SCE TOU Rate Plans for Solar Customers in Temecula: Which Plan Maximizes Your Savings

Adrian Marin|Independent Solar Advisor, Temecula CA

Helping Riverside County homeowners navigate SCE rates and solar options since 2020

Choosing the wrong SCE time-of-use rate plan after going solar costs Temecula homeowners hundreds of dollars per year without any change in electricity consumption. The rate plan determines what you pay when you draw from the grid, what you earn when you export solar, and how much value a battery or EV charger adds to your system. With SCE offering TOU-D-PRIME, TOU-D-4-9PM, TOU-D-5-8PM, and a legacy TOU-D option, and with NEM 3.0 changing the export credit math completely, the correct plan depends on your specific household profile. This guide works through every plan in detail and gives you a clear recommendation for solar-only, solar plus battery, solar plus EV, and solar plus EV plus battery households.

Why Your Rate Plan Matters More Under NEM 3.0

Under the old NEM 2.0 billing rules, the choice of TOU plan was important but somewhat forgiving. Energy you exported to the grid during off-peak hours still earned close to the retail rate, so even a suboptimal plan left limited money on the table. NEM 3.0 changed that fundamentally. Export credits are now based on the avoided-cost rate, which averages around $0.08 per kWh across the day. The retail rate you pay when buying electricity from SCE during peak hours is $0.58 to $0.74 per kWh depending on the plan. That gap between what you earn exporting ($0.08) and what you pay importing ($0.58 to $0.74) is why self-consumption is now the primary lever for solar economics, and why your rate plan choice has a larger financial impact than it did under the previous billing structure.

The critical thing to understand is that NEM 3.0 avoided-cost export credits do not follow TOU peaks. When the grid is pulling power at 6 PM on a hot summer day and retail electricity costs $0.58 per kWh, your exported solar earns roughly $0.08 per kWh, not $0.58. The peak rate does not apply to what you send to the grid. It only applies to what you buy from the grid. This asymmetry means every kilowatt-hour you produce and consume yourself is worth six to seven times more than every kilowatt-hour you export, purely on a credit basis.

This math reshapes the rate plan decision. Maximizing self-consumption is now the goal, and that means choosing the plan with the peak-hour pricing structure that best matches your ability to shift loads, store energy, or charge EVs during off-peak windows. The four available plans create four different versions of that problem.

TOU-D-4-9PM: The Standard Plan for Most Solar Households

TOU-D-4-9PM is the default time-of-use plan for most SCE residential customers and the most common plan among solar homeowners who were enrolled before NEM 3.0 took effect. The peak window runs from 4 PM to 9 PM every day, including weekends. In summer, on-peak electricity costs $0.58 per kWh. Off-peak electricity, covering 9 PM through 4 PM the following day, costs $0.24 per kWh after applying the baseline credit of $0.10 per kWh on consumption up to your monthly allocation.

In winter, the structure shifts: the plan has a mid-peak window from 4 PM to 9 PM at $0.41 per kWh, a standard off-peak rate of $0.27 per kWh, and a super off-peak window running from 8 AM to 4 PM on weekends at $0.23 per kWh. The winter super off-peak window is particularly relevant for solar households because midday solar production in winter falls squarely within that $0.23 per kWh window, meaning self-consumed solar displaces grid power at $0.23 per kWh rather than the $0.08 per kWh you would earn by exporting the same energy.

TOU-D-4-9PM does not carry a daily fixed charge beyond the standard SCE Base Services Charge of approximately $24.15 per month (added in November 2025 under AB 205). The absence of an additional plan-specific daily charge is one of its advantages for lower-usage solar households.

This plan works best for households that can shift discretionary loads out of the 4-9 PM window reliably. Running the dishwasher at 10 PM, scheduling laundry before 4 PM, and running pool pumps during solar production hours captures most of the available savings without requiring a battery. For households without an EV and without battery storage, TOU-D-4-9PM is the plan most solar consultants in Temecula recommend as a solid default.

