Never liked peak usage pricing either. Again because it’s not a choice. I live in Tucson, it’s nearly 100 degrees right now. no matter what I set the thermostat to the AC’s gonna run most of the afternoon. Why should I have to pay more. Not like I have the option to move the house somewhere cool on summer afternoons. Off work traffic can be worse because the destinations tend to fewer. If you get away from the big retail areas you’re usually OK. And of course special events have a denser version of the work problem. 25,000 people all aiming for puck drop and all leaving at the final horn creates a traffic problem. I think the theory behind congestion pricing is that it sounds like it will reduce traffic, until people think about it just punishes a captive audience. It’s movie theater candy.
It's called supply and demand. People lived out there before AC even existed, so it's not as if your electricity is comparable to food, water and oxygen when it comes to survival.
I think the theory behind congestion pricing is that it sounds like it will reduce traffic, until people think about it just punishes a captive audience.
Maybe, but it may also give people and their employers incentives to modify their travel as well. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach adopted their own version of a "congestion pricing" model to encourage drayage truckers to pick up their loads during overnight hours. They imposed a surcharge on any transactions during peak daytime operating hours of the port and the surrounding highway system. The program was so successful that it sort of defeated the original purpose ... because now many of the terminals are seeing hundreds of trucks lining up to be the first ones through the gates the minute the surcharge period ends in the evening.
>>Why should I have to pay more.
The reality of electrical generation capacity planning and construction means that a kWH generated at time of peak demand costs / is worth a lot more than an off-peak one. It’s basic economics, that’s why.