Time-of-Use Electricity Rate Visualizer
Most utility websites describe peak hours in tariff PDFs nobody reads. Pick your utility below and see exactly when peak rates hit — by hour, by day of the week — then model what TOU would cost or save your household.
We pull the most recent residential time-of-use schedule for this utility from the NREL Utility Rate Database. 17 utilities in our footprint currently offer at least one TOU plan.
Data source
Tariff schedules and rates come from the NREL Utility Rate Database (URDB), a public-domain dataset maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Most recent revision filed by Duke Energy Ohio: official tariff.
How time-of-use pricing works
Peak hours cost more
Usually weekday afternoons and early evenings (2–7 PM is typical). Some utilities also include a "shoulder" mid-tier.
Off-peak hours are cheap
Overnight, early mornings, late evenings — and on some plans, all weekend. Off-peak rates can be 30–50% below peak.
Shifting loads pays
EV chargers, pool pumps, electric water heaters, and dishwashers are easy to shift to off-peak. AC and cooking aren't.
Frequently asked questions
What is a time-of-use (TOU) electricity rate?
A time-of-use plan charges different prices depending on when you use electricity. Peak hours (typically afternoons and early evenings) cost more; off-peak hours (overnight, early mornings, sometimes weekends) cost less. If you can shift heavy loads — laundry, dishwasher, EV charging — to off-peak windows, TOU plans can beat a flat rate. If most of your usage happens during peak hours, TOU will cost more.
Which Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington DC utilities offer TOU?
In our footprint, every Ohio investor-owned utility (AEP Ohio, Duke, AES, Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison, Illuminating Co), all Pennsylvania utilities except PPL, and all three Massachusetts utilities (Eversource, National Grid, Nantucket Electric) carry at least one residential TOU plan. In New Jersey, PSE&G and JCP&L offer residential TOU plans; Atlantic City Electric does not. In Washington DC, Pepco offers residential TOU. Texas TDUs (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas) don't directly offer TOU — but several Texas REPs sell free-nights and time-banded plans on top of the standard TDU delivery.
Where do you get the peak / off-peak schedules?
Directly from each utility's tariff filing, structured by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Utility Rate Database (URDB). When a utility files a new tariff with their state PUC, URDB ingests the new effective dates, peak windows, and rates within days. We pull from URDB monthly. The "Source" link below the heatmap goes straight to the official tariff PDF.
Is time-of-use worth it for my household?
Depends on when you use power. If at least 50% of your monthly kWh falls outside the utility's peak window — overnight, early morning, late evening, weekends in some plans — TOU usually beats a flat rate. If you're home in the afternoon running AC, cooking on an electric range, or charging an EV during peak hours, flat rate wins. The slider in this tool lets you model your own mix and see the dollar swing.
How accurate is the savings estimate?
It uses the actual peak and off-peak ¢/kWh from your utility's most recent residential TOU tariff. It assumes morning + overnight usage prices at off-peak rates and afternoon + evening usage at peak rates — a simplification that matches how the majority of utility TOU plans price their windows. For a precise dollar quote, ask your utility for a TOU bill comparison report based on your actual interval data.