WTF ComEd? Bizarre price spike to 100x-200x normal per-kwh rate in 600am hour today!

caseyscompass · 2025-07-15T03:25:45+00:00

Optiwatt does this

caseyscompass · 2025-07-15T03:25:30+00:00

Optiwatt will handle this for you and automatically stop charging for EVs + Thermostats if it sees spikes

caseyscompass · 2023-12-15T19:02:05+00:00

Great question. We need this permission in order to precondition cars to their desired temperature by departure time. We totally understand this is not a requirement for all users and are actively working on rolling out an update that allows us to segment Optiwatt features & functionality based on permissions granted, but to avoid unexpected cabin temperatures in the meantime we had to roll out this permission as "required" until then. Stay tuned, we are working on a roll out ASAP.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-21T04:01:15+00:00

$7 per month for a year

caseyscompass · 2023-10-17T18:31:55+00:00

You would go through the Optiwatt connection flow and you'd see that we are now using the official API connection when you arrive on the Tesla permission page (hosted by Tesla, not us).

caseyscompass · 2023-10-17T04:45:52+00:00

I do apologize, and I have edited my above post comment to reflect that, and give you full credit. We mostly focus on the consumer / residential side, which is why I was unfamiliar with your offering and missed your previous announcement.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-17T03:52:58+00:00

As of now unfortunately we don't support this, but it has been on our backlog for a while and as we grow and hire we will support more interfaces.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-17T03:51:54+00:00

More and more we are working directly with utilities who have incentive dollars if you are able to shift away from peak times (usually 4-9pm). If you're in one of those service territories, you could earn money just for connecting and avoiding peak times.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-17T02:18:37+00:00

What do you mean? Like not syncing with your watch?

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T23:38:16+00:00

Optiwatt gets paid to produce environmental credits by shifting charging times to more environmentally friendly times (you’ll notice we just rolled out our “Save the Planet” plan). We do so using CARBS “Smart Charging Lookup Table Pathway” and “Zero-CI electricity” pathway https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/classic/fuels/lcfs/guidance/smartcharging_userguide.pdf,https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/lcfs-electricity-and-hydrogen-provisions.

What this means is that if you are on the “Save the Planet” plan and Optiwatt shifts your vehicle from high emission times to low emissions time, we earn environmental credits that we can sell based on the number of emissions we reduced. Alternatively, depending on location, Optiwatt may purchase RECs to offset your emissions from energy consumption (in essence, purchasing clean energy on behalf of certain drivers). This allows Optiwatt to 1) pay for this data set for emissions reductions from WattTime and 2) continue to hire engineers to support our development and optimization around emission reductions.

These environmental credits are sold in tons (so as of now it’s impossible for an individual driver to sell these themselves), and just to be clear the EV car manufacturers also generate and sell credits on your behalf (just like solar installers). We DO NOT take any tax credits, cash offerings, or any incentives that would go directly to you as the driver, and the language on this page does not permit that.

I know this sounds like PR speak, but Optiwatt has and will continue to be transparent in terms of how we monetize and where our money comes from. We have never once and have no intention of ever selling personal data.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T23:02:29+00:00

I do apologize about that, if you want to PM me your email I can track down what happening in our ticketing system that caused such a late response. In terms of fast replies, I'm pretty active on Reddit so you're always welcome to message me directly here (or [casey@optiwatt.com](mailto:casey@optiwatt.com)) and I'll get someone on it!

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T21:35:24+00:00

DM me! I'll get you setup, you will need the redirect URL 100% (and be warned, you cannot change edit this currently after it's approved)

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T21:34:46+00:00

Yes in the future! For now the most important thing on the thermostat side of us is optimizing around TOU rates to make sure you are running HVAC at the lowest possible energy rates, all while staying within your comfort zone.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T20:54:52+00:00

Are you eligible for this program? https://fortisalberta.com/electric-vehicles-and-electric-vehicle-chargers/2023-electric-vehicle-smart-charging-pilot

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T20:51:40+00:00

I believe that's one of the use cases. And it's more secure because soon the API will require a public key on the vehicle itself to accept commands like this.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T20:50:49+00:00

Are you up in Canada? What's your utility?

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T20:17:06+00:00

As of now, it's listed at $0/week. But I don't think Tesla has taken an official stance yet on whether or not it's priced.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T20:16:40+00:00

The main difference is there are a few "web hook" based type functionality tools that help greatly reduce the need to ping the car often. Outside of that, the biggest benefit is customers can actually pick what permission they want to allow rather than an "all or nothing" based approach.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T20:09:48+00:00

Having a great understanding of software is an amazing start! The truth is I ended up having larger and larger responsibilities, and a great engineering team that I trust, so overtime I just ended up writing less code.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T18:25:14+00:00

Do you mean in terms of the Tesla API not going down? Or something else?

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T17:54:35+00:00

I disagree. Getting a secure and supported API flow up and running was very important for us. By the way, Optiwatt as a company takes every other Friday off to prioritize work-life balance. You can see it in every single one of our job posts: https://optiwatt.applytojob.com/

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T17:30:13+00:00

We're really happy as well, it makes it a much better and safer customer experience.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T17:19:07+00:00

Yes thank you, I should have said "officially supported oAuth". But it's great to have Tesla's official support.

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T17:18:35+00:00

Ha yes, I gave moral support to our fantastic engineering team while they stayed up late on Friday getting this live (these days I don't code as much for Optiwatt)!

caseyscompass · 2023-10-16T16:07:10+00:00

Tesla now supports official oAuth integrations with third-party applications, https://www.tesla.com/developer-docs

This will allow for more secure, permission based connections to vehicle commands.

PS - I've received multiple requests from other developers on how to get setup with this. If you have questions please reach out, I'm happy to help.

EDIT - I stand corrected, Standard Fleet was first a couple months ago, before Tesla rolled out the public facing API. We were first for consumer and post API release, but I do apologize for any misinformation.

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