E-TOU-D Residential Time of Use
When does peak hit on Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s E-TOU-D Residential Time of Use? Peak hits 5pm–8pm every day, all year.
- peak47.71¢
- mid38.75¢
- off-peak34.21¢
What does E-TOU-D Residential Time of Use 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 | $169 | $2,028 | 41.7¢ / kWh |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $306 | $3,673 | 38.9¢ / kWh |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $412 | $4,938 | 37.7¢ / 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 | 47.71¢ | 5pm–8pm, June–September |
| mid | 38.75¢ | 5pm–8pm, October–May |
| mid | 34.89¢ | 8pm–5pm, midnight–midnight, October–May |
| off-peak | 34.21¢ | 8pm–5pm, midnight–midnight, June–September |
Plus a fixed charge of $0.79343 per day — so longer months cost more before you use a single kWh.
Should you be on E-TOU-D Residential Time of Use?
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 47.7¢ a kWh; at the best hour, 34.2¢ — 1.4× 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 5pm to midnight is about $49 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 $290 a year in fixed fees. On the apartment above that is 14% of the whole bill; on the house with a car charging in it, 6%. 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 $423 in July and $234 in February — a $189 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 Pacific Gas & Electric’s other plans
Measured against the other residential plans this utility files, a family home lands 3rd cheapest of 4. The cheapest option, Electric Vehicle EV2 (Sch), would run about $216 a year less.
Other Pacific Gas & Electric plans
Who can be on Pacific Gas & Electric’s E-TOU-D Residential Time of Use?
Eligibility is not our judgement — it is written into the tariff Pacific Gas & Electric filed. This is what that document says:
This rate plan offers lower prices during periods of the day when energy costs are lower before 5 p.m. and after 8 p.m. on weekdays and during all hours on weekends and most holidays.
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
- 2026-03-27
the date this tariff took effect
- Covers
- delivery + supply
Generation + Distribution + Transmission + Transmission Rate Adjustments + Reliability Services + Public Purpose Programs + Nuclear Decommissioning + Competition Transition Charges + Energy Cost Recovery Amount + Wildfire Fund Charge + New System Generation Charge + Wildfire Hardening Charge + Recovery Bond Charge + Bundled Power Charge Indifference Adjustment
- Enrollment
- open to new customers
Tariff document: https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-TOU-D.pdf