LADWP Electric Rates in 2026: Tier Prices, Peak Hours and What You Pay per kWh

LADWP's 2026 residential prices run from about 24.4 to 41.0 cents per kWh, depending on the plan, the usage tier and the quarter. On the standard R-1A plan, Tier 1 is 26.408 cents from July to September 2026 and rises to 27.292 cents on October 1. Time-of-use peak hours are 1 to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Those prices come from LADWP's own residential rates page, checked September 23, 2026. They include LADWP's quarterly adjustment factors but not taxes or fixed monthly charges. LADWP is a city-owned utility, so it is not in the CPUC reports that set the averages on our California utility rate tracker; this page reads LADWP's tariff directly instead.

How LADWP prices electricity: two residential plans

A single-family home or individually metered unit is on Schedule R-1, which has two options. R-1A, the standard rate, charges by usage tier and season. R-1B, the time-of-use rate, charges by the hour of the day and adds a flat monthly service charge instead of the tier-based access charge. To move to R-1B you apply through LADWP's time-of-use application. Master-metered apartment buildings are on a separate multifamily schedule, R-3.

Every price is two parts added together: a base energy charge that has not changed since July 1, 2019, and a stack of pass-through adjustment factors that LADWP resets in January, April, July and October. The factors recover fuel and purchased power, renewable energy costs, grid reliability spending and low-income discounts. When LADWP rates move, it is almost always the factors that moved.

R-1A standard rate: tiers, zones and seasons

On R-1A, the first block of electricity each billing period is Tier 1, the next block is Tier 2, and anything above that is Tier 3. How big each block is depends on where you live. LADWP splits the city into a cooler Zone 1 and a hotter Zone 2, and gives Zone 2 homes a larger Tier 1 because air conditioning and refrigerators work harder there. The zone map is linked from LADWP's rate explainer.

The high season runs June through September. From October through May, Tier 2 and Tier 3 carry the same price, so in winter there are effectively two prices: Tier 1 and everything above it. If a billing period straddles a season change or a quarterly price change, LADWP splits your usage by the number of days on each side.

R-1A also carries the Power Access Charge: $2.30 a month if your highest month of the last year stayed in Tier 1, $7.90 if it reached Tier 2 and $22.70 if it reached Tier 3. LADWP recalculates it every October 1. The plan has a minimum charge of $10 a month plus adjustment factors.

R-1B time-of-use rate: LADWP peak and off-peak hours

R-1B prices electricity by when you use it. The hours are the same all year. What changes with the season is the gap between them: from October through May, High Peak and Low Peak cost the same, so the plan behaves like a simple day/night split. In June through September, High Peak costs noticeably more.

Those are 2026 prices. For the same periods of 2025, LADWP lists R-1B at 25.172 cents for both peak periods and 22.818 cents Base in January to March, 33.022, 27.182 and 24.438 cents in July to September, and 27.480, 27.480 and 25.126 cents in October to December. The climate zone makes no difference on R-1B: Zone 1 and Zone 2 matter only for the size of R-1A's tiers and for the Power Access Charge, so a Zone 2 home on time-of-use pays the same price per kWh as any other.

LADWP's own guidance is that R-1B tends to suit two kinds of households: those whose two-month bills keep reaching Tier 3, and solar customers who keep banking credits. Notice how narrow the spread is. In the summer quarter, Base is only about 8.6 cents below High Peak, a smaller gap than the evening premium on the main PG&E, SCE and SDG&E time-of-use plans. Moving a load to the Base period helps, but the bigger lever on R-1B is simply using less.

Did LADWP rates go up? 2025 vs. 2026

Yes. LADWP posts both years side by side, and every 2026 figure is higher than the same months of 2025. Because the increase sits in the per-kWh adjustment factors, it is the same number of cents in every tier and period. LADWP is not regulated by the CPUC; its rates are set by City of Los Angeles ordinances, and the adjustment factors are reset each January, April, July and October.

The adjustment-factor table shows where the money went. The Incremental Reliability Cost Adjustment, which recovers Power Reliability Program operating and debt costs, was 4.208 cents per kWh in the first half of 2025, 5.505 cents from July 2025 through June 2026, and 6.934 cents from July 2026. The Variable Energy Adjustment, which covers fuel and non-renewable purchased power, rose from 0.439 cents in early 2025 to 1.590 cents for the quarter that starts October 1, 2026.

Coming October 1, 2026: the fourth-quarter factors take R-1A Tier 1 from 26.408 to 27.292 cents and the R-1B Base price from 26.540 to 27.814 cents. Because the high season also ends September 30, Tier 3 falls from 40.968 cents to 33.151 cents, the same as Tier 2, so a large summer bill will usually still shrink in October.

What a two-month LADWP bill looks like

Here is the arithmetic for one example, using only LADWP's published figures: a Zone 1 home on R-1A that uses 1,000 kWh over a two-month bill falling entirely in July through September 2026. The first 700 kWh are Tier 1 at 26.408 cents, about $184.86. The next 300 kWh are Tier 2 at 32.267 cents, about $96.80. If the home's highest month last year reached Tier 2, the Power Access Charge adds $7.90 for each month, or $15.80. That is roughly $297 before taxes. Your bill will differ with your zone, dates and usage, and it may also carry LADWP water charges and the city's sewer and trash fees, which LADWP bills on the city's behalf.

Discounts, EV charging and solar on LADWP

LADWP runs its own assistance programs rather than CARE and FERA. EZ-SAVE takes up to $16.34 off every two months for income-qualified households. Lifeline, for seniors and customers with disabilities who meet the income test, takes up to $35.42 off every two months. Both are applied through LADWP, not the state.

If you charge an electric vehicle on a separately metered charger on a time-of-use rate, LADWP takes 2.5 cents per kWh off Base-period charging. Our guide to LADWP EV charging rates and rebates walks through the meter requirement and what charging costs at home.

For rooftop solar, LADWP still uses net energy metering: exports earn a credit at your rate schedule's energy price, and leftover credits roll forward to later bills (the full LADWP net metering rules cover sizing and interconnection). Credits left when you close the account are zeroed out, so a system sized far beyond your use does not pay you back in cash. That is different from the net billing tariff at PG&E, SCE and SDG&E, where exports are credited at lower hourly values. The Los Angeles County solar and bill guide covers how that plays out for local homes.

Where to go next

If your bill is higher than these prices suggest, work through why an LADWP bill jumps, which separates water, sanitation and old balances from the electric charges. For the billing calendar itself, see how often LADWP bills. To see how Los Angeles compares with the rest of the state, read why California's rates rank near the top nationally and the PG&E, SCE and SDG&E rate comparison. If you live on the edge of the city, check your bill: neighboring areas are served by SCE, whose time-of-use plans run 4 to 9 p.m.