RE - Residential Service
When does peak hit on City of San Antonio - (TX)’s RE - Residential Service? The hour never matters here — only the season. Rates peak October–May.
- off-peak8.92¢
Weekends are off-peak all day — the cheapest time to run anything you can schedule.
What does RE - Residential Service cost a year?
| Household | Uses | A month | Per year | Works out to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment One or two people, no central air, no electric heat | 4,866 kWh | $46 | $548 | 11.3¢ / kWh |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $83 | $992 | 10.5¢ / kWh |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $112 | $1,344 | 10.3¢ / kWh |
Estimates, not quotes. We run three made-up but realistic households through this tariff hour by hour for a full year — including the way air conditioning loads the afternoon and an EV loads the small hours. Your own bill depends on when you actually use electricity, which is exactly the thing a per-kWh number hides.
What you actually pay
| Period | Rate | Applies when |
|---|---|---|
| off-peak | 8.92¢ | midnight–midnight, October–May |
| off-peak | 8.92¢ up to 600 kWh11.07¢ | midnight–midnight, June–September |
Plus a fixed charge of $9.5 per month.
Should you be on RE - Residential Service?
The hour of day does not change what you pay here — the month does. Running the same house through the full year, July costs about $118 and February about $63. That $55 swing is part rate and part weather, and it is the reason a budget built on your spring bill will break in July.
There is a usage cliff to watch. The first 600 kWh each month are billed at 8.9¢; past that line the rate steps up to 11.1¢ — 24% more for every unit after. The last kilowatt-hour of a heavy month is the expensive one, which is why cutting a little off a big month saves more than cutting the same amount off a small one.
Before a single kilowatt-hour moves, this plan charges $114 a year in fixed fees. On the apartment above that is 21% of the whole bill; on the house with a car charging in it, 8%. Fixed charges are invisible in a cents-per-kWh comparison and they punish small users hardest — if you use very little electricity, the headline rate is the least important number on this page.
How it compares to City of San Antonio’s other plans
Measured against the other residential plans this utility files, a family home lands 2nd cheapest of 2. The cheapest option, RA - Residential All-Electric, would run about $16 a year less.
Other City of San Antonio plans
Who can be on City of San Antonio’s RE - Residential Service?
Eligibility is not our judgement — it is written into the tariff City of San Antonio filed. This is what that document says:
This rate is applicable to all alternating current service for residential purposes only, to any Customer whose entire residential requirements on the premises are supplied at one point of delivery through one meter. When a portion of a residence or household unit served through one meter is used for non-residential purposes, this rate is not applicable. However, if the wiring is so arranged that the service for residential purposes and that for non-residential purposes are separately metered, this rate is applicable to the service supplied for residential purposes. This rate is not applicable to service for resale or to service for hotels, rooming houses, boarding houses, motels, dormitories, or to premises used for other than residential purposes. This rate is not applicable when more than four residential units are served through one meter.
Quoted from the filed tariff. Your utility decides eligibility, not us; check with them before you switch.
If this is new to you
- Tiered billing for electricity: why the last kWh costs more
A cheap allowance, then a cliff. Where the cliff sits is the whole game.
- Should you switch to a time-of-use electricity plan?
A wide peak-to-off-peak gap is a lever, not a saving. Levers need something to move.
- Why is my electric bill so high in summer?
Usually three causes at once, and only one of them is your air conditioner.
- Why is my electric bill so high? Seven causes, in the order to check them
Seven causes, ranked by how often they are the answer. Only two are about using more.
Where this comes from
- Effective
- 2026-01-01
the date this tariff took effect
- Covers
- delivery + supply
the ZIP-code service map lists this territory as bundled, so the utility sells delivery and supply together
- Enrollment
- open to new customers
Tariff document: https://www.cpsenergy.com/content/dam/corporate/en/Documents/2024_Rate_ResidentialElectric.pdf