Residential Three-tier Time-of-Use Rg5-OTOU
When does peak hit on Wisconsin Public Service Corp’s Residential Three-tier Time-of-Use Rg5-OTOU? Peak hits 4pm–8pm in Oct–Apr, 1pm–7pm in May–Sep — on weekdays.
- peak32.50¢
- mid14.31¢
- off-peak8.13¢
Weekends are off-peak all day — the cheapest time to run anything you can schedule.
What does Residential Three-tier Time-of-Use Rg5-OTOU 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 | $79 | $946 | 19.4¢ / kWh |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $141 | $1,692 | 17.9¢ / kWh |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $166 | $1,988 | 15.2¢ / 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 | 32.50¢ | 4pm–8pm, October–April; 1pm–7pm, May–September |
| mid | 14.31¢ | 7am–4pm, 8pm–10pm, October–April; 7am–1pm, 7pm–10pm, May–September |
| off-peak | 8.13¢ | 10pm–7am, midnight–midnight |
Plus a fixed charge of $0.58915 per day — so longer months cost more before you use a single kWh.
Should you be on Residential Three-tier Time-of-Use Rg5-OTOU?
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 32.5¢ a kWh; at the best hour, 8.1¢ — 4.0× 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 4pm to midnight is about $89 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 $215 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, 11%. 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 $205 in July and $105 in February — a $101 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 Wisconsin Public Service’s other plans
Measured against the other residential plans this utility files, a family home lands 4th cheapest of 4. The cheapest option, Residential Seasonal Rg-1, would run about $325 a year less.
Against Residential Rg-1, which looks like the plan you land on by default, this one comes out $124 more per year (8%). 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 Wisconsin Public Service plans
Who can be on Wisconsin Public Service’s Residential Three-tier Time-of-Use Rg5-OTOU?
Eligibility is not our judgement — it is written into the tariff Wisconsin Public Service filed. This is what that document says:
This schedule is available for service to residential customers on a voluntary basis. The Company reserves the right to limit participation to 1,500 customers.
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
- 2025-01-01
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.wisconsinpublicservice.com/payment-bill/inserts/2025-01-wi-res.pdf