Electricity Rates by ZIP Code in California: How to Find Your Real Rate

In California, your electricity rate is set by the utility that serves your address, the plan you are on and, in many cities, a community choice aggregator (CCA) that buys the power. The ZIP code alone does not set it. Enter your ZIP in the CPUC's rate comparison tool to see which utility and CCA serve the area, then check the plan printed on your bill.

That is why this page has no ZIP-by-ZIP price table: no state agency publishes one, and a table built from averages would give many readers the wrong number. What we can give you is the lookup, done in the right order, and the current price of the standard plan at each of California's five largest utilities, each taken from the utility's own rate page or tariff and checked on September 23, 2026.

Why a ZIP code is not enough in California

In states with retail choice, you shop among suppliers and the ZIP code tells a website which offers exist. California works differently. Each address is inside one utility's service territory, and that utility delivers the power and sends the bill. Five things then set the price you pay per kWh:

• The utility. PG&E, SCE and SDG&E are regulated by the CPUC. SMUD, LADWP and dozens of other city and district utilities set their own rates.
• The generation provider. If your city belongs to a CCA, the CCA buys the power and the utility still delivers it. The bill then carries two sets of charges.
• The rate plan. Most homes are on a time-of-use plan, where the price changes by hour and season. Some are on a tiered plan, where it rises as you use more.
• The baseline territory or climate zone. This sets how many kWh you get at the lowest price before the higher price starts.
• Discounts. CARE, FERA and Medical Baseline change the price and the fixed charge.

Utility boundaries follow service territories drawn long before ZIP codes, so one ZIP can hold addresses served by different utilities. Always go by the name on the bill or an address lookup.

Step 1: Find the utility that serves the address

If you already live there, the utility's name is at the top of your bill. If you are moving or comparing homes, use one of these public lookups:

• CPUC California Electric Rate Comparison. You enter a ZIP code, city or county and choose residential, CARE or separately metered EV rates. It covers PG&E, SCE and SDG&E and the CCAs in their territories.
• California Energy Commission service-area map. The CEC publishes a map of electric utility service areas statewide, including city and district utilities. The dataset was last updated on August 5, 2026.
• CalCCA's interactive map. The California Community Choice Association map shows CCA, city-owned and investor-owned utility boundaries, and its address bar tells you whether a CCA serves a location.
• OpenEI Utility Rate Database. A national database with a lookup by ZIP code, built on the federal list of utilities. Use it to identify the utility, then confirm current prices on the utility's own site, since a database entry can lag a rate change.

Step 2: Check whether a CCA supplies your power

Community choice aggregators operate inside the big utilities' territories. The CPUC's comparison page lists 12 CCAs in PG&E areas, 12 in SCE areas and 2 in SDG&E areas. PG&E notes that California law enrolls customers automatically once their city or county joins a CCA, and the bill then shows the CCA's generation charges next to the utility's delivery charges. The utility's posted "total" prices then do not apply to you; use the joint rate comparison your utility and CCA publish.

On a PG&E bill the CCA section is easy to miss. What "3rd party electric" means on a PG&E bill walks through it. Buying from a non-utility supplier outside a CCA is Direct Access, which is capped and assigned by lottery.

Step 3: Read your plan and price

Your plan code is on the detail page of the bill: E-TOU-C or E-1 at PG&E, TOU-D-4-9PM at SCE, TOU-DR1 at SDG&E, and so on. Here is the standard residential plan at each large utility, with the price for the utility's own generation and delivery together (what a customer without a CCA pays).

The hour windows matter as much as the prices. Peak is 4 to 9 p.m. every day on PG&E's E-TOU-C and SDG&E's TOU-DR1, 4 to 9 p.m. on weekdays for SCE's top price, 5 to 8 p.m. on weekdays at SMUD, and 1 to 5 p.m. on weekdays for LADWP's time-of-use plan. Our guide to peak hours at every California utility sets them side by side.

Step 4: Find your baseline territory or climate zone

Two neighbors on the same plan can still pay different amounts because the lowest-price allowance depends on where the home sits. PG&E divides its territory into ten baseline territories, P through Z. A basic-electric home in territory T gets 6.5 kWh a day in summer at the baseline price; one in territory R gets 17.7 kWh a day. SDG&E uses four climate zones. For a home with gas and electric service, its summer allowance is 9.0 kWh a day on the coast, 10.4 inland, 13.6 in the mountains and 15.9 in the desert.

Average rates and bills by utility

If you want one number per utility, use a published average rather than a ZIP estimate. The CPUC Public Advocates Office reports a residential average rate that blends every plan and hour. SMUD publishes a comparison of what a 750 kWh month costs at nearby utilities.

Statewide, the U.S. Energy Information Administration puts California's June 2026 residential average at 34.74 cents per kWh, up from 33.59 cents in June 2025, against a U.S. average of 18.34 cents. For full-year 2025, its preliminary figure is 32.54 cents, second only to Hawaii. Our breakdown of why California ranks near the top explains the causes, and the PG&E, SCE and SDG&E comparison puts the three large utilities next to each other.

Where to go for your utility's full price list

Once you know the utility and plan, go to the detailed guide: PG&E time-of-use rates, SCE time-of-use rates, SDG&E TOU-DR1 and other plans, SMUD's time-of-day prices or LADWP tier prices and peak hours. The California utility rate tracker records every change to the averages with its effective date. If you want to know what a full bill comes to, start with the average California utility bill.