

In addition to each of these, it's important to remember that the EVSE also draws power to maintain its status and remain in a ready state.  My EVSE only draws 5 Watts to maintain its ready state — EVSEs with more Internet connectivity and wireless capabilities will draw more power than a plan nuts and bolts EVSE like my Clipper Creek CS-100.

Since I plan to only charge my vehicle over night and be out of the house around 5:00 am, I set my calculations to assume I can finish charging by that time.  This would be different if I could charge my car at work, but with a 3.3 kW charger on the Nissan LEAF, it will take 6.09 hours (22.8 kWh ÷ 3.3 kW) to charge the LEAF during the weekdays and 3.45 hours (11.4 kWh ÷ 3.3 kW) on the weekend.

The Missing 4 cents revisited

Once the total electrical energy required for charging the EV is known, we can calculate the cost for Transmission and Fuel rates and Use, Consumption and County Tax, as well as the various Distribution and Supply riders to get the base price for charging our EV.  These rates are summarized in the following table:

Name	cost in ¢⁄kWh	Annual Cost
Rider C1: Peak Shaving	0.009	$0.65
Rider C2: Energy Efficiency	0.044	$3.16
Rider S: Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center	0.280	$20.11
Rider R: Bear Garden Generating Station	0.117	$8.40
Rider BRC: Base Rate Credit	-0.1322	-$9.48
Rider T: Transmission	0.616	$44.24
Fuel Charge Rider A	3.289	$236.21
Sales and Use Surcharge	0.056	$4.02
Consumption Taxes (Tier 1) (< 2.5 MWh)	0.155	$7.68
Consumption Taxes (Tier 2) (2.5 MWh ≤ x < 50 MWh)	0.099	$2.20
Consumption Taxes (Tier 3) (≥ 50 MWh)	0.075	$0.00
Fairfax County Tax (Min 56¢; Max $4)	0.605	$0.00
Totals	4.417	$317.19

Now, the Fairfax County Tax will typically hit the $4 maximum without the EV so the EV won't add to that tax.  Also, for the Consumption Taxes, many months my household never goes over 2.5 MWh.  Generally, I still do come close to if not going over in the warmer months of June, July, August and September, even after going to R-49 attic insulation but not in the winter since I have methane-based (natural gas) heating.  In my calculations, I use my actual historical household data to compute the Consumption Taxes, so in months where the usage does go over 2.5 MWh, I calculate my EV's electricity rate accordingly using the Tier 1 or Tier 2 Pricing as necessary.

Total energy usage [is] about 7,138 kWh.

Now, to compute my total electricity usage, I take the average usage per day using a weighted average of ⁵⁄₇ × 22.8 kWh each weekday and ²⁄₇ × 11.4 kWh each weekend day for an average of 19 ¹⁹⁄₃₅ kWh per day.  If we multiply that by the number of days in each month, we can get an estimate of how much energy we use per month and if we multiply by 365.2425 days per year, we have the total energy usage of about 7,138 kWh.  This is the value multiplied by each of the rates in the above table to get the total cost per year.

In the case of the Consumption Taxes, this further breaks down by my estimates to about 4,957 kWh taxed at Tier 1 and about 2,225 kWh taxed at Tier 2.  The Consumption Tax part of the Total in the table above is weighted using these estimates as a percent of the total electricity usage annually.

Taking these numbers, we can see a total cost of $317.19 to run my Nissan LEAF not including the base rate schedule.  Thus, no rate schedule can come to a total less than $317.19 per year.  However, depending on the Rate Schedule chosen, the additional cost could vary between $150 and $350.

The Base Rate Schedules

Dominion Virginia Power customers have 3 basic choices when it comes to their base electricity rate: Schedule 1, Schedule EV and Schedule 1EV.  Each of these is outlined below.

Schedule 1

Most Dominion Virginia Power residential customers are under this rate schedule.  Thus, these numbers represent no special EV rate and just plugging your car in under the normal rate schedule.  Since the monthly fee of $7 is already covered by your current electric bill, this can't count toward the cost to charge the EV since you have to pay it either way.  For Distribution and Supply, Dominion Virginia Power breaks the bill up into summer and off-summer months as well as usage under 800 kWh and usage beyond that.  In the case of the EV, my house never uses less than 800 kWh per month so I'll always be paying the above 800 kWh rate for my EV.  Thus, the rate for Distribution is ^1.26¢⁄_kWh.  The rate for Supply varies throughout the year so from June to September it's ^5.773¢⁄_kWh and ^0.02927¢⁄_kWh the rest of the year.

