SCE Time-of-Use Rates: A Plain-English Guide to Saving
If you’re a Southern California Edison customer, you’re almost certainly on a time-of-use rate — SCE moved its residential customers onto them by default. The price you pay per kilowatt-hour changes with the time of day, and the gap between the cheap hours and the expensive evening is wide. Move some of your usage out of that evening window and you pay less for the same energy. This guide breaks down SCE’s main residential plans and the two ways to actually capture the savings.
How SCE time-of-use pricing works
Every SCE residential TOU plan shares one idea: an expensive peak period in the evening, and cheaper energy the rest of the day. The plans differ in exactly when peak falls, how steep it is, and whether they add a lower overnight “super off-peak” tier. The numbers below are approximate summer below-baseline prices for 2026 — always confirm your current numbers on SCE’s Time-of-Use rate plans page, since they change and depend on your baseline allowance and season:
Each plan’s shape is below. The bars are what a kilowatt-hour costs at each hour of the day, and the seasons switch with the control above them.
- Most expensive hours
- Everything else
TOU-D-4-9PM
Peak 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
TOU-D-5-8PM
Peak 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
TOU-D-PRIME
Peak 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Every hour and price as a table
| Plan | Hours | Summer | Winter |
|---|---|---|---|
| TOU-D-4-9PM | midnight to 4 p.m. | 37¢ | — |
| 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. | 58¢ | 44¢ | |
| 9 p.m. to midnight | 37¢ | 37¢ | |
| midnight to 8 a.m. (winter only) | — | 37¢ | |
| 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (winter only) | — | 35¢ | |
| TOU-D-5-8PM | midnight to 5 p.m. | 36¢ | — |
| 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. | 74¢ | 46¢ | |
| 8 p.m. to midnight | 36¢ | 37¢ | |
| midnight to 8 a.m. (winter only) | — | 37¢ | |
| 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (winter only) | — | 35¢ | |
| TOU-D-PRIME | midnight to 4 p.m. | 27¢ | — |
| 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. | 56¢ | 53¢ | |
| 9 p.m. to midnight | 27¢ | 27¢ | |
| midnight to 8 a.m. (winter only) | — | 27¢ | |
| 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (winter only) | — | 25¢ |
TOU-D-4-9PM — peak 4–9 p.m. every day
Off-peak runs around 37¢/kWh and the 4–9 p.m. peak about 60¢. The five-hour daily peak, weekends included, is the one to plan around.
TOU-D-5-8PM — peak 5–8 p.m. every day
A narrower peak, and a much steeper one: about 75¢ against TOU-D-4-9PM’s 60¢. Off-peak is a shade cheaper at around 36¢. Three hours is far easier to coast through than five, so the plan pays off for a household that can clear the window and punishes one that cannot. The name is literal: TOU-D is SCE’s residential time-of-use family, and 5-8PM is the peak window.
TOU-D-PRIME — peak 4–9 p.m., built for electrified homes
For homes with a heat pump, EV, or battery. It carries a fixed monthly Basic Charge in exchange for the cheapest energy of the three plans: around 27¢ outside the peak in summer, against about 56¢ from 4 to 9 p.m. In winter it adds an even cheaper block from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the solar-soaked hours. For larger all-electric loads it usually beats the standard plans.
The pattern is the same across all of them: the grid is busiest in the early evening as air-conditioning peaks, so that’s when power costs the most.
Summer vs. winter: the prices shift twice a year
Like the other California utilities, SCE runs two seasons and switches automatically on your bill:
- Summer — June 1 through September 30. Peaks are at their highest, because AC demand across the region hits hardest on hot evenings.
- Winter — October 1 through May 31. Every plan drops and the peak-to-off-peak gap narrows.
Two things follow. First, the shape of the day is flatter in winter, so the payoff from shifting a given load shrinks slightly — but on the plans with a steep peak (TOU-D-4-9PM, TOU-D-PRIME) it’s still worth automating year-round. Second, and more important: because summer and winter prices differ, the optimal schedule differs too. A pre-cool plan tuned for a steep summer peak is over-aggressive against the milder winter one. Getting this right by hand means re-tuning twice a year; automation just uses whichever season’s prices apply on the day it’s scheduling.
