University of California Institute of Transportation Studies

This report outlines the development of an electric utility billing system model for the purpose of evaluating existing and potential electric utility rate schedules. The model was primarily developed to evaluate cost implications of existing and proposed rate schedules on customers charging electric vehicles (EV) but can also be used to evaluate residential electric power bills across a broader context of economic and policy issues.  The first issue analyzed in this report is the differential impact of residential default inclining block (tiered) and optional time-of-use rates on the average customer’s cost of electric vehicle charging. The analysis shows that the average customer’s cost of electric vehicle charging is minimized by the adoption of time-of-use rates. The second issue analyzed in this report is the impact of current demand charges on the bills of commercial customer’s using direct current fast charging for electric vehicles.