KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Stephen Smith, the Executive Director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy installed two systems with solar panels on his home in West Knoxville. His system includes a Tesla Power Wall, batteries that collect the solar power he generates and stores it for later use.
"The panels are generating probably 60-80% of what we normally use," Smith said.
The rest of the power comes from the Knoxville Utilities Board grid, Smith said. KUB's time-of-use program incentivizes people to use less power during peak load hours for the grid. In the winter, KUB said that peak loads happen between 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. In the summer, they said it's 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day.
When KUB is at peak load, Smith said he's able to take his house completely off of the grid, saving him money.
At current rates, customers in the time-of-use program pay 8 cents per kWh at off-peak times, and 21 cents per kWh at peak times. The standard rate for customers is 10 cents per kWh.
The program is available to any KUB customer, not just people who have solar power in their homes.
"Someone who is able to shift their energy usage to an off-peak time of the day could save money," said Chasity Hobby for KUB. "If, say, you're able to do your laundry on the weekends, or adjust your thermostat, then you might be able to save money that way."
Smith said he hopes this is how utilities will work with people in the future.
"Your house becomes a partnership with utilities, where you're actually working in concert with the utilities," Smith said.