Where the savings are
The savings come from shifting flexible loads out of the evening peak and into the cheaper hours:
- EV charging during the overnight off-peak (or the super off-peak on TOU-D-PRIME) instead of the 4–9 p.m. peak. On a plan with a 6×-plus swing, a full charge in the trough versus the peak is a large recurring difference.
- Cooling your home. SoCal’s hottest hours overlap the peak window. If your AC does most of its work before 4 p.m. and the house coasts through the evening, you move a big block of usage into cheaper time.
- Water heating, laundry, and the dishwasher outside the 4–9 p.m. window — small per-load, easy to automate.
You’re not using less energy. You’re using it when it’s cheap.
How to capture it: by hand vs. automatically
By hand, the playbook is: pre-cool the house in the afternoon, set the EV charger to start late in the off-peak, and keep big appliances out of the 4–9 p.m. (or 5–8 p.m.) window. It works, but it’s a daily decision, and the right amount of pre-cooling depends on tomorrow’s weather. Over-cool on a mild day and you waste money; under-prepare on a hot one and you pay peak rates anyway.
Automatically removes the guesswork. Hungry Machines generates a fresh schedule for your HVAC, EV charger, water heater, and battery each night. It weighs SCE’s rate plan, the next day’s forecast, and a custom model of how your home actually holds temperature, then pre-cools just enough to coast through peak and times your EV and water heater for the cheapest hours. You set the comfort and charge limits; it does the scheduling.
For homes with an EV or central HVAC, that typically means 10–25% off the bill with no change in comfort.
If you drive electric, Hungry Machines for California EV owners works through which plan fits and what an overnight charge costs on each. For the mechanics of pre-cooling, and why it needs a model of your house rather than a rule about the clock, see automating your HVAC for time-of-use savings.
Do peak rates apply on weekends?
Yes, on all three plans. TOU-D-4-9PM, TOU-D-5-8PM and TOU-D-PRIME all apply their peak window every day of the week. Saturday and Sunday evenings are priced exactly like weekday evenings, and SCE offers no weekend-exempt residential time-of-use plan.
This is worth knowing because SCE’s peak is steep. On TOU-D-4-9PM the spread runs roughly 37¢ off-peak against about 60¢ on-peak — so the same load costs about 1.6× more at 6 p.m. Saturday than at noon Saturday. Running a dryer, a dishwasher and an EV top-up across a Saturday evening is the single most expensive hour block of the weekend.
The practical consequence is that there is one schedule, not two. Because the windows never shift by day of week, whatever you do on a Tuesday to stay out of 4–9 p.m. works unchanged on a Sunday — which is precisely what makes the whole thing automatable.
Common questions
Which SCE plan is best for an EV?
If your whole house is electric — heat pump plus EV, maybe a battery — TOU-D-PRIME is usually the winner, since it trades a fixed monthly charge for cheap super-off-peak energy that rewards overnight charging. If your loads are more modest, TOU-D-4-9PM or TOU-D-5-8PM may come out ahead by avoiding the fixed charge. Which one wins depends on your total usage; compare on SCE’s rate comparison tools. Whichever you land on, automation makes it perform closer to its best case.
Is TOU-D-5-8PM better because the peak is shorter?
It can be, and the trade is explicit. TOU-D-5-8PM gives you a three-hour peak instead of five, which is markedly easier to coast through — a pre-cooled house holds its temperature over three hours far more comfortably than over five. In exchange the peak price is far steeper: about 75¢ against TOU-D-4-9PM’s 60¢. The off-peak rate is a shade cheaper, around 36¢ against 37¢, which nowhere near offsets the peak if you use the window.
The deciding factor is whether you can actually vacate the window. If your household is genuinely out or idle from 5 to 8 p.m., the narrower peak is nearly free money. If you cook dinner at 6 p.m. every night regardless, you are paying the higher peak price for hours you were going to use anyway.
Compare a month of your own hourly usage against both. The best plan is a fact about your household, not about the plan.
Do I need solar to benefit?
