SMUD Time-of-Day (5-8 p.m.) Rate (RT02): What Will It Cost You?
Time-of-Day (5-8 p.m.) Rate is the standard residential rate of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Enter your monthly usage to see your estimated bill on this plan and how it compares with SMUD’s other rate plans.
Sources, dates, and what’s not included
Rate schedules
- Fixed Rate (RF01): rates in effect from January 1, 2026, checked against the official schedule on October 4, 2026. Sources: Rate Schedule R (Residential Service), Rate Schedule HGA (Hydro Generation Adjustment).
- Time-of-Day (Low Use) Rate (RTL1): rates in effect from January 1, 2026, checked against the official schedule on October 4, 2026. Sources: Rate Schedule R-TOD (Residential Time-of-Day Service), Rate Schedule HGA (Hydro Generation Adjustment).
- Time-of-Day (5-8 p.m.) Rate (RT02): rates in effect from January 1, 2026, checked against the official schedule on October 4, 2026. Sources: Rate Schedule R-TOD (Residential Time-of-Day Service), Rate Schedule HGA (Hydro Generation Adjustment).
Not included
- Utility tax for cities and unincorporated areas of Sacramento County (the “Sacramento City Tax” line on SMUD’s sample bill) (SMUD, Back of bill; SMUD, Understanding your bill (sample bill))
- California State Energy Charge (the “State Surcharge” line on SMUD’s sample bill) (SMUD, Back of bill; SMUD, Understanding your bill (sample bill))
- Charges for optional programs you sign up for and for optional metering equipment (Special Metering Charge) aren’t included.
- Discounts and charges for the conditions listed under “Account conditions this estimate can’t cover” in the calculator.
Notes
- Annual amounts are estimates at current rates, not a forecast of future bills. Monthly amounts are the year’s total divided by 12.
- An approved rate change for Fixed Rate (RF01) takes effect on January 1, 2027, under Rate Schedule R (Residential Service). These estimates use the rates in effect now.
- An approved rate change for Time-of-Day (Low Use) Rate (RTL1) and Time-of-Day (5-8 p.m.) Rate (RT02) takes effect on January 1, 2027, under Rate Schedule R-TOD (Residential Time-of-Day Service). These estimates use the rates in effect now.
- Holidays listed in the rate schedules are billed like weekends. Usage on those days is also spread like a weekend day.
- Your monthly kWh is spread over the hours of the day with a typical hourly pattern for homes in Sacramento County, CA, derived from the End-Use Load Profiles for the U.S. Building Stock. The pattern comes from building energy models calibrated to measured data, not from your own meter, so your bill can differ.
- The apartment pattern is based on 444 building models, compared with 1,515 for houses, so it is less certain.
- Data includes information from the ResStock™ dataset developed by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- See the methodology for how the usage patterns are made and what the estimates include.
- Choose your Type of home and enter your Monthly usage in kWh.
- Optionally, choose how much evening use you could move to overnight. Time-of-day plans cost less when more of your use falls outside the peak hours.
- Answer the questions under Your account.
- Read the result: your estimated bill on this plan first, then the other plans with the difference from the standard rate, where the cheapest plan changes, and a line-by-line breakdown.
Time-of-Day (5-8 p.m.) Rate rates
Rates in effect from January 1, 2026. Checked against the official rate schedule on October 4, 2026.
- System Infrastructure Fixed Charge: $27.00 a month, whatever you use.
- Hydro Generation Adjustment: $0.0000 per kWh on all usage.
- Optional Plug-In Electric Vehicle Credit: -$0.0150 per kWh on all use midnight–6 a.m., every day.
October–May
| Period | Price | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.1776/kWh | Weekdays 5 p.m.–8 p.m. |
| Off-Peak | $0.1285/kWh | Weekdays midnight–5 p.m., 8 p.m.–midnight; weekends and holidays all day |
June–September
| Period | Price | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.3765/kWh | Weekdays 5 p.m.–8 p.m. |
| Mid-Peak | $0.2139/kWh | Weekdays noon–5 p.m., 8 p.m.–midnight |
| Off-Peak | $0.1550/kWh | Weekdays midnight–noon; weekends and holidays all day |
Holidays
These days are billed like weekends. If a holiday on a set date falls on a weekend, no other day is billed as the holiday.
| Holiday | Date |
|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | January 1 |
| Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Third Monday in January |
| Presidents Day | Third Monday in February |
| Memorial Day | Last Monday in May |
| Juneteenth National Independence Day | June 19 |
| Independence Day | July 4 |
| Labor Day | First Monday in September |
| Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Columbus Day | Second Monday in October |
| Veterans Day | November 11 |
| Thanksgiving Day | Fourth Thursday in November |
| Christmas Day | December 25 |
What an EV adds on this plan
A house that uses 750 kWh a month adds an EV that needs 200 kWh a month at home, charged midnight–6 a.m. every day. Annual estimate at current rates, shown as a monthly average:
| Case | Per month | Increase |
|---|---|---|
| Without the EV | $146.21 | — |
| With the EV | $173.68 | $27.47 a month ($329.60 a year) |
| With the EV and the Plug-In Electric Vehicle Credit | $168.89 | $22.68 a month ($272.14 a year) |
To try your own vehicle, mileage, and charging hours, and to compare plans with the EV, use the EV charging cost calculator.
How the estimate works
- For each month of the current year, your monthly kWh is spread over the days and hours with the typical hourly pattern for your type of home. Weekdays and weekends have different patterns, and holidays use the weekend pattern.
- If you shift evening use, that share of each day’s use from 5 p.m.–9 p.m. moves evenly to midnight–6 a.m., and your total use stays the same.
- Each hour is matched to the plan’s time period for that month and day, priced at the plan’s rate, and added up. The fixed charge (a monthly amount, or a daily amount times the days in the month), the per-kWh adjustment, and any credit you qualify for are separate lines. Each line is rounded to the cent, and the bill is the sum of the lines.
- The annual estimate adds up 12 monthly bills at the rates in effect now. Every plan gets the same usage, so the differences come only from the rates.
- If a plan’s rates are being rechecked, for example after a scheduled rate change, the calculator shows its estimate at the last checked rates and stops ranking it until the check is done.