EV, battery or heat pump? California's electric home rate plans

If you charge an electric car at home, the hour you plug in can change what a month of driving costs by about $60. For example, 300 kWh of charging on SCE's TOU-D-PRIME plan costs about $72 at the winter daytime price of 24 cents per kWh, and about $135 at the 4 to 9 p.m. price of 45 cents. (A kWh, or kilowatt-hour, is the unit your bill counts.)

All three big California utilities offer plans built for homes with an EV, a home battery or a heat pump. They trade a daily or monthly base charge for lower prices outside the evening peak. Winter pricing for PG&E and SCE runs October through May, so the numbers below are the ones on your bill right now.

PG&E: Electric Home (E-ELEC). You qualify if you own or lease an EV, battery storage, or a heat pump for water heating or space heating and cooling. PG&E says the home does not need to be all-electric. Peak is 4 to 9 p.m. every day, partial peak is 3 to 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight, and off-peak is midnight to 3 p.m., 15 hours a day. PG&E's price sheet effective March 1, 2026 lists E-ELEC winter prices between about 28 and 32 cents per kWh, and a summer peak price of about 55 cents. The plan includes a monthly Base Services Charge in exchange for those lower per-kWh prices. PG&E also offers EV2-A, which lists an off-peak price of about 23 cents in both seasons for drivers who can charge overnight.

SCE: TOU-D-PRIME. Open to EV and plug-in hybrid owners and lessees, and to homes with a battery or an electric heat pump for water or space heating. New enrollees attest that they have one. Winter prices are 24 cents per kWh from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., 30 cents off-peak and 45 cents from 4 to 9 p.m. Summer weekdays reach 61 cents during the peak. The Base Services Charge is $0.79 a day, about $24 for a 30-day month, and there is no baseline credit.

SDG&E: EV-TOU-5. This plan is for customers who charge an EV at home. As of April 1, 2026, the winter super off-peak price is about 12 cents per kWh, mainly midnight to 6 a.m., compared with about 48 cents off-peak and 53 cents from 4 to 9 p.m. The Base Services Charge is about $0.79 a day. SDG&E has a separate plan for homes with an EV, storage or a heat pump.

Who tends to come out ahead: households that use a lot of electricity and can move charging, laundry, dishwashing and water heating out of the 4 to 9 p.m. window, often with a timer on the car or a battery set to cover the evening. Who may not: smaller users who are home and using power in the evening, especially on SCE, where the plan gives up the baseline credit.

Step 1: Log in to your utility account and open the rate comparison tool, which uses your past year of usage. Step 2: Compare your current plan with the electric home plan for both summer and winter. Step 3: If you switch, set your car, battery or water heater schedule to match the new cheap hours before your next billing cycle. If you have rooftop solar, ask your utility how a rate change interacts with your solar billing before you switch.

A small step for today: check what time your car or charger is set to start charging, and compare it with the cheapest hours on your plan.