When HECO eventually implements TOU a lot of people are going see huge changes in their electric bill

https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2023/07/27/hawaiian-electric-launches-shift-and-save-program.html

The normal range on Oahu for the residential rate has been around 30-35 cents her kWh.  It fluctuates with the cost of oil (fuel) as shown on your bill in the Energy Cost Recovery line item -- i.e. the additional cost of oil used to produce energy.

There's a reason laundry and kitchen appliances have timers to delay turning on.  There are many places on the mainland that have charged more for on-peak usage than off-peak.  So, many set their dishwasher to run after 9pm, and washers to run at 5AM so residents can put washed clothes in the dryer before leaving for work.

Staggering use reduces peak demand and avoids rolling brown-outs and black-outs.  it also avoids massive electricity bill increases caused by local companies having to buy from neighboring electric companies at much higher rates.

We're in a unique situation with no way to purchase non-HECO produced power.  So, if demand exceeds production, there's little HECO can do but start rolling brown-outs.

During the day, they get excess solar power from customers plus their own solar farms to augment production, so it's only after the sun is setting, or on cloudy days, that the generators can be overwhelmed.  That's why the highest rate period in that article is 5pm - 9pm -- after the sun is setting and after people usually come home from school and work.  Cooking, turning on lights, doing laundry, running the AC, watching TV, running the vacuum, drawing power to a solar/electric water heater, and so forth.

This is not a new concept.  I remember 30-40 years ago power companies were giving discounts to any residential customer who had a radio-controlled switch put on their water heater.  if the company saw a spike in demand, they could offset it my shutting off a good number of water heaters (usually the #1 energy user in homes) for about 30-60 minutes at a time.  This would rarely impact customers, especially if no one was home during that time.

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No difference, I got PV. Here is the honest truth...

I got up at 11pm because I passed out from drinking beer and eating pizza rolls and I had to go pee

This sounds more like an acceptable answer. 

Take a look at your HECO bill.  There are more categories of charges beyond just customer usage.  Some factor in your usage, and others are fixed.



So, a relatively small increase in usage during a time when fuel costs are low won't increase your bill by a massive amount.  however, when oil prices are extremely high, any change in usage increases your bill by a lot.

During the Obama years, when the price of gas was pushing $6/gal, My electric bill was over $600/month.  No AC -- but we did run a swimming pool pump and cleaner almost the entire day.  We only shut it off for bedtime to quiet the motor noise.

When I drained the pool, the bill dropped to $~400.  It's now $250/mon without the pool motor running but with an occassional portable AC on hot nights.

Brandon caused my eletric bill to go up by 80%.