As of January 2024, Alectra Utilities begin to allow residential customers with net meters to take advantage of the Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO) rate schedule. Since I have plenty of battery backup, I thought this ULO pricing schedule is perfect for my solar and battery backup situation.
The idea is to use my batteries from 7am to 11pm during the non-ULO periods, and then replenish my batteries at the low $0.028 per kWh after 11pm. I also switched our two Green Vehicles to charge after 11pm.
Another great benefit of the ULO schedule is that electricity generated and feedback to the grid is credited with the increased rates. This means any surplus electricity sent back to the grid between 4pm and 9pm during the weekdays gets a premium credit of $0.286 per kWh. This is ten times more than the usage after 11pm!
After reconfiguring my solar – backup system to this new schedule, you can see from the above chart that my electricity consumption is now in alignment with the ULO schedule.
The process of switching from a Tier Rate schedule to the ULO schedule was not simple. I had to call Alectra customer support and waited for literally hours to get a staff member who was knowledgeable enough to help me with the switch.
I hope the pain is now over and we begin to reap the benefits of the ULO pricing. Let us hope that this summer we will be able to collect much more credit because of ULO.