California TOU Rate Plans: Which One Is Right for You?

Rate plans are the most underutilized lever in residential electricity costs, and the gap between the right and wrong plan is larger than most people assume. I’ve run billing simulations for a large number of California households and the same pattern appears repeatedly: customers on the default plan, never having changed it, paying $50–$200/month more than they would on the best available alternative.

The counterintuitive thing about TOU plans is that they’re not always better. If your usage is genuinely concentrated in the peak window (4–9pm, every weekday), a flat tiered plan may cost you less despite its simpler structure. The only way to know for certain is to simulate your actual interval data against each plan.

Here’s what each plan actually is, and which household types it fits.

PG&E Plans

E-1 Tiered

Flat rate with two tiers, cheaper for the first ~500 kWh/month and more expensive above that.

• Tier 1: ~$0.29/kWh
• Tier 2: ~$0.42/kWh
• No time-of-day pricing. You pay the same regardless of when you use electricity.

Best for: Households where most electricity use falls in the 4–9pm window and can’t be shifted (cooking dinner every night, bathing kids, evening TV). Also good for very low-usage households who stay in Tier 1 all month.

Not for: Anyone with an EV, battery, or pool. Those high-volume loads would benefit enormously from overnight off-peak rates.

E-TOU-C

PG&E’s most common default TOU plan.

• Peak (4–9pm weekdays): ~$0.45/kWh
• Off-Peak (all other times): ~$0.31/kWh
• Weekends and holidays: entirely off-peak

Best for: Households with some flexibility. The weekend-all-off-peak feature is genuinely valuable. If you do laundry on Saturday and run the dishwasher late, you’re always at the cheap rate.

Not for: Households where every weeknight involves heavy cooking and entertainment from 5–9pm with no flexibility to delay.

E-TOU-D

Narrower peak window than E-TOU-C: 5–8pm instead of 4–9pm.

• Peak (5–8pm weekdays): ~$0.44/kWh
• Off-Peak (all other times): ~$0.28/kWh
• Weekends: entirely off-peak

Best for: Customers who get home from work around 5pm and finish their heaviest use by 8pm. The three-hour peak window instead of five hours means more of your evening is at the cheaper rate.

EV2-A

The best plan available for EV owners and homes with battery storage.

• Peak (4–9pm daily, including weekends): ~$0.52/kWh
• Off-Peak (all other times): ~$0.17–$0.21/kWh

The off-peak rate is roughly 3× cheaper than peak. Charging an EV overnight on EV2-A instead of E-TOU-C saves around $250–$400/year for a typical commuter. Adding a battery and charging it from off-peak grid power during cheap hours amplifies this further.

Eligibility: Self-certify that you have an EV, plug-in hybrid, residential battery, or electric heat pump. PG&E doesn’t verify.

Important caveat: If you can’t shift significant loads to overnight hours, EV2-A will cost you more than other plans because the peak rate is higher. It’s not automatically better. It’s better specifically for households that can actually shift loads.

SCE Plans

Schedule D (Tiered)

SCE’s baseline tiered plan, equivalent to PG&E E-1.

• Tier 1 (~500 kWh/month baseline): ~$0.25/kWh
• Tier 2 (above baseline): ~$0.35/kWh

Lower rates than PG&E’s tiered plan, but the same structural issue: Tier 2 penalizes high-usage households, and there’s no incentive to shift timing.

TOU-D 4-9PM

SCE’s most common default TOU plan.

• Peak (4–9pm weekdays): ~$0.44/kWh
• Mid-Peak (8am–4pm weekdays): ~$0.34/kWh
• Off-Peak (9pm–8am weekdays, all weekends): ~$0.24/kWh

Three pricing tiers based on time. The mid-peak period (daytime) is moderate, not cheap, but not as expensive as the evening peak.

TOU-D 5-8PM

Narrower weekday peak: 5–8pm only.

• Peak (5–8pm weekdays): ~$0.46/kWh
• Off-Peak (all other times): ~$0.26/kWh

One of the simpler plans on offer. If your evening routine is mostly done by 8pm, this keeps the rest of your hours at the cheap off-peak rate.

TOU-D-PRIME

SCE’s equivalent to PG&E’s EV2-A, and the best plan for EVs and battery homes.

• Peak (4–9pm daily): ~$0.56/kWh
• Super Off-Peak (9pm–8am daily): ~$0.14/kWh

$0.14/kWh overnight is among the cheapest residential electricity available from any major California utility. For a household charging an EV nightly (50 kWh/week), the savings over Schedule D run $650–$900/year.

Eligibility: Same self-certification as EV2-A: EV, PHEV, battery, or heat pump. SCE doesn’t verify.

How to Pick

Two questions determine which plan is right:

1. Do you have an EV, a home battery, or an electric heat pump? If yes, go directly to EV2-A (PG&E) or TOU-D-PRIME (SCE). The overnight rate savings on those devices will almost certainly outweigh the higher peak rate, and the net savings will be significant.

2. What fraction of your total monthly electricity use happens between 4–9pm on weekdays?

Look at your utility’s interval data portal and calculate this — the California peak hours tool shows the exact window for each plan. If it’s under 30%, TOU plans will generally save you money. If it’s above 45%, tiered plans may be cheaper because you can’t shift enough load to justify the peak premium.

Most households fall in the 25-40% range during peak hours. TOU plans save them money if they make a few basic behavioral shifts: delayed dishwasher, weekend laundry, off-peak EV charging.