On PG&E’s EV2-A plan, electricity at 2am costs about $0.17/kWh. The same electricity at 6pm costs about $0.52/kWh. That’s a 3x difference for the same electrons. Most PG&E customers have no idea the gap is that wide.
Understanding when to use electricity isn’t about being obsessive about conservation. It’s about doing the same things you’d do anyway, just at different times. The dishwasher doesn’t care what time it runs.
Peak windows differ by plan and utility. Look up the exact peak hours for any California rate plan.
See my peak hours →PG&E’s Three Main TOU Plans (2026 Rates)
E-TOU-C
This is the default TOU plan most PG&E customers end up on.
| Time | Rate |
|---|---|
| Peak: 4–9pm weekdays | ~$0.45/kWh |
| Off-Peak: all other times | ~$0.31/kWh |
| Weekends & holidays | Off-peak all day |
The weekend rule matters more than people realize. If you concentrate high-usage activities on Saturdays and Sundays (laundry, dishwasher, cooking), you’re always at the cheap rate.
E-TOU-D
Peak window is narrower: 5–8pm instead of 4–9pm. If you consistently get home around 5pm and your heavy usage is in that 5–8pm window, E-TOU-D’s lower off-peak rate (~$0.28/kWh) can beat E-TOU-C.
EV2-A
This is where the money is, if you have a qualifying device.
| Time | Rate |
|---|---|
| Peak: 4–9pm daily (including weekends) | ~$0.52/kWh |
| Off-Peak: all other times | ~$0.17–$0.21/kWh |
The peak rate is higher than other plans, but the off-peak rate is dramatically lower. EV2-A only makes sense if you can reliably shift significant consumption to off-peak hours. The target customer: someone with an EV charging every night, or a home battery that charges from off-peak grid power.
Eligibility: Self-certify that you have an EV, PHEV, residential battery, or electric heat pump. PG&E doesn’t verify.
If you have an EV charging 40 kWh/week overnight: at $0.17/kWh that’s $354/year in charging costs. On E-TOU-C it would be $644/year. That’s a $290/year difference just on the EV charging, before factoring in everything else.
The Real Cost of Peak Hours
Run a typical weeknight through the numbers: dishwasher after dinner (1.5 kWh), washer and dryer (3 kWh), cooking (1 kWh), TV and devices (0.5 kWh), all between 5 and 9pm.
On EV2-A at peak: 6 kWh × $0.52 = $3.12 Same activities shifted to after 9pm: 6 kWh × $0.19 = $1.14
That’s $1.98 saved on one evening’s routine. Over 200 weekday evenings/year: ~$396/year from one habit change.
Five Habits That Actually Move the Needle
These are the peak-shifting moves that consistently show up when I look at what distinguishes lower-bill households from higher-bill households in the same utility territory:
Delay the dishwasher. Run it at 9:30pm instead of 7pm. Modern dishwashers all have a delay-start button. This is the single easiest change with a guaranteed outcome. No inconvenience, no behavior change beyond pressing one extra button.
Do laundry on weekends. On E-TOU-C and E-TOU-D, Saturday and Sunday are entirely off-peak. Moving laundry from Tuesday evening to Saturday morning costs you nothing and saves consistently.
Pre-cool in the afternoon. On hot days, run the AC to 70°F before 4pm and then let the house coast. Thermal mass keeps most California homes comfortable for 1–2 hours without active cooling. Set the thermostat to 76–78°F for the 4–9pm window. In a moderately insulated 2,000 sq ft home, this saves 2–4 kWh per hot day.
Charge the EV after 9pm. Specifically after 9pm, not just “at night.” EV2-A’s super cheap rate runs until noon the next day. Setting a departure time of 7am and letting the car charge whenever it wants between 9pm and 7am costs about the same per mile as natural gas.
Schedule the pool pump to run 1–7am. Pool pumps are the most overlooked large load in California. Most run 8–12 hours starting in the late morning. Moving the runtime to overnight saves the full peak-to-off-peak spread on 6–8 kWh/day in summer.
Should You Be on a TOU Plan at All?
TOU plans reward one specific behavior: shifting flexible loads away from the 4–9pm window. If your daily routine makes that genuinely impossible (early shift workers who cook at 5pm and sleep by 9pm, households with small children who need baths and early bedtimes), a tiered plan (E-1) might actually cost you less.
The honest way to know is to look at your interval data and calculate what you would have paid under each plan. Your utility’s comparison tool gives you a rough estimate; a proper simulation using your actual hourly usage gives you the real answer. The best rate plan finder shows which plan wins for a household like yours.
I can run your last 12 months of usage against every PG&E plan and tell you which one costs least for how you actually live.
Find my best PG&E plan →
Dana Whitmore
Energy Engineer & Billing Analyst · Optiwatt Energy Advisor
Dana has spent the past three years analyzing residential electricity billing data across PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E service territories. She's reviewed billing records for thousands of California households, and built the simulation engine that powers this site's rate-plan comparisons. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives in the Bay Area.