Thus, the total base Distribution cost is $90.49 for the entire year and $138.49 for Supply for the Summer months and $139.99 for Supply the rest of the year.  The total Supply annually is therefore $278.48 for a total of $368.97 per year under Schedule 1.  Adding this to the fixed result, we get the total annual cost to run your EV under this rate schedule of $686.16.

Schedule EV

Technically, the Schedule EV rate plan isn't a primary rate schedule.  Instead, a dual meter is set up at your household with the main residence still under Schedule 1 and a dedicated line to EV metered using the Schedule EV rider instead.

Because Schedule EV is a Time-Of-Use rate, the time at which electrical energy is drawn becomes significant.  Fortunately, this is easy to calculate because we know from above how long it takes to charge the LEAF under my scenario, and thus how much power is required each hour.  When the EV is charging, since it's using a 3.3 kW charger, it will require that much power per hour and thus use 3.3 kWh per hour in use.  You also have the base EVSE power of 0.005 kW which comes to 0.005 kWh per hour, each hour.

In the case of Schedule EV, there is an additional Distribution charge for the second meter of $2.90 per month for a total of $34.80 per year.  The Distribution and Supply rates are then given by:

Hours	Distribution rate in ¢⁄kWh	Supply rate in ¢⁄kWh	Net Cost
01–05 (Super-Off-Peak)	0.000	0.684	$31.74
05–06 (Off-Peak)	2.520	1.429	$0.07
06–22 (Peak)	2.520	10.256	$3.73
22–01 (Off-Peak)	2.520	1.429	$99.12

For simplicity, I've show the results for the entire period blocks, which generally fall into the following categories: 01–05 is full 3.3 kW charging, 05–06 is only the EVSE, as well as 06–22 and finally 22–01 is used to charge the EV during weekdays since at 3.3 kW the LEAF required more than 4 hours to charge to 95% from 0.  For that final block, it breaks down into no charging on weekends and 2.09 hours during the weekdays, where the rest of the charging occurs in 01–05 on both Weekdays and Weekends.

The Distribution and Supply results together for each of the time blocks yields $134.67.  Add to that the monthly Distribution charge and we get $169.47, less than half the cost for base Distribution and Supply under Schedule 1.  Because the final bill is a combined bill between the household and the EV meters, the taxes are cumulative, so if under Schedule 1 the Tier 2 Consumption Tax threshold be reached for the household, it would also do so under Schedule EV.  The final result is a grand total of $486.66.

One final thing to note is the $99.12 spent from 22–01 could be avoided if the LEAF had a 6.6 kW charger instead of the cheap 3.3 kW charger it currently has.  With this charger, it wouldn't need to draw electricity in the more expensive off-peak period; all the needed energy could be added and metered during the Super-Off-Peak time for a mere $48.87 during that period and only $0.22 for the 22–01 Off-Peak.  Thus, the total cost with a 6.6 kW Charger would be $404.89, an over $80 per year in savings.

Schedule 1EV

Schedule 1EV is a household rate plan that replaces the Schedule 1 with a special Time-Of-Use rate specifically tailored to EV owners.  As such, it is far more complicated than anything I've discussed thus far and as such I shall hold off to discuss this in its own post.

Conclusion

As you can see, there's a lot of savings that can be made by just switching to one of the 2 experimental EV rate programs.  I'm personally looking very much forward to participating in the program; won't you join me?  Just sign up here and be a part of the future!

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¹Okay, technically the posting date was just a coincidence but sometimes I like to embellish to make these posts more readable.

²For Schedule 1, Schedule EV and Schedule 1EV.

Dominion Virginia Power TOU Rates coming in October

Dominion Virginia Power Moving Forward with Electric Vehicle Recharging Pilot

The State Corporation Commission of the Commonwealth of Virginia has approved two new EV-oriented Time-Of-Use rates.  As discussed previously, these new rates could save you as much as $200 per year.  I hope in the coming months to bring a piece I've been working on which will explore the details of these new rates, but the short summary is the savings I've calculated and the fact that only 750 homes will qualify for the second meter EV-TOU rate and another 750 for the household TOU rate.

