SCE peak hours: when Edison charges the most

The short answer

SCE peak hours are 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays if you are on TOU-D 4–9 p.m. or on TOU-D-PRIME, and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays if you are on TOU-D 5–8 p.m. Summer runs June through September, when those windows are priced as on-peak. October through May the same evening window becomes mid-peak, which is cheaper than summer on-peak but still the most expensive block of the winter day.

Weekends are never on-peak. On all three plans the evening window drops to mid-peak on Saturdays and Sundays.

The three plans side by side

The 5–8 p.m. plan is not the cheap one. It has the shortest peak window, and people assume that makes it the bargain. Edison prices those three hours at 74¢ — the highest number on this page. It only pays off if you can genuinely keep the house quiet from 5 to 8.

TOU-D 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The most common residential plan.

Summer, June through September

• Weekday 12 a.m.–4 p.m.Off-peak, 34¢
• Weekday 4–9 p.m.On-peak, 58¢
• Weekday 9 p.m.–12 a.m.Off-peak, 34¢
• Weekend 4–9 p.m.Mid-peak, 46¢
• Weekend, all other hoursOff-peak, 34¢

Winter, October through May

• 12 a.m.–8 a.m.Off-peak, 37¢
• 8 a.m.–4 p.m.Super-off-peak, 33¢
• 4–9 p.m.Mid-peak, 51¢
• 9 p.m.–12 a.m.Off-peak, 37¢

TOU-D 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A shorter peak window, but the most expensive one.

Summer, June through September

• Weekday 12 a.m.–5 p.m.Off-peak, 34¢
• Weekday 5–8 p.m.On-peak, 74¢
• Weekday 8 p.m.–12 a.m.Off-peak, 34¢
• Weekend 5–8 p.m.Mid-peak, 54¢
• Weekend, all other hoursOff-peak, 34¢

Winter, October through May

• 12 a.m.–8 a.m.Off-peak, 38¢
• 8 a.m.–5 p.m.Super-off-peak, 32¢
• 5–8 p.m.Mid-peak, 60¢
• 8 p.m.–12 a.m.Off-peak, 38¢

TOU-D-PRIME

The plan solar and battery customers are put on. Cheapest off-peak of the three.

Summer, June through September

• Weekday 12 a.m.–4 p.m.Off-peak, 26¢
• Weekday 4–9 p.m.On-peak, 59¢
• Weekday 9 p.m.–12 a.m.Off-peak, 26¢
• Weekend 4–9 p.m.Mid-peak, 40¢
• Weekend, all other hoursOff-peak, 26¢

Winter, October through May

• 12 a.m.–8 a.m.Off-peak, 24¢
• 8 a.m.–4 p.m.Super-off-peak, 24¢
• 4–9 p.m.Mid-peak, 56¢
• 9 p.m.–12 a.m.Off-peak, 24¢

The super-off-peak window most people miss

From October through May, all three plans add a super-off-peak block in the middle of the day — 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 5–8 plan. It is the cheapest electricity Edison sells all year: 33¢, 32¢, and 24¢ on the three plans respectively.

There is no super-off-peak in summer. From June to September the daytime is plain off-peak, and the only cheap hours are the ones nobody is awake for.

What actually moves your bill

The gap between off-peak and on-peak in summer is the whole game. On the 4–9 plan it is 34¢ against 58¢ — running the dryer at 2 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. costs about 40% less per kilowatt-hour. On the 5–8 plan the same swap is 34¢ against 74¢, a difference of more than half.

The things worth moving out of the evening window, in rough order of how much they draw:

• EV charging. The single biggest one. Charge overnight or midday, never at 6 p.m.
• Pool pump. Run it in the morning. It is a big load with no reason to be on in the evening.
• Dryer and dishwasher. Both have delay timers. Use them.
• Pre-cooling the house. Drop the thermostat a few degrees before 4 p.m. and let it drift up during peak, rather than running the compressor hard at 6 p.m.

Air conditioning is the hard one, because in Fontana, Riverside and the High Desert the hours you most need it are exactly the hours Edison charges most for it. That is not an accident — the peak window exists because everyone’s AC is running then.

Why this window is the case for a battery

Solar alone does not solve the 4-to-9 problem. Production falls off through the late afternoon and is finished well before 9 p.m., which means the panels are quietest exactly when the price is highest. Without storage you generate cheap midday power, export it for very little, and then buy back expensive evening power.

A battery shifts that. It stores the midday surplus and discharges it across the peak window, so the expensive hours are covered by your own stored electricity rather than Edison’s. That is the reason every system we place in the Inland Empire pairs panels with a Powerwall, and it is why Edison puts its own solar-and-battery customers on TOU-D-PRIME — the plan with the cheapest off-peak rate, because those customers are expected to be charging from the grid overnight.

One caveat we would rather say up front: shifting usage and adding storage reduce the per-kilowatt-hour part of your bill. They do not touch the Base Services Charge, the flat monthly amount Edison charges for the connection. We wrote about that separately in what actually changed on your Edison bill in 2026.

How to find out which plan you are on

It is printed on your bill, and it is in your account on sce.com under rate plan. Edison also publishes a rate plan comparison tool that runs your own usage history against each plan, which is more reliable than any estimate we could give you. If you are about to add solar or a battery, check it before you decide anything — the right plan for a house with storage is often not the right plan for the same house without it.

Sources

Every price on this page is Edison’s own published figure.

• Southern California Edison — Time-of-Use Residential Rate Plans (rate tables for all three plans)
• Southern California Edison — Understanding the Base Services Charge
• Southern California Edison — Rate Plan Comparison Tool

Published September 12, 2026; rates checked September 12, 2026. Edison changes these, and when it does this page changes. For your own rate plan and bill, Edison is the authority — we are a solar broker, not a utility.