Time-of-use electricity plans explained

What the EIA calls it

The EIA-861 instructions define it this way: “Time of Use Prices (TOU) is a program in which customers pay different prices at different times of the day. On-peak prices are higher and off-peak prices are lower than a "standard" rate. Price schedule is fixed and predefined, based on season, day of week, and time of day.”

EIA defines on-peak as “Periods of relatively high system demand”, and says these periods differ for each utility. So the hours in your plan are not a national rule. They come from your utility’s schedule.

A TOU plan is one kind of rate schedule. If the schedule terms are new to you, read how to read a rate schedule first.

The five dynamic pricing types

TOU is the mildest. The others change the price on short notice or only on a few days. EIA counts all five under dynamic pricing, which it also calls time-based rates.

Source: EIA-861 2024 Instructions (EIA, Form EIA-861), Schedule 6 Part C definitions; counts from EIA-861 2024, Dynamic_Pricing, rows with a Y in the residential column. Retrieved 2026-10-02. CSV, 5 rows.

Time-of-use is by far the most common: 358 utility reports list a home TOU program, against 25 for critical peak pricing, 15 for real-time pricing, 12 for critical peak rebates and 6 for variable peak pricing. Critical peak programs are also a kind of demand response.

Where plans are offered

Across the 51 places with data (50 states and DC), 358 of 857 utility reports say the utility offers a home TOU rate. 2 of the places show no such rate in the file. Among places with at least five reporting utilities, Arizona has the largest share of utilities with one (91%). Maryland has the most enrollment per 100 home meters (67.1).

Offering a plan does not mean many customers use it. Nationally 10.7 in 100 home meters belong to a dynamic pricing program, and 84% of home meters are smart meters (AMI) that could support one. See the smart meter and time-of-use ranking for every state.

Source: EIA-861 2024, Dynamic_Pricing and Advanced_Meters. TOU = utilities answering Y for residential time-of-use pricing. The table shows the twelve states with the most dynamic-pricing enrollment per 100 home meters. Retrieved 2026-10-02. CSV, 51 rows.

How the plan can change your bill, our scenario

A TOU plan beats a flat price only if you use less of your power in the on-peak hours than the plan assumes. The table shows how that works with explicit inputs. It is arithmetic, not a forecast.

Assumptions (our scenario): the home uses the U.S. average 863 kWh a month. The flat price is the 2025 U.S. average, 17.30 cents. The time-of-use plan has an on-peak price 1.76 times its lowest price, the median ratio of highest to lowest listed energy rate in time-of-use plans in the URDB snapshot (tiers, if any, are inside that ratio). The plan is set so that a home with 30% of its use on-peak pays the same as the flat price. Real plans differ: seasons, weekends and fixed charges are left out.

Read it from the middle. At 30% on-peak use the bill equals the flat price. Move more use off-peak and the bill falls. Use more power on-peak and it rises. The size of the swing depends on the price ratio, and the median ratio in the database is 1.76; one plan in ten is at 1.11 or below, and one in ten is at 3.82 or above.

Who tends to gain, who tends to lose

A home gains when it can move big loads to low-price hours without much effort: an EV charger, a dishwasher or dryer on a timer, a water heater, pre-cooling in summer. A home loses when its use is high at the peak and cannot move, such as air conditioning on a hot late afternoon with nobody to change the schedule.

If you are not sure, compare a past bill with the plan. Ask whether your utility shows hourly data online. Our EV charging guide and appliance cost pages give kWh for common loads.

Questions to ask the utility

Ask for the hour windows by season, whether weekends and holidays are off-peak, the price in each window, the fixed charge, and whether there is a trial period or a way to go back. Ask also whether the plan stays open for good or can be closed to new customers, and whether you need a meter change.

For help paying a bill, see shutoff rules by state and your state help page.

What this page cannot tell you

EIA-861 does not give plan prices or hours. The URDB ratio comes from 1,774 time-of-use plans in a copy captured 2026-04-17, read by our rule. We have no data on how many customers saved money on a TOU plan.

Key facts and where they come from

CSV, 13 rows.

Related guides

• kWh vs kW and demand charges
• Why your electric bill changes by season
• EV charging at home: what it costs by state