Years back, a major municipal utility in the U.S. rolled out a new time-of-use rate for commercial customers. At first, everything seemed fine. Then, customers in one category suddenly began seeing a huge spike in their bills: churches.

“They were getting hit with a demand charge and their bills were four, five times what they” had previously been, explains GridX CEO Chris Black.

The price of electricity used to be static. Today, rates are a real-time tool to manage demand on a grid that is being transformed by renewables, batteries and electric cars — and increasingly stressed by extreme weather events.

Nearly 70% of the country has some kind of time-of-use rate in place. But only 7% of customers are actively taking advantage of them. Why is that? And as time-of-use rates expand, how do we avoid the "tax on God" conundrum?

“We have to get it right. We have to figure out how to make all of this more accessible...and better for consumers,” says Black.

In this episode, Chris Black makes the case that dynamic rate design is one of the most important tools for decarbonizing the grid.

This episode was produced in partnership with GridX. Delivering on the clean energy future is complex. GridX exists to simplify the journey. Learn more.