Schedule 5 - Residential Time-of-Day
When does peak hit on Idaho Power Co’s Schedule 5 - Residential Time-of-Day? Peak hits 7pm–11pm every day, all year.
- peak31.90¢
- mid15.33¢
- off-peak12.91¢
What does Schedule 5 - Residential Time-of-Day 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 | $83 | $992 | 20.4¢ / kWh |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $146 | $1,754 | 18.6¢ / kWh |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $191 | $2,287 | 17.5¢ / 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 |
|---|---|---|
| peak | 31.90¢ | 7pm–11pm, June–September |
| mid | 19.71¢ | 6am–9am, 5pm–8pm, October–May |
| mid | 19.24¢ | 3pm–7pm, June–September |
| mid | 15.33¢ | 8pm–6am, 9am–5pm, midnight–midnight, October–May; midnight–midnight, September |
| off-peak | 12.91¢ | 11pm–3pm, midnight–midnight, June–August; 11pm–3pm, September |
Plus a fixed charge of $15 per month.
Should you be on Schedule 5 - Residential Time-of-Day?
This is a time-of-use plan, which means the clock decides your bill as much as the meter does. At the worst hour you pay 31.9¢ a kWh; at the best hour, 12.9¢ — 2.5× apart for identical electricity.
That gap is worth real money only if you can move load into it. Every kilowatt-hour a day you shift from 7pm to midnight is about $69 a year. A dishwasher run is roughly 1.5 kWh; an EV commute charge is 8 to 12. If your day is fixed — you are home in the evening and the air conditioner runs when it runs — a plan like this costs you more, not less.
Before a single kilowatt-hour moves, this plan charges $180 a year in fixed fees. On the apartment above that is 18% 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.
Expect the bill to move with the calendar. The same family home costs about $201 in July and $113 in February — a $88 spread driven by heating and cooling far more than by anything you chose. Budget against the July figure, not the average, and a summer bill stops being a surprise.
How it compares to Idaho Power’s other plans
Measured against the other residential plans this utility files, a family home lands 2nd cheapest of 2. The cheapest option, Schedule 1 - Residential Service, would run about $40 a year less.
Against Schedule 1 - Residential Service, which looks like the plan you land on by default, this one comes out $40 more per year (2%). 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 Idaho Power plans
Who can be on Idaho Power’s Schedule 5 - Residential Time-of-Day?
Eligibility is not our judgement — it is written into the tariff Idaho Power filed. This is what that document says:
Service under this schedule is available at points on the Company's interconnected system to residential Customers where existing facilities of adequate capacity and desired phase and voltage are adjacent to the Premises to be served, additional investment by the Company for new transmission, substation or terminal facilities is not necessary to supply the desired service, and Advanced Meter Reading (AMR) equipment is installed. Service under this pilot schedule is limited to no more than 1,200 metered service points. The Residential Service Time-of-Day Pilot Plan is an optional, voluntary service that provides residential Customers the option to take electric service with seasonal time-of-day energy rates. If a Customer requests to participate in this pilot schedule, the Customer will be placed on the schedule within seven (7) business days, subject to work constraints.
Shortened — the clause runs longer in the filing. Quoted from the filed tariff. Your utility decides eligibility, not us; check with them before you switch.
If this is new to you
- When is electricity cheapest? Off-peak hours explained
Overnight, usually. All weekend, often. The exact hours are in your tariff, not in a rule of thumb.
- 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.
- When should you charge an electric car at home?
The single biggest load most homes can move, and the easiest to automate.
- Why is my electric bill so high in summer?
Usually three causes at once, and only one of them is your air conditioner.
Where this comes from
- Effective
- 2025-02-01
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://docs.idahopower.com/pdfs/aboutus/ratesregulatory/tariffs/264.pdf