On SDG&E’s TOU-DR1 plan, a summer kWh used at 6pm costs about 74¢. The same kWh used at 1am costs about 37¢. That’s a 2x difference, and it’s on top of SDG&E already having the highest average residential rate of California’s three big investor-owned utilities.
If you’re on SDG&E and haven’t looked at when you use power, not just how much, you’re leaving the cheaper half of the rate schedule untouched.
Peak windows and off-peak rates change by season on SDG&E. Look up the exact hours for your plan.
See my peak hours →TOU-DR1: SDG&E’s Standard Residential TOU Plan
TOU-DR1 splits every day into three pricing tiers rather than the simple peak/off-peak split some other utilities use.
| Period | When | Summer (Jun–Oct) | Winter (Nov–May) |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-peak | 4–9pm, every day | 74¢/kWh | 59¢/kWh |
| Off-peak | 6–10am, 2–4pm, 9pm–midnight (weekdays); 2–4pm, 9pm–midnight (weekends) | 50¢/kWh | 52¢/kWh |
| Super off-peak | Midnight–6am, 10am–2pm (weekdays); midnight–2pm (weekends) | 37¢/kWh | 50¢/kWh |
A Baseline Adjustment Credit of 11¢/kWh applies to usage up to 130% of your daily Baseline Allowance (about 11 kWh/day in summer, 9 kWh/day in winter for a representative coastal San Diego home), which lowers all three rates a bit further for a typical-sized household.
The detail worth catching: winter barely rewards shifting at all. Off-peak (52¢) and super off-peak (50¢) sit within 2¢ of each other in winter, and on-peak itself is only 7¢ higher. Summer is where the real spread lives, a 37¢ difference between on-peak and super off-peak.
Schedule DR: The Non-TOU Alternative
SDG&E also offers a standard tiered plan with no time-of-day pricing at all.
| Tier | Rate |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 (up to 130% of baseline) | 37¢/kWh |
| Tier 2 (above 130% of baseline) | 47¢/kWh |
The tier step is real but modest, about a 27% increase, compared to TOU-DR1’s summer on-peak-to-super-off-peak ratio of exactly 2x. Schedule DR is the safer default for anyone who genuinely can’t move usage around the clock; TOU-DR1 only pays off if you can actually act on the time signal.
What Shifting Is Worth, in Dollars
Take a summer evening: dishwasher, a load of laundry, and cooking, roughly 5 kWh, all inside the 4–9pm on-peak window.
At on-peak: 5 kWh × $0.74 = $3.70 Same load shifted to super off-peak (before 6am or 10am–2pm): 5 kWh × $0.37 = $1.85
That’s $1.85 saved on one evening’s routine, exactly half the cost, because the summer on-peak rate is precisely double super off-peak. Over a five-month summer billing season (roughly 150 days), shifting that one routine consistently is worth around $275 for the season alone.
Habits That Actually Help on TOU-DR1
Push heavy loads past 9pm, not just “later.” The off-peak window starts at 9pm sharp. A dishwasher started at 8:45 still bills at the 74¢ on-peak rate for the time it runs before 9.
Use the midday super off-peak window (10am–2pm weekdays) for solar-adjacent loads. If you have panels, this window overlaps with peak solar production, so self-generated power covers usage that would otherwise cost the least anyway. If you don’t have solar, it’s still the second-cheapest window of the day and a good slot for pool pumps, EV charging on weekends, or laundry for anyone working from home.
Don’t assume winter behaves like summer. Because the winter TOU-DR1 spread is small, there’s little financial reason to reorganize your schedule from November through May. Save the behavior changes for the summer months where the rate gap is actually worth the effort.
Charge EVs overnight, before 6am. The midnight–6am window is super off-peak in both seasons and is the single cheapest, most reliable window on the plan. A charge scheduled to finish by 6am rather than “whenever it’s convenient” avoids ever touching a more expensive tier.
Should You Be on TOU-DR1 or Schedule DR?
The honest answer depends on how much of your usage happens between 4 and 9pm and how much of that you can actually move. A household with someone home cooking dinner and running the AC through the evening, with no ability to shift that load, will often do better financially on flat-tiered Schedule DR. A household with an EV, a pool, or genuine flexibility to delay chores past 9pm can come out well ahead on TOU-DR1, especially in summer.
Don’t guess. The rate comparison only means something against your actual hourly usage pattern, not a generic household profile. For the broader story on why SDG&E bills run higher than the rest of California to begin with, see why SDG&E is so expensive.
I can run your last 12 months of SDG&E usage against TOU-DR1 and Schedule DR and tell you which one actually costs less for how you live.
Find my best SDG&E plan →For more ways to cut the bill beyond the rate plan itself, see how to lower your electric bill.
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.