The program begins on 3 October, which would be within a month or 2 prior to the arrival of the first official Nissan LEAFs in the Commonwealth, but well within reach of current Chevrolet Volt and Smart Electric Drive owners.

I personally hope to get into this program though I'm not yet sure whether I want to go household or EV-only.  Thus, I will be presenting the pros and cons of each in a future post and hope that you, my friendly reader, will offer my advice as I make this exciting decision.

Dominion Virginia Power EV Rates Revealed (Part 1)

You could save $200 or more by switching

You could save $200 or more by switching to one of Dominion Virginia Power's EV rates.  That's the result I get from over a week pouring through the complexities of Dominion's rate structure.  Of course, it's all contingent on Dominion's new EV Rate Proposal being accepted by the State Corporation Commission later this year.  Why, in a Commonwealth, we call it the State Corporation Commission, I'm stymied, but I digress.

Of course, that $200 is in addition to the $2,000 per year I could save by switching to an efficient EV since I estimate my annual petroleum fuel cost to be about $2,500.  I drive about 75 miles per day and with fuel at $2.99 ⁹⁄₁₀ and consuming 16 gallons per week, the costs add up quickly.  Compare this to an EV like the Nissan LEAF at only about $550 per year under current household electricity rates and you can see why I want to switch.

But that's under Dominion Virginia Power's Residential Schedule 1 rate, with all riders, taxes and fuel accounted for.  So why does this differ from my previous calculations of $300 or so under Schedule 1 where I deduced ^7.033¢⁄_kWh in the Summer and ^4.187¢⁄_kWh in the off-seasons?  As you can see from the official filing, those rates are correct under that schedule.  There's also the monthly distribution cost and the lower than 800 kWh rates, but I'm assuming those are taken up by my household's electricity costs.  Unfortunately, I never go under 800 kWh in even the lowest power months.

Yet I come up with a cost per kWh of 9.133¢, averaged over the entire year.  Remember, the off-season rate is valid for twice as only as the Summer rate so if anything, my costs should be less than 7¢ for every kWh, not 2.1¢ more.  In fact, if the cost were averaged over the entire year at those rates, the average cost per kWh would be just under 5.138¢, a nearly 4¢ difference.

The missing 4¢

The Dominion Virginia Power electricity rate schedule is actually broken up into 6 to 7 sections: Distribution, Supply, Transmission, Fuel, Sales and Use Surcharge, Consumption Taxes and occasionally Local / County Taxes.  Each of these are outlined below and then summarized.

Distribution

The distribution costs of your Dominion Virginia Power bill are broken into 4 parts:

• Monthly Cost
• Base Rate
• Rider C1: Peak-Shaving
• Rider C2: Energy Efficiency

What this comes down to is that the distribution line item of your bill is the sum of these 4 parts, the first 2 coming from the Schedule 1 or related rate schedule above, and the second two coming from additional riders on your bill for the purposes specified in the rider.  In the case of the Peak-Shaving rider, this comes out to ^0.009¢⁄_kWh, and for the Energy Efficiency rider, there's an additional ^0.044¢⁄_kWh.  That makes a total of ^0.053¢⁄_kWh additional charges on your distribution.

Supply

The supply or generation costs of your Dominion Virginia bill are also broken into 4 parts as of this writing:

• Base Rate
• Rider S: Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center
• Rider R: Bear Garden Generating Station
• Rider BRC: Base Rate Credit

As before, the total supply charge is the sum of these 4 items.  The first part comes from the Schedule 1 or related schedule under the section labeled Generation.  The second and third are the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center rider at ^0.280¢⁄_kWh and the Bear Garden Generating Station at ^0.117¢⁄_kWh.  Finally, you have the Base Rate Credit, which, as the name implies, is a rebate on the cost of the base rate schedule.  This credit is a new rider for 2011 and is different depending which base schedule is being used: ^-0.132¢⁄_kWh for Schedule 1, ^-0.128¢⁄_kWh for Schedule 1T and ^-0.101¢⁄_kWh for Schedule 1S; it's not clear at this time what Base Rate Credit, if any, will be received under the new Schedule 1EV rate, but more on that later…

So, under Schedule 1, the total cost of all 3 riders is ^0.265¢⁄_kWh.

Transmission

The transmission costs of your bill come directly from Rider T: Transmission.  The cost for electricity transmission is therefore given by ^0.616¢⁄_kWh.

