In general, I think it’s good to reward people who time their electricity use in a prosocial way.

Yeah, I could get behind that. If someone wants to sweat out the hot days of summer to reduce the collective demand for resources, I'd be all for giving them some sort of "bonus" or reward. But, e.g., no one should be asked to lower the thermostat during peak hours in winter (or have to pay $17k in extraordinary cases, like we've seen happen in Texas recently).

Going back to the idea of variable rates, I think it could work if there are contractual maximum rates, with notation on bills indicating what a bill would be like if their current period's usage came out at that maximum rate (e.g. someone is charged $100 one month, with a mix of peak and trough times, then the bill should also mention that amount of usage would've cost $500 had it been entirely at the peak rate, or whatever the actual number would be). This, along with some way of constantly letting people know what their current rate and consumption are (smart meters could possibly help here, idk).

I'd still avoid the variable rate, personally.

Perhaps a better alternative is to give the power company the ability to turn up and down peoples thermostat a few degrees, or the ability to start and stop car charging.

This idea kind of horrifies me. I don't want any company having any sort of control over my home like that. There are always unusual circumstances, and no one should have to file a form to request permission to set the thermostat a bit higher or charge their car (just to extrapolate what may happen if power companies could control certain endpoint uses like you suggested).

It would be nice if the consumer could opt to pay a variable rate for electricity so that people can schedule their usage to decrease costs.

Would this be different in anyway from what some(?) providers in Texas do? Seems like a really good way to screw people over, imo.

Just thinking aloud here, recalling some horror stories about people getting hit by crazy bills in recent winters (especially relevant given local pushes to ban natural gas in new homes).

I almost took offense... and then I remembered the burrito place I really like is El Super Taco.

So I guess it's go to El Super Burrito for the tacos and El Super Taco for the burritos?