PSE&G Peak Hours: When to Shift and Save

PSE&G’s Residential Load Management rate is a summer-only story. From October through May, it charges a flat 3.3¢/kWh delivery rate, no peak, no off-peak, just one number. From June through September, weekday afternoons suddenly jump to 9.7¢/kWh, nearly 3x the rest of the year’s rate.

RLM: Residential Load Management (TOU)

Season	Months	Structure	Rate
Winter/shoulder	Oct–May	Flat all day, every day	3.3¢/kWh
Summer	Jun–Sep	Peak 7am–8pm weekdays; off-peak all other hours	9.7¢/kWh peak, 3.3¢/kWh off-peak

These are delivery charges. Like most New Jersey utilities, PSE&G bills delivery and supply (the actual generation cost) separately, and the supply charge, which doesn’t change by time of day under standard default service, sits on top of these numbers.

The 7am–8pm weekday peak window in summer is wide, 13 hours, covering essentially the entire waking day. The off-peak rate only becomes available on summer weeknights after 8pm, plus all day on weekends.

What Shifting Is Worth, in Dollars

Take a summer weekday: dishwasher and laundry, about 4 kWh, run somewhere in the 7am–8pm window.

At peak: 4 kWh × $0.097 = $0.39 Same load shifted to after 8pm: 4 kWh × $0.033 = $0.13

That’s $0.26 saved per shifted routine on the delivery portion of the bill, a 67% cut. Over roughly 85 summer weekdays, shifting one routine consistently is worth about $22 for the season on delivery charges alone. The percentage move is large; the dollar figure is small because PSE&G’s delivery rates, unlike its supply rates, are modest in absolute terms.

Weekends Are the Easy Win

All summer weekends are off-peak, all day. Laundry, dishwasher loads, and cooking done on Saturday or Sunday during summer never touch the 9.7¢ rate at all. That’s the lowest-effort way to benefit from this rate structure without changing anything about weeknight routines.

Should You Switch to RLM?

Because the rate is identical to the standard flat delivery rate for eight months of the year, and the summer downside is capped at a modest per-kWh delivery premium, RLM is a low-risk plan to try for anyone who can push some summer weekday usage to evenings or weekends. The people who benefit least are households with heavy midday air conditioning use on weekdays in summer specifically, since that’s exactly the load priced highest.

For more ways to cut the bill beyond delivery charges, see how to lower your electric bill.

For a broader diagnosis of what’s driving a high bill in the first place, see why is my electric bill so high.