Unlike a lot of “best plan” roundups, there’s no single nationwide winner when it comes to time-of-use (TOU) electricity plans — because TOU pricing is set individually by each utility, and the rules, peak windows, and rates vary enormously by state and even by specific utility company. What counts as a great TOU plan in Texas can look completely different from one in California or Pennsylvania.
Instead of pretending there’s one universal “best” plan, this guide breaks down the real 2026 TOU landscape by region, so you can find the plans that actually apply to you.
California: Some of the Widest Peak/Off-Peak Gaps in the Country
California has some of the most aggressive time-of-use pricing spreads in the US, which makes shifting usage away from peak hours especially valuable there — but also especially costly if you can’t.
Southern California Edison (SCE)
SCE offers three main residential TOU plans:
- TOU-D-4-9PM — a 5-hour weekday peak window (4-9 PM) with a summer peak rate around 58 cents/kWh, plus a lower off-peak rate and a small baseline usage credit.
- TOU-D-5-8PM — a narrower 3-hour weekday peak window (5-8 PM), but a steeper summer peak rate reaching about 74 cents/kWh — the highest of SCE’s plans. This is best suited to households that can reliably avoid electricity use entirely during that specific 3-hour window.
- TOU-D-PRIME — reserved for customers with solar, batteries, EVs, or heat pumps, offering lower rates in exchange for a flat monthly charge of roughly $24.
All three plans include a small fixed daily charge in addition to the per-kWh rate. For context, SCE’s average residential rate across all plans sits around 35 cents/kWh, which makes the potential savings from properly using off-peak hours substantial for the right household.
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
PG&E’s residential plans follow a similar pattern:
- E-TOU-C — peak hours run 4-9 PM every day, including weekends, with rates ranging from about 31 cents/kWh off-peak to 52 cents/kWh on-peak.
- E-TOU-D — a shorter 5-8 PM weekday-only peak window, with weekends treated entirely as off-peak — a better fit for households whose heavier usage happens on weekends or who can reliably shift weekday evening activities.
- EV2-A — designed specifically for EV owners, with off-peak rates for overnight charging but peak rates reaching roughly 62 cents/kWh, making the plan a clear win only if charging is genuinely shifted to off-peak hours (midnight-3PM).
PG&E has also signaled further rate increases in upcoming years as part of its ongoing general rate case process, so households on the fence about switching to TOU should factor in that overall rates — not just the TOU spread — are trending upward.
Texas: “Free Nights” Plans Need a Closer Look
Texas’s deregulated market has produced a distinctive TOU variant: Free Nights (or Free Weekends) plans, which advertise completely free electricity during specific off-peak windows, often overnight.
These plans can be genuinely excellent for the right household — particularly one that can shift the majority of usage into the free window, such as EV charging or pool pump scheduling. However, since a majority of typical household usage in Texas actually happens during the day rather than overnight, many households end up paying more overall on a free-nights plan than they would on a standard flat-rate plan, because the daytime rate needed to subsidize “free” nights is often set noticeably higher than a comparable non-TOU plan.
Before choosing a free-nights plan in Texas, pull your actual 15-minute interval usage data (available through your utility’s smart meter portal) and run it against the plan’s real daytime and nighttime rates — this is the only reliable way to know whether a specific free-nights offer will actually save you money or cost you more.
Ohio and Pennsylvania: Deregulated Markets With Dozens of TOU Options
Both Ohio and Pennsylvania have deregulated retail electricity markets with a large number of competing TOU tariffs — well over 100 filed plans across their major utilities combined. Rather than one standout plan, the practical approach in these states is:
- Confirm your utility’s specific peak window — in both states, peak periods are generally concentrated in weekday afternoons through early evening (commonly somewhere in the 2 PM-7 PM range, though this varies by utility).
- Prioritize a TOU plan if you have an EV. Overnight EV charging on a TOU tariff in these states can cost meaningfully less per kWh than charging on a standard flat “price to compare” rate.
- Use your state’s official supplier comparison tool (Pennsylvania’s PA Power Switch and Ohio’s Energy Choice Ohio are the official state-run comparison sites) to see live, current rates for your specific utility rather than relying on national averages.
Who Actually Benefits From a TOU Plan in 2026
Across every region, the same underlying pattern holds:
- EV owners charging overnight consistently see some of the best real-world savings from TOU plans, since a large single load can be shifted entirely into the cheapest window.
- Households with solar and battery storage can often avoid peak-hour grid usage almost entirely, making many utilities’ solar-specific TOU plans (like SCE’s TOU-D-PRIME) the most cost-effective option available.
- Households that are out of the house during peak hours (typical 9-to-5 schedules) tend to do well, since their natural routine already avoids the most expensive window.
- Households with a fixed evening routine — dinner, laundry, and showers concentrated in the peak window with no flexibility to shift — are usually better off on a standard flat-rate plan.
How to Actually Choose the Right TOU Plan for You
- Find your utility’s specific TOU tariff options — don’t assume national examples like SCE or PG&E apply to your utility; every provider sets its own peak windows and rates.
- Pull your actual interval usage data, if your utility offers it (most smart meters do), rather than guessing your usage pattern.
- Use your utility’s or state’s official rate comparison tool to simulate your real bill under each available plan using your actual usage history — this removes the guesswork entirely.
- Re-check seasonal rate changes. Many TOU plans have different peak rates for summer vs. winter, so a plan that looks great in one season may look very different in the other.
Final Thoughts
There’s no single “best” time-of-use plan for 2026 — the right plan depends entirely on your specific utility, your usage pattern, and whether you’re genuinely able to shift high-draw activities like EV charging, laundry, or dishwashing out of the peak window. The households seeing the biggest real savings in 2026 are consistently the ones combining a TOU plan with something schedulable — an EV, a pool pump, or solar and battery storage — rather than households hoping a plan alone will lower their bill without changing any habits.