Critical Peak Pricing (CPP)

Some utilities call a handful of Critical Peak Pricing event days each year, when on-peak power costs far more than usual. SolDial can price those hours correctly so your savings and automations don’t get them wrong.

What CPP is

On a Critical Peak Pricing plan, your everyday time-of-use rates apply most days — but on a small number of event days (declared by the utility, usually on hot summer afternoons), the peak window is billed at a much higher critical-peak rate. Plans like some Duke and other utility TOU schedules work this way.

Entering your critical-peak rate

In Settings → Utility Rates, with your plan set to Time-of-Use, turn on “My plan has a Critical Peak rate” and enter the per-kWh critical-peak price from your utility. If your plan doesn’t have one, leave it off — nothing changes.

Flagging an event day

When your utility declares an event day, flag that date in SolDial. On a flagged day, the peak window is priced at your critical-peak rate instead of the everyday peak rate; every other day stays on your normal schedule.

How it affects savings and automations

With CPP set up, your savings math values energy you avoid (or shift) during a flagged event window at the real, higher rate, and Energy Autopilot treats those hours as the most expensive of the year — exactly when riding on your Powerwall instead of the grid pays the most.

Rate coverage warnings

While you’re building a custom time-of-use schedule, SolDial now checks your windows and warns you if they leave a gap (an hour with no rate) or overlap (an hour priced twice), so your plan is complete before you save it.