SCE Time-of-Use Rates in 2026: Peak Hours and Prices for TOU-D-4-9PM, TOU-D-5-8PM and TOU-D-PRIME

Southern California Edison's peak hours are 4 to 9 p.m. every day on TOU-D-4-9PM and TOU-D-PRIME, and 5 to 8 p.m. every day on TOU-D-5-8PM. The most expensive hours are summer weekdays, when SCE lists on-peak prices of 58 to 74 cents per kWh. The cheapest are winter mornings and middays on TOU-D-PRIME, at 24 cents.

SCE offers three open time-of-use plans and one tiered plan, Schedule D. The prices below are the ones SCE posts on its Time-of-Use Residential Rate Plans page, rounded by SCE to the cent and checked September 23, 2026; the tiered page is labeled “current rates as of 6/1/26.” They are bundled prices for customers who buy their power from SCE. For SCE's average rate next to PG&E and SDG&E, see the California utility rate tracker.

SCE peak and off-peak hours by plan

SCE's summer runs June through September and winter October through May. The clock hours of the higher-priced window never change; what changes is its label and price. In summer it is on-peak on weekdays and mid-peak on weekends. In winter it is mid-peak every day, and the middle of the day becomes super off-peak, the cheapest period on each plan.

SCE time-of-use prices per kWh

Read the table two ways. Across plans, TOU-D-5-8PM charges the most inside its window, 74 cents on a summer weekday against 58 cents on TOU-D-4-9PM, so a shorter window is not automatically cheaper. Within a plan, the baseline credit matters: on TOU-D-4-9PM, SCE shows a summer weekday off-peak kWh at 24 cents after the credit and an on-peak kWh at 48 cents, as long as the usage falls within your baseline allocation.

TOU-D-4-9PM: SCE's standard time-of-use plan

SCE pitches this plan at people who stay up late and at smaller households in coastal areas. Its five-hour window is long, but the price inside it is lower than on the 5-to-8 plan, and the 10-cent baseline credit applies to your baseline allocation. SCE also gives eligible TOU-D-4-9PM and TOU-D-5-8PM customers with a heat pump water heater extra baseline: 1.9 kWh a day in summer and 2.6 kWh a day in winter. It fits best when evening use is light and most of your kWh sit within baseline.

TOU-D-5-8PM: a shorter window at a higher price

TOU-D-5-8PM trims the window to three hours and moves the off-peak and super off-peak periods an hour later. The price for that is the highest listed on-peak rate at SCE, 74 cents on summer weekdays and 60 cents on winter evenings. It can work for a household that is out until 8 p.m. every weekday and does not cook, run air conditioning or charge a car until afterward. If 4 to 5 p.m. or 8 to 9 p.m. is when your use happens, the plan costs you nothing extra; if 5 to 8 is, it costs a lot.

TOU-D-PRIME: the EV, battery and heat pump plan

TOU-D-PRIME is for owners or lessees of an electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid, households with a residential battery, and homes that heat water or space with an electric heat pump. You confirm that you qualify when you enroll. It has no baseline credit, but its off-peak and super off-peak prices, 26 cents in summer and 24 cents in winter, are the lowest on any SCE plan. The weekday on-peak price, 59 cents, is about the same as TOU-D-4-9PM's.

Solar customers. The CPUC requires customers on the net billing tariff, which SCE calls the Solar Billing Plan, to take service on TOU-D-PRIME. Customers still on NEM 2.0 must be on a time-of-use rate, though the CPUC does not name TOU-D-PRIME for them. How SCE credits exports is covered in the SCE annual settlement bill guide.

SCE EV rates: charging a car on TOU-D-PRIME

SCE markets TOU-D-PRIME as its electric vehicle plan and says charging in the lowest-priced hours is roughly like a gas driver paying less than $2 a gallon. The cheapest charging window depends on the season. In summer, anything outside 4 to 9 p.m. is 26 cents, so overnight charging works. In winter, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. are both 24 cents. As a rough guide, and our own arithmetic, a car that takes 300 kWh a month at 24 cents adds about $72 to the bill; the same 300 kWh at the 56-cent winter mid-peak price would add about $168.

SCE also says customers who install a second meter used only for EV charging receive a monthly EV Meter Credit that offsets that meter's basic charges. A second meter adds installation cost, so compare it with simply moving the whole home to TOU-D-PRIME. For EV charging on other utilities, see PG&E's EV rate plans and LADWP's EV discount.

How much does SCE charge per kWh?

By plan and hour, from 24 to 74 cents in the table above. The tiered Schedule D charges 30 cents per kWh up to your baseline allocation and 40 cents above it, per SCE's page labeled current as of June 1, 2026; the sample range SCE shows is 0 to 384 kWh in Tier 1. As a single figure, the CPUC Public Advocates Office puts SCE's residential average at 34.4 cents per kWh in June 2026, averaged over every plan and customer and excluding the California Climate Credit. Why that average moved, including the October 2025 rate case increase, is in SCE's rate increase history.

The Base Services Charge sits on top of every plan

Since November 2025, every SCE plan above adds a Base Services Charge: $24.15 a month for most households, about $0.80 a day, $12.08 for FERA customers and qualifying deed-restricted affordable housing, and $6.00 for CARE customers. SCE says it replaced the old Basic Charge and cut the price of each kWh by about 10%. It does not change with usage or plan, and solar customers pay it too. The full list of SCE schedules, including CARE, FERA and closed legacy plans such as TOU-D-A and TOU-D-B, is in SCE rate schedules explained.

Community choice customers

If a community choice provider supplies your power, SCE still delivers it and bills you, but the generation part of your price comes from the provider. SCE publishes joint rate comparisons for each provider that show the combined price; use those rather than the bundled prices above, or you will count generation twice.

How to choose and switch

1. Find your current plan name on your bill and note whether SCE or a community choice provider supplies generation.
2. Download a year of hourly usage from your SCE account and see how much falls between 4 and 9 p.m. and between 5 and 8 p.m.
3. Check how much of your usage sits within your baseline allocation, since only TOU-D-4-9PM and TOU-D-5-8PM credit it.
4. Add loads you expect, such as an EV, heat pump or pool pump, which can make TOU-D-PRIME the better fit.
5. Run SCE's Rate Plan Comparison tool, and switch only when you are sure, because the choice holds for 12 months.

Where solar and a battery fit

On TOU-D-PRIME, the expensive hours are 4 to 9 p.m., after rooftop solar output falls off. Panels alone cover the cheap midday hours; a battery that carries midday solar into the evening is what avoids the 56-to-59-cent window. Ask any proposal to show your remaining SCE bill on TOU-D-PRIME, including the Base Services Charge. If your bill already looks wrong, start with the SCE high-bill checklist, and compare hours across utilities in California electricity peak hours by utility. For the other large utilities, see PG&E time-of-use rates and SDG&E time-of-use rates.