Fuel

The cost of fuel for electricity generation is given by the Fuel Charge Rider A.  As would be expected, the cost of fuel is rather volatile; in the last 10 years, it's changed 8 times, though it's been steadily decreasing since July 2008.  As of this writing, it currently stands at ^2.803¢⁄_kWh.  Thus, the cost of fuel is clearly the more than half of the additional 4¢ charge.

Sales and Use Surcharge

The Sales and Use Surcharge is a tax on electricity usage levied by the Commonwealth.  It's rated at ^0.056¢⁄_kWh.

Consumption Taxes

The consumption taxes are by far the most complicated part of the Dominion Virginia Power bill to calculate.  First of all, this tax is actually made up of 3 different taxes: the State Consumption Tax, the Special Regulatory Tax and the Local Consumption Tax.  What complicates things is that, like the Schedule 1 rates, there's a tiered basis to these taxes.  If your total electricity usage in a given month is less than 2.5 MWh (remember, a Megawatt is 1,000 kilowatts), the tax summed over all 3 components comes in at ^0.155¢⁄_kWh.  But, if you use more than 2.5 MWh, but less than 50 MWh, the summed rate reduces to ^0.099¢⁄_kWh for all electricity usage above 2.5 MWh.  After 50 MWh, it goes even lower, but I doubt many homes are using 50 MWh in a month; I don't even use that much electricity in a year!

As it happens, last year I dipped into the 2.5 MWh range during all 4 of the Summer months, a total of 122 days under the Schedule 1 definition (June, July, August and September).  So in these months, my EV would have been taxed at the lower rate because of the large amount of electricity usage, but in the off-season months, it would be charged at the higher rate.  If one averages the two rates out, based on 122 days of the year for the lower rate and the 243.2425 off-season days (in the Gregorian Calendar) I therefore pay about ^0.136¢⁄_kWh for the tax on average.

Local / County Taxes

Each county in Virginia has the option to apply an additional tax on top of the other taxes and surcharges.  For instance, in Fairfax County, where I live, the tax rate is ^0.605¢⁄_kWh.  The difference with the county tax is that there's a minimum charge of $0.56 which effects any total usage under 93 kWh.  There is also a tax rate cap at $4.00, or about 661 kWh, so that there's no tax for any electricity usage above that limit.  As all of my current household monthly loads are in excess of 661 kWh (and even of the 800 kWh of Schedule 1), I don't expect my EV would incur any additional Fairfax County tax since I'm already paying the $4.00 on the base load.

The 4¢

By adding each of the 7 sections above, not including those already calculated as part of the Schedule 1 rate, you have a total of ^3.929¢⁄_kWh, or just under 4¢

In the name of fairness, however, I should point out that there's a 0.066¢ discrepancy between the average result above and this result.  I assume this has to do with rounding errors because verifying against my internal calculations for each subsection, my numbers agree with those posted in the 7 sections above.

More to come…

In the second part of the Dominion Virginia Power Electric Vehicle rate proposal series, I'll be covering the details of the new Electric Vehicle rates and how they would effect a typical EV user like myself and what it's like to live under a Time-Of-Use rate.  All that and more, coming soon!

TOU for EVs coming to Virginia!

Dominion Virginia Power Proposes Rate Options for Charging of Electric Vehicles

As reported earlier, Dominion Virginia Power is planning to rebid a new rate schedule for Electric Vehicles in the Commonwealth of Virginia later this year.  The proposal would go before the State Corporation Commission probably this spring and if accepted would mean that 1,500 lucky participants would be allowed to participate in the new rate on a 1-year, trial basis.

Dominion is considering 2 new rates for its residential customers.  One rate would be purely for Electric Vehicles and would have high on-peak and low off-peak usage charges.  The other would be a household rate similar to the Schedule 1T currently allowed to some Dominion customers, though at slightly higher rates.  As I'm currently happy with my household rate under Schedule 1, I'd still prefer the option for a separate TOU Meter, as stated previously.

Now, the question is, what will this new rate be?  According to the press release, Dominion expects a cost of 35¢ for a 40-mile commute under the Electric Vehicle only rate proposal.  This distance is significant because it is also the quoted electric range of the Chevrolet Volt.  Therefore, if we take battery capacity of the Chevy Volt and divide 35¢ by it, we should get the cost per kWh of the new off-peak rate.  The problem is, which value for the Chevy Volt did Dominion use in this computation?

