# What is a REP In Texas, Retail Electricity Providers (REPs) are companies that sell electricity to consumers in the State’s deregulated areas, which represent about 85% of Texans. REPs purchase power from generation companies who produce the electricity, and develop different types of electricity plans, allowing customers to benefit from competitive pricing and diverse service offerings. REPs are licensed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas to ensure fair practices. REPs often offer different options like fixed rates, solar buyback, and different contract term lengths, as well as providing billing and customer service. REPs can also offer additional tools to customers, including ways to understand and reduce their electricity usage and manage their smart devices to get better results. # Smart Electricity David Energy is designed to offer a different kind of energy to customers in Texas: Smart electricity. Smart electricity is the answer to updating our power grid for the 21st century. It means that homes and businesses, already enabled by smart energy devices like EVs, batteries, thermostats and more, can work _with_ the grid to lower their electricity costs and make our power more reliable. The standard operating model of electricity today is one where consumption of electricity is unpredictable, making the grid difficult and expensive to manage. Smart electricity allows two-way communication between your home energy system, the grid, and your power company, enabling homes to more efficiently use power without impacting individual comfort or function. This also enables better data about energy use to flow to the grid, helping to lower costs and increase reliability. Homes are becoming smart-enabled and producing more and more of their own power every day. David Energy’s smart electricity model – enabled by software designed to complement and enhance your system – makes the most of these capabilities to make bills lower and homes run smoother every day. # Battery Optimization Credits On the Smart Battery plan, you earn bill credits when David Energy’s Battery Optimization software helps your battery use power more effectively to lower your bills. Learn more about Battery Optimization [here](/content/support/how-it-works/index.html). ## How much will I earn in credits? Your earnings depend on the size of your battery, your preferred battery settings, and your system’s performance. ## How does Battery Optimization help me save? Battery Optimization signals your battery to export, power your home, or charge, depending on how your battery can help save you the most. See the full program terms [here](https://app.davidenergy.com/api/resi/legal-consents/43/download). It’s designed to use your power to help you come out ahead. That means: - When your battery exports, you’ll always earn more than the cost to replace that power from the grid. - If your battery charges from the grid, you will always earn more than the cost to you for importing. These are calculated in the comparison tool estimates, so you get a clear picture of your potential outcomes. ## Why does David Energy offer Battery Optimization Credits? Battery Optimization works by intelligently helping your home align the way it uses energy with grid conditions, saving both you and David Energy money. Here’s an example of how this works: - When grid demand for power is high, Battery Optimization exports your power to earn credits. - At the same time, David Energy has to purchase less power during expensive, high demand periods. - It’s a win-win – you get paid while helping us reduce our operating costs, so we can keep finding ways to get you more credits every month. All this happens thanks to our smart software which automates the work of market monitoring – getting you battery benefits without the hassle and risk of dealing with wholesale prices. # Grid Conditions Battery power is extremely valuable to the grid at varying times throughout the day. Battery optimization monitors grid conditions minute by minute and signals battery exporting when power is needed the most. ## Whole Home Optimization To ensure you’re using battery power most effectively in your home, Battery Optimization monitors multiple factors, including your plan’s import and export price, TDU fees, your home’s energy usage, and grid conditions. These factors determine the mode your battery is placed in. # The Clean Energy Grid The David Energy mission is to run the grid 100% on clean energy. This happens by empowering homes and businesses everywhere to power themselves as effectively as possible – leading to lower costs, more reliable power, and a completely clean energy system. ## The Clean Energy Challenge Today, renewables are the cheapest source of power we can create. When they are producing electricity the generation costs are effectively zero, because there are no fuel costs. However, renewables like solar and wind are intermittent – meaning that there is no way to control when they produce electricity (i.e. when the sun shines and the wind blows). Currently, when renewables are not producing enough low-cost electricity to meet the demand of the grid, those gaps are filled by generating electricity from expensive fossil fuels like gas. Most of the current grid infrastructure is outdated and not designed to work with these intermittencies, causing outages and expensive challenges. This is why electricity costs to consumers are not decreasing as quickly as low-cost