Xcel Energy’s Colorado Time of Use rate (Schedule RE-TOU, billed as Public Service Company of Colorado) has three pricing tiers, not two, and the middle one is easy to miss if you only look for “peak” and “off-peak.”
Xcel Energy Colorado's TOU rate has three tiers, not two. Look up the exact hours for your plan.
See my peak hours →Schedule RE-TOU: Three Pricing Periods, Every Day
| Season | Peak (3–7pm) | Mid-peak (1–3pm) | Off-peak (7pm–1pm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter (Jan–May, Oct–Dec) | 17.5¢/kWh | 13.9¢/kWh | 10.4¢/kWh |
| Summer (Jun–Sep) | 27.6¢/kWh | 19.0¢/kWh | 10.4¢/kWh |
The off-peak rate covers a huge stretch of the day and night, 7pm to 1pm the next day, 18 hours, and doesn’t change with the season. The two-hour mid-peak window (1–3pm) sits right before the real peak starts, priced meaningfully higher than off-peak but well below the 3–7pm rate. Someone shifting a load from 3pm to 1pm thinking they’ve dodged the expensive rate has actually only moved into the second-most-expensive tier, not the cheapest one.
What Shifting Is Worth, in Dollars
Take a summer weekday: dishwasher and laundry, about 4 kWh, run inside the 3–7pm peak window.
At peak: 4 kWh × $0.276 = $1.10 Same load shifted to after 7pm: 4 kWh × $0.104 = $0.42
That’s $0.68 saved per shifted routine, a 62% cut, by moving all the way into the 18-hour off-peak window rather than just nudging into mid-peak. Over 120 summer weekdays, consistently doing that is worth roughly $82 for the season.
The Mid-Peak Trap
If your instinct is to move a load “just an hour early” to beat the 3pm peak start, you’ll land in the 1–3pm mid-peak window instead, still meaningfully more expensive than off-peak (19¢ vs 10.4¢ in summer). The bigger win is waiting until after 7pm, or getting it done before 1pm entirely, not splitting the difference.
Should You Switch to RE-TOU?
The 18-hour off-peak window is generous, on paper almost any normal evening or overnight routine qualifies. The real question is whether your household’s air conditioning or cooking load concentrates specifically in the 3–7pm window during summer. If it does, and you can push it even two or three hours later, the savings are substantial; if your heaviest usage happens to fall in that narrow afternoon band and can’t move, RE-TOU will likely cost more than Xcel’s standard flat rate.
For more ways to cut the bill beyond the rate plan itself, see how to lower your electric bill.
I can run your last 12 months of Xcel Energy usage against the standard rate and RE-TOU and tell you which one actually costs less for how you live.
Find my best Xcel Energy plan →For a broader diagnosis of what’s driving a high bill in the first place, see why is my electric bill so high.
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.