No. Time-of-use savings come from when you draw grid power, with or without panels. On TOU-D-4-9PM the spread runs roughly 37¢ off-peak against about 60¢ on-peak, and capturing that gap requires nothing on the roof.
Solar does change the shape of the problem rather than removing it. Panels tend to cover your midday load already — which is part of why midday is cheap on these plans in the first place — so the remaining opportunity concentrates in the evening peak and the overnight hours. Under NEM 3.0, export credits are low enough that self-consuming your production generally beats selling it, which makes shifting load into your own generation window more valuable, not less.
For solar and non-solar homes alike the lever is identical: move flexible load out of 4–9 p.m.
What are SCE’s peak hours?
4 to 9 p.m. on TOU-D-4-9PM and TOU-D-PRIME, and 5 to 8 p.m. on TOU-D-5-8PM, seven days a week. SCE offers no weekend-exempt residential time-of-use plan, so Saturday and Sunday evenings are priced the same as weekday evenings. Every hour outside the peak window is off-peak; TOU-D-PRIME adds a cheaper super off-peak tier overnight and in the middle of the day. The peak price is highest in summer, June through September, when the spread on TOU-D-4-9PM runs from about 37¢/kWh off-peak to about 60¢ on-peak, and it eases in winter without the windows moving. If you are not sure which plan you are on, it is printed on your bill next to the rate code.
What does TOU-D-5-8PM mean on my SCE bill?
It is the name of your rate plan. TOU-D is SCE’s residential time-of-use family, and 5-8PM is the peak window: electricity costs the most from 5 to 8 p.m., every day, and less at all other hours. Off-peak on this plan is around 36¢/kWh in summer, a shade below TOU-D-4-9PM’s 37¢, and the peak runs three hours instead of five. The catch is what that peak costs: about 75¢ against about 60¢. The plan suits households that can stay out of the early evening: a pre-cooled house coasts through three hours far more comfortably than five, and an EV or dishwasher that starts after 8 p.m. avoids the peak entirely. If you cook dinner at 6 p.m. every night, you are paying the higher peak price for hours you were going to use anyway.
What does TOU-D-PRIME cost per kWh?
SCE publishes TOU-D-PRIME’s per-kWh prices on its Time-of-Use rate plans page, and they change with the season and your baseline, so confirm your own. In summer it runs around 27¢/kWh outside the peak and about 56¢ from 4 to 9 p.m. That off-peak price is the cheapest of SCE’s three residential plans, and it is why PRIME rewards overnight charging. It is paid for by a fixed monthly Basic Charge, so the plan wins on volume: the more energy you move into the cheap hours, the further that charge spreads. In winter PRIME adds an even cheaper block from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the solar-soaked hours. For a modest household with none of those, the fixed charge can outweigh the cheaper energy, and TOU-D-4-9PM or TOU-D-5-8PM comes out ahead. Run a month of your own hourly usage through SCE’s comparison tool.
What are SCE’s off-peak hours?
Every hour outside the peak window. On TOU-D-4-9PM and TOU-D-PRIME that is 9 p.m. to 4 p.m. the next day; on TOU-D-5-8PM it is 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. Weekends follow the same windows, because SCE’s peaks apply seven days a week. TOU-D-PRIME splits its off-peak further, with a super off-peak tier overnight and in the middle of the day that is cheaper than the rest; SCE’s rate page has the exact hours. Off-peak on TOU-D-4-9PM runs about 37¢/kWh in summer, and the overnight hours are where EV charging and water heating belong. Midday is also off-peak on all three plans, which makes early-afternoon pre-cooling the cheapest way to get through the evening.
Next steps
Elsewhere in California? The same playbook covers PG&E’s time-of-use rates in the north and SDG&E’s in San Diego. And if your utility uses hourly pricing that changes day to day rather than fixed time-of-use blocks, see how ComEd’s hourly pricing works. For the software side, the part that actually generates the schedule, see our guide to home energy management systems.
To see the automatic version in action, check how Hungry Machines works and sign up now.
Still unsure when to run things? See the cheapest time to run your appliances and whether peak rates apply on weekends.