renewable energy generation is increasing. ## The Distributed Grid Utilizing the low-cost electricity of renewables as effectively as possible and removing the need for these fossil fuels can be accomplished through something called the distributed grid. This means that instead of many homes consuming electricity from a few large power plants, much more power is generated on-site at those homes from things like rooftop solar. This is already happening today, but it’s still not able to completely eliminate the need for fossil fuels. That’s where smart electricity comes in. By connecting the smart devices that produce and consume energy in thousands of homes, the grid becomes much more flexible – adapting in real time to what’s happening across the network. Power, particularly renewables, is used more efficiently and effectively, reducing costs for homeowners and decreasing the frequency of outages. The more homes that join the network, the more effective it becomes: Continuing to reduce the need for fossil fuels and make electricity more and more affordable over time. # Elements of an Electricity Plan Electricity plans include a variety of elements that impact your total bill each month. Consider the following elements when shopping for an electricity plan: ## Import Rates How much you pay for the electricity your home uses from the grid, typically in cents per kWh. These rates can be fixed (you always pay the same per kWh) or variable (the rate you pay may change). ## Export Rates Specific to solar or solar + battery homes, this is how much your electricity company will pay you for any power your home produces and sends back to the grid. ## TDU Delivery Charges Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU) charges are how much you pay for your utility (Oncor or Centerpoint) to deliver the electricity to your home. These are different from how much you pay for the power you use from your electricity provider. TDU charges are set based on your geographic location and will be the same across plans from different providers. They are typically made up of a charge per kWh you consume, as well as a base fee. ## Additional Fees Some plans come with base fees or other fees on top of the charges for how much electricity you consume. Consider this when you look at overall costs. ## Additional Credits Offered Some plans offer additional credits or bonuses for certain behaviors or may have benefits for specific devices or types of homes. ## Special Terms and Conditions Read the fine print to make sure you understand any terms and conditions that come with your plan. Some plans will have special structures like weekends free or have eligibility requirements like being a net importer (you can’t sell back more power than you consume) on a solar buyback plan. ## Contract Length Electricity contracts come in various lengths. This is the time period in which the rates and terms of the contract are locked. Terms can range from multiple years to several months, or be month-to-month, which often means that the prices will change each month that you are on the plan. ## Early Termination Fee The cost for ending the contract before its term is over. # How Smart Charging Works ## Your Smart Charging Preferences To use Smart Charging, you’ll first [connect your car](/content/support/connecting-a-tesla/index.html) to the David Energy platform. Here, you’ll choose your preferred configuration: Your desired maximum charge level, your desired minimum charge level, and your “finish charge by” time – when you’d like your charging to complete each day. Smart Charging will optimize your charging within these preferences. ## Grid Monitoring Smart Charging works by monitoring grid conditions in real time to determine the best time to charge your car. EV charging consumes a large amount of power in a short period of time relative to the rest of your home, so it provides a lot of opportunity to align that consumption with grid conditions to charge with cheaper and cleaner energy. Smart Charging signals to your EV to start, stop, or pause charging throughout the day based on when you can charge for the lowest energy cost. ## Charge Time Optimization When you plug in your car, Smart Charging calculates how much time it will take to reach your preferred charge level. It then looks at your “finish charge by” time and determines how much extra time you have to pause or shift your charging windows, and still reach your desired charge level. This means that if you plug in without enough time to reach your desired charge level, Smart Charging will prioritize charging your car immediately instead of waiting for low prices – so your car is first and foremost charged when you need it to be. Charging in this way is safe for your EV and complies with manufacturer recommendations on battery health. ## Bill Credits & Charging Insights Each month, you’ll receive a bill credit for the money you saved on charging. Weekly, you’ll receive an email that details how much you charged, your average cost to charge, and how much you saved on charging. # Supported Batteries Battery Optimization is currently compatible with the following models. If your battery brand or model is not supported, you can request it [here](https://form.typeform.com/to/EM1E90fY#). ## Tesla Powerwall series ## Enphase Enphase IQ series # Supported Vehicles Smart Charging currently is available for Teslas; however, we hope to roll out this program to additional EV types in the future.