That's an awfully low baseline to have such punitive tiers above it. Still, I remember all the rolling blackouts and brownouts when I lived out there, and the only thing that spared us where we lived was our proximity to the firehouse so they couldn't ever shut the power down on us.
We're running a 2000sf house with 4 people and only slightly into the punitive rates. But we have about 1/3 LED bulbs (the ones that get the most use), and the rest are CFL. We have energy star appliances. I dry 1-2 loads of laundry for "free" on clotheslines. (Sheets/towels/jeans/t-shirts... the stuff that is big enough to make the labor less onerous... I refuse to hang socks and boys undies... to many clothespins.) We turn lights off, have gotten rid of a lot of vampire chargers, etc. Our use is super low compared to our neighbors. And we're not doing much to keep it low - except the no AC and no pool. July was hot - so we did use our whole house attic fan - which is probably our biggest draw of energy, when it's running. About 1/2 the time we're within the first 2 tiers. I don't think I've ever gone into tier 4.
Heck - look at FIRE'd - he's got similar use for 2 people in a presumably smaller space.
It helps that we have gas cooking.