Fayetteville Public Works Commission customers who have reduced their electric bills by doing laundry on the weekends and holidays will need to change their habits to continue saving money.
The PWC as of April 1 implemented new days and new hours for its time-of-use rates — those periods when the PWC charges higher prices for electricity. The new schedule is to help the PWC and its customers save money on electricity, PWC Communications Manager Gavin MacRoberts said.
There are two big changes.
First, the higher prices of time-of-use rates are being levied on weekends and holidays in addition to weekdays. Before, the higher price was charged only on weekdays. Second, peak pricing runs three hours per day instead of four hours per day.
In detail:
- Under the old schedule, summer peak pricing hours (April through October) used to be 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Winter peak hours (November through March) used to be 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. In addition to weekends, holidays were exempt from peak pricing.
- Under the new schedule, summer peak hours are 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day from April through October. Winter peak hours are 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. every day from November through March. There are no exceptions for weekends or holidays.
During on-peak hours, the PWC charges residential customers 53.4% more per kilowatt hour than during off-peak hours.
Duke’s prices push PWC’s prices
PWC is the city-owned electric, water and sewer utility for most of Fayetteville plus some surrounding communities. It buys most of its electricity from Duke Energy.
The price PWC pays Duke fluctuates significantly based on how much demand there is for electricity, MacRoberts said; when demand is at its highest, the prices Duke charges PWC are at their highest.
PWC added weekends and holidays to its peak time-of-use pricing because peak periods of electrical usage happen on weekends and holidays, MacRoberts said.
“As we have been educating our customers since Time-Of-Use was first introduced, roughly 57% of the cost of buying energy is coming from energy being consumed during peak usage periods,” MacRoberts said via email. “Reducing our use during those peak times can reduce costs significantly.”
The higher time-of-use pricing encourages people to change their heavier electricity use (for things like laundry machines and dishwashers) to the hours when it’s cheaper for the PWC to buy electricity, MacRoberts said. He advised residential customers that if they shift a third of the electricity they consume during peak hours to off-peak hours, they can save about $31 on average annually.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct what the hours of peak pricing used to be during the summer period. The hours used to be 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., or four hours per day.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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