Total battery capacity of the Chevy Volt is 16 kWh, but the Volt only has a usable range of 10.6 kWh.  What's more, Wikipedia quotes the EPA's calculated efficiency of ^36 kWh⁄_100 mi, or ^2.78 mi⁄_kWh.  Given each of these, the rate (for Generation and Transmission, combined) could be any one of ^2.188¢⁄_kWh over the entire 16 kWh battery pack, ^3.365¢⁄_kWh over the 10.6 kWh usable range of the pack or ^2.431¢⁄_kWh based on the EPA electrical rate of ^36 kWh⁄_100 mi for 40 miles totaling 14.4 kWh.

On the other hand, if the 40 mile range is based on the Nissan LEAF, then we know that the LEAF can go about 100 miles on its 24 kWh battery.  Thus, 40 miles represents 40% of 24 kWh or 9.6 kWh.  Divide the 35¢ quote from Dominion by this and you get ^3.646¢⁄_kWh.  As such, I'm inclined to believe the rate is closer to ^3¢⁄_kWh.  Either way, since my daily commute will be closer to 75 miles per day, I'd expect to be paying about 66¢ per day in Electricity under the new rate schedule, or about $4.59 per week.  Compare that to about $45 spent in gasoline each week and you can see why I want to go electric on this new rate schedule.

>Consider also that the ^3¢⁄_kWh is still half of the current summertime rate under Schedule 1, ^7.033¢⁄_kWh during the 4 summer months; ^4.187¢⁄_kWh the other 8 months.  What's not clear is if there'll be a separate $12 per month meter charge, in which case the rate becomes less appealing.

If we assume the new TOU rate for EVs will be ^3¢⁄_kWh for off-peak and the same as Schedule 1T, ^13.977¢⁄_kWh for on-peak, with a $12 per month charge for the second meter, my estimated annual cost for the EV's electricity will be about $327.42 per year.  Although this sounds good, I estimate my cost under the current Schedule 1 to be $311.07, which is actually cheaper!  This is mainly due to the monthly meter fee and the fact that the Clipper Creek CS-100 EVSE draws about 5 watts of power when idle, including during peak electricity hours.  If I could eliminate the monthly meter cost, my cost goes down to $183.42 annually; if I could shut off my EVSE during peak, that'd save a mere $3.09 if the Schedule 1T peak rate is used.

It also remains to be seen if a full 20+ kWh can be drawn for the entire 7 - 8 hours required to charge the Nissan LEAF under the new TOU EV rate. If the off-peak rate isn't a full 8 hours per night, it may be impossible to charge the LEAF without going on the peak usage rate.  In fact, if I hope to leave my house at 05:30 each morning, the off-peak better start absolutely no later than 22:00 — or the 2012 LEAF could just add a 6.6kW charger!

Of the 1500 participants in the pilot program, 750 will be chosen to go under the EV-only TOU rate and 750 to go to the household TOU rate for EV owners.  As the press release states, the program will begin 90 days after the State Corporation Commission approves the new rate and will end 30 November 2014.  Of course, if the new rate is approved in September, and I'm able to get my LEAF in December, I should be well-placed to join the pilot program.  If the approval comes earlier or my LEAF arrives later, I won't be able to get in the program from the beginning but might still be able to join as late as 1 December 2013, assuming there are still some opened slots in the program.  I would then be able to use this new rate for a year while Dominion closely monitored my electricity usage.

All in all, exciting news, even if it can't beat the current Schedule 1 rates, though this too may change as we learn more about the proposal. Stay tuned…

A new Residential rate for EVs?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I detailed why unless you have a detached, unpowered garage, you couldn't get a TOU meter or sub-meter specifically for your EV in Virginia because Dominion Virginia Power is not allowed by the Commonwealth to offer a residential meter on a different rate schedule than the primary meter, as I unfortunately found out last month.

Well, last Thursday, I got a surprise call from Dominion asking me if a new EV rate schedule would be appealing to me.  I was of course very interested in this, and what Dominion is thinking is having this schedule be like the Schedule 1T, a Time-Of-Use schedule, but with potential blackout periods.  Upon further investigation, I determined that the idea would be to shut off power to the EVSE during certain very high-demand peak hours, typically during the day.  I said I have no problem with this at all since I would be charging my EV during off-peak hours anyway and as long as I had guaranteed power from 22:00 to 05:30 or so in the morning, I should be okay.  She also said they would probably be able to inform me 24 hours in advance if a shut-off was to occur, which would IMHO be enough notice in the rare instance where I felt the need to pay the Peak rate and charge my car during the day.  The only issue would be during the summer from 22:00 to 23:00 where she indicated they might need to shut off the power until that late in the evening, which would interfere with my necessary 8 or so hours of charging.

