PG&E's peak pricing scheme isn't aimed at "Californians," but at big businesses, a few of which have business schedules which allow them to use less electricity during peak times in exchange for lower prices the rest of the time.

If you read down the page you linked to, you might notice that having a peak demand of 200 kilowatts is a requirement to participate. That's much more than any home would consume.

What're you talking about wahoofive? If you read down the page you allegedly read, you might notice the requirement is simply that you "billed maximum demand of 200 kw or greater during any one of the past 12 billing months." This is easily met by most households.

The average household in America in 2006 used 888 kilowatt hours per month, on average, easily meeting that particular requirement, and certainly meeting it at least one month out of the year.

(Lest we forget, Al Gore, our model environmentally-friendly citizen, used 18,414 kilowatt-hours per month on average in 2006, also meeting the minimum requirement.)

Josh,

I think wahoofive is right, actually. Keep in mind that a kilowatt is a rate of energy consumption, whereas a kilowatt-hour is a measure of total energy consumed. Since there are 720 hours in a 30-day month, a household which consumes 888 kilowatt-hours per month is averaging just over one kilowatt of average power usage.