Time-of-Use Electricity Plans in Texas (2026)
Free nights. Free weekends. Peak-hour pricing. Texas REPs offer more time-of-use products than any other state — but the savings depend almost entirely on whether you can shift your usage.
If I switched to TOU in Texas, when are peak hours?
Across the 0Texas utilities offering time-of-use plans, peak windows fall on weekday afternoons — most schedules concentrate peak pricing between roughly 2pm and 7pm, with off-peak running overnight and on weekends. There are 0 current TOU tariffs on file in the URDB. The exact peak window varies by utility; see each utility's heatmap below.
Time-of-use electricity in Texas
Texas residents have a different relationship with time-of-use plans than customers in regulated states. The Public Utility Commission of Texas regulates Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, and TNMP — the wires companies that deliver power — but the retail energy product, including time-of-use options, is sold by retail electric providers (REPs) in the competitive market. URDB documents very few TOU schedules on the Texas TDU side because TDU tariffs are primarily delivery charges. The time-of-use action in Texas happens at the REP layer.
Is time-of-use worth it in Texas?
In Texas, "free nights" and "free weekends" plans from REPs are the most common time-of-use products. They benefit households that can shift laundry, dishwashers, and EV charging into the free window — typically 9pm-6am or all weekend. Households running heavy air conditioning during peak summer afternoons often pay more on these plans, not less. Check the plan's EFL carefully before signing up.
The honest answer for most households is: it depends on how much of your usage you can move. Time-of-use plans are a swap — you accept a higher rate during peak hours in exchange for a lower rate during off-peak hours. If your home runs heaviest during peak hours and you can't shift it, you'll lose money. If you can shift even 30-40% of your usage into off-peak windows, you'll usually come out ahead.
Good candidates for TOU
- EV owners who charge overnight
- Households with battery storage
- Remote workers with flexible schedules
- Pool/spa pumps on timers
- Smart thermostats with pre-cooling
Poor candidates for TOU
- All-day occupied homes (retirees, families with young kids)
- Older A/C systems that run constantly in summer
- Resistive electric heat in winter
- Households without smart appliances or schedule flexibility
Run the math first. Look at your last 12 months of usage hour-by-hour if you have a smart meter, or estimate the percentage of your usage that already falls in off-peak hours. If less than 50% is off-peak, TOU probably costs you money. Our Bill Grade tool evaluates this for free.
Texas utilities with time-of-use plans
Each utility's count of currently filed TOU tariffs in URDB. Click through to the utility page for full plan details and live rates.
| Utility | TOU plans | Fixed $/mo | Default ¢/kWh | Tariff source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oncor Electric Delivery | — | $4.23 | 4.6¢ | Tariff PDF |
| CenterPoint Energy Houston | — | $4.39 | 4.8¢ | Tariff PDF |
| AEP Texas | — | $9.00 | 5.6¢ | Tariff PDF |
Why peak hours exist on Texas's grid
ERCOT runs Texas. Peak demand hits in late afternoon and evening during summer cooling season, when air conditioning load combines with sunset solar drop-off. Wholesale prices in those hours can be 10-20× the off-peak average. REP time-of-use plans are how those wholesale price swings reach residential customers.
TOU rates exist because wholesale electricity costs vary hour by hour. The retail price most households pay is a blended average across the entire month — cheap and expensive hours mixed together. A TOU rate unblends them: you pay closer to the actual hourly cost. That's good news if your usage skews to cheap hours, bad news if it skews to expensive ones.
Run your own TOU savings estimate
Plug your monthly usage and your typical schedule into our TOU visualizer to see if a time-of-use plan would have saved you money over the past year. The tool pulls real peak-hour schedules from your utility's URDB-filed tariff.
Frequently asked questions
What is a time-of-use electricity plan in Texas?
A Texas time-of-use plan charges a different per-kWh energy rate depending on when you use power. Retail electric providers like Reliant, TXU, Gexa, and Frontier offer several flavors. Free-nights plans give zero energy cost overnight, usually 8pm to 6am or 9pm to 7am, and a higher rate during the day. Free-weekends plans do the same Friday evening through Sunday night. Some plans price peak summer afternoons separately. The TDU delivery charges from Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, or TNMP are flat all day and do not move with the time-of-use schedule, so the free hours are not literally free once delivery is counted.
Who benefits most from a time-of-use plan in Texas?
Households that can move a large share of usage into the free or off-peak window. EV owners who plug in after 8pm and let the car charge overnight often save 20 to 30 percent. Solar households that export during the day and consume from the grid at night benefit. Night-shift workers running laundry, dishwashers, and HVAC overnight win. Families home all day with central air running through Texas afternoon heat lose money on every free-nights plan we have modeled. The break-even is usually 30 to 40 percent of monthly kWh occurring in the free window. Below that, the higher daytime rate eats the savings.
How do I know if a Texas REP offers a time-of-use plan?
Every Texas retail electric provider files an Electricity Facts Label for each plan with the PUCT. The EFL flags time-of-use plans and lists the free or off-peak hours, the rate inside and outside the free window, and the all-in average price at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh. The PUCT-run Power to Choose site at powertochoose.org filters by plan type, including free nights and free weekends. Comparing plans on the EFL at your actual monthly usage is the only reliable way to know whether a TOU plan beats a fixed plan for your home.
What appliances should I shift to off-peak hours on a Texas TOU plan?
Focus on the highest-watt loads with the most timing flexibility. EV charging is the biggest mover — a Level 2 charger overnight can shift 30 to 60 kWh per day into the free window. Pool pumps should run overnight, never during peak afternoon hours. Clothes dryers and dishwashers can be loaded during the day and started on a delay timer for after 8pm. Electric water heaters can recover overnight. Pre-cooling the house to 70 degrees before 4pm and letting it drift up to 76 by 8pm shifts some HVAC load but does not eliminate it. Central air running in 100-degree Texas afternoons is the load you mostly cannot move.