Of course, this would have just been in preparation of the State Corporation Commission bid, so the rate may change over time, but it is fascinating to see how this is progressing in real-time.  However, I should point out the other aspect of an EV rate is also potentially paving the way for usage costs at public charging stations.  Only time will tell…

The Time-Of-Use Meter FAQ for the Commonwealth of Virginia

Q1: Who provides power in Virginia?

A: Dominion Virginia Power is the chief Power Utility in the Commonwealth, with a number in Northern Virginia using the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC).  I currently use Dominion.

Q2: Can I install a separate, independent meter?

A: Yes, as long as it doesn't enter the house or garage or any other structure already receiving electricity from another meter.  This is because of Chapter 2 of the NEC (National Electric Code) and IRC (International Building Code) E3501.2.  In the Commonwealth, we are on NEC 2005.

Basically, if you want a separate, independent meter, you have to mount the EVSE outside the house and basically park outside.  Not a very appetizing solution if you have a garage here in Virginia.

Q3: What if I just install a submeter?  Can I take advantage of the Schedule 1T or Schedule 1S rate then?

A: Unfortunately, no.  The problem is, the current contract Dominion has with the State Corporation Commission dictates that all metered and billed electricity entering a structure must be billed at the same rate.  I assume this was to allow submeters on apartments while protecting residents from having different rates per apartment.

Todd, an engineer at Dominion, tells me that they are looking into rebidding a new contract with the State Corporation Commission which would add in provisions for things like Electric Vehicles and other new Green elements and he would keep me informed of any progress with that.

Q4: State Corporation Commission?  How does that work?

A: Basically, Dominion makes a proposal for a new rate structure, then the SCC has a request for comments period and after the public comment period is over, the new rate schedule is voted upon and potentially ratified.  At this point Dominion can open up multiple accounts for the same residence, i.e. one on the (new) Schedule 1 and another on the (new) Schedule 1T — or some other schedule specifically for EVs.

Q5: How long could this take?

A: The last rate adjustment request took 9 months from submission to approval.  This request looks to be simpler and so may be quicker, but don't expect any change before about July 2011.

I should point out here that I truly am of the belief that we Virginians will be getting our Nissan LEAFs in July not April as we were previously led to believe.  Either way, I want to get my EVSE in place before 31 Dec for the Federal Tax Credit.

Q6: When the new rate schedule is approved, how much would it cost to install the submeter?

A: Not much, since it's just the meter and no new trenching would be necessary.

Q7: So the submeter would be below the current meter?

A: Not likely.  In fact, Dominion has been rolling out new smart meters that can have up to 3 outputs. It is more likely they would just swap your current meter for one of these smart meters where the first feed would be for the household and the second feed could be for an EV.

Q8: Why can't I just install a second meter? What does NEC / IRC E3501.2 say?

A:

A dwelling unit shall be supplied by only one service.

The idea of NEC / IRC E3501.2 is to give the the marshal a single, master switch where he or she can shut off the power to an entire dwelling.  It is a safety precaution.

Q9: I read something about installing a plaque for the fire marshal so that he or she would know where the other meter was and be able to switch it off, is that true?

A: It's not in the 2005 NEC, which is what the Commonwealth follows, so no, that will not be sufficient.  However, the Commonwealth is looking at upgrading to the 2008 NEC in March, 2011.

Q10: What about installing a firewall between my attached garage and house?

A: Assuming you could isolate the power for each structure on either side of the firewall, this possibility should be allowed under the 2005 NEC since this is what town houses do.  Potentially up to 6 separate meters could be installed, but each area covered by a meter must only get power from that meter and be isolated by other areas with the 2-hour burn firewall.

Q11: So what EVSE are you buying?

A: I've ordered the Clipper Creek CS-100 with J1772 connect via the Electric Automotive Association member discount posted in the Clipper Creek thread of the My Nissan LEAF forum.  I've decided to go with W.H. Cullen Electrical Contractor for my installation.  I found him in the list of Electrical Contractors registered with the Better Business Bureau in the Metro Washington area on the list I recently compiled.