ES (Residential Service Energy Star, All-Electric)
When does peak hit on Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC’s ES? The hour never matters here — only the season. Rates peak October–April.
- off-peak11.69¢
Weekends are off-peak all day — the cheapest time to run anything you can schedule.
What does ES 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 | $61 | $737 | 15.1¢ / kWh |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $106 | $1,273 | 13.5¢ / kWh |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $141 | $1,687 | 12.9¢ / 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 | 11.69¢ | midnight–midnight, May–September |
| off-peak | 11.69¢ up to 800 kWh10.57¢ | midnight–midnight, October–April |
Plus a fixed charge of $14 per month.
Should you be on ES?
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 $142 and February about $84. That $59 swing is part rate and part weather, and it is the reason a budget built on your spring bill will break in July.
Before a single kilowatt-hour moves, this plan charges $168 a year in fixed fees. On the apartment above that is 23% of the whole bill; on the house with a car charging in it, 10%. 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 Duke Energy Carolinas’s other plans
Measured against the other residential plans this utility files, a family home lands 3rd cheapest of 22. The cheapest option, RETC (Residential Service All-Electric Time of Use with Critical Peak Pricing)), would run about $48 a year less.
Against Residential Service (RES-55) Single Phase, which looks like the plan you land on by default, this one comes out $301 less per year (19%). We infer the default from the tariff structure rather than a flag in the data, so confirm it against your own bill before you switch.
Other Duke Energy Carolinas plans
- ES (Residential Service Energy Star, Standard)flat
- RE (Residential Electric Water Heating and Space Conditioning)flat
- Residential - RS (SC)flat
- Residential Electric Water Heating and Space Conditioning - REflat
- Residential Service - Single Phaseflat
- Residential Service - Three Phaseflat
- Residential Service (RES-55) Single Phaseflat
- Residential Service (RES-55) Three Phaseflat
- Residential Service Energy Star All-Electric ESflat
- Residential Service Energy Star Standard ESflat
- Residential Service Solar Time-of-Use (R-STOU) Single Phasedemand
- Residential Service Solar Time-of-Use (R-STOU) Three Phasedemand
Who can be on Duke Energy Carolinas’s ES (Residential Service Energy Star, All-Electric)?
Eligibility is not our judgement — it is written into the tariff Duke Energy Carolinas filed. This is what that document says:
Available only to residential customers in residences, condominiums, mobile homes, or individually-metered apartments which provide independent and permanent facilities complete for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation, and which are certified to meet the standards of the Energy Star program of the United States Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency.
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.duke-energy.com/-/media/pdfs/for-your-home/rates/electric-nc/ncschedulees.pdf?rev=e26c496113714d94a7ba09060ad12d7b