TOU-D-5-8PM: Higher Peak Rates, Narrower Window

TOU-D-5-8PM has a shorter peak window (5 PM to 8 PM, three hours versus five) but charges a substantially higher peak rate of $0.74 per kWh in summer, compared to $0.58 per kWh on TOU-D-4-9PM. The off-peak rate is similar at $0.24 per kWh. In winter, mid-peak reaches $0.50 per kWh with a super off-peak rate of $0.22 per kWh.

At first glance, a narrower peak window sounds appealing. In practice, the 5-8 PM window is harder to avoid than 4-9 PM, not easier. The 5 PM to 8 PM hours are exactly when households return from work, prepare dinner, and run evening loads. A solar system with no battery is producing little to nothing after 5 PM in Temecula during most of the year. That means the household is drawing from the grid at $0.74 per kWh during its highest-load hours.

TOU-D-5-8PM makes sense in a narrow scenario: a household that can genuinely and reliably keep the 5-8 PM window completely empty of grid draw. That is nearly impossible without battery storage. With battery storage, a single Powerwall 3 holds 13.5 kWh, which is typically more than enough to cover three hours of evening loads for a medium-usage household, and the $0.74 per kWh avoided rate makes each kWh of battery discharge worth significantly more than on TOU-D-4-9PM. The battery arbitrage value is higher on TOU-D-5-8PM, but only for households that can fully eliminate grid draw during those three hours.

For most Temecula solar households, TOU-D-5-8PM is a trap rather than an opportunity. The higher peak rate punishes any grid draw in the window heavily. The narrower window provides less scheduling flexibility than TOU-D-4-9PM. Unless you have confirmed that your household can achieve zero grid draw from 5-8 PM every day via battery storage, this plan typically costs more than TOU-D-4-9PM for solar homes.

TOU-D-PRIME: The Default for NEM 3.0 Solar Customers

TOU-D-PRIME is the rate plan SCE automatically assigns to new solar customers enrolling under NEM 3.0 and the Solar Billing Plan. It is also the plan SCE designates for customers with electrification upgrades including solar panels, battery storage, EV chargers, and heat pump HVAC systems. The peak window is 4 PM to 9 PM daily, matching TOU-D-4-9PM, but the rate structure differs in three meaningful ways.

First, TOU-D-PRIME carries a daily charge of $0.79 per day, approximately $24 per 30-day month, in addition to the standard Base Services Charge. This fixed cost exists regardless of how much or how little electricity you consume. Second, TOU-D-PRIME does not provide the baseline credit that TOU-D-4-9PM includes. The baseline credit on TOU-D-4-9PM effectively reduces the off-peak rate by $0.10 per kWh on your first allocation of monthly usage. On TOU-D-PRIME, you pay the stated rate with no such credit. Third, the peak rate on TOU-D-PRIME is $0.59 per kWh in summer, nearly identical to TOU-D-4-9PM at $0.58 per kWh.

The most important feature of TOU-D-PRIME for solar and EV households is its super off-peak window from midnight to 6 AM at approximately $0.13 per kWh. No other standard SCE residential TOU plan offers overnight electricity at that rate without conditions. For an EV owner who charges at night, this window reduces charging cost dramatically compared to off-peak charging on other plans. For a household with a battery that wants to top off from the grid during very low-rate hours (a less common strategy but relevant during winter or cloudy stretches), the midnight to 6 AM window is the cheapest grid access available.

The daily fixed charge is the primary reason TOU-D-PRIME does not win for every solar household. At $0.79 per day, you are paying roughly $24 per month before a single kilowatt-hour is consumed. For a household that maximizes solar self-consumption and uses the grid minimally, this fixed cost is a significant portion of the remaining monthly bill. For a household with one or two EVs charging nightly at the $0.13 super off-peak rate, the fixed charge is easily recovered through charging cost savings.

TOU-D Legacy: The Plan You May Already Be On

TOU-D is the original SCE time-of-use plan that predates the current generation of options. It uses a summer peak window of noon to 6 PM on weekdays, a different structure than the 4-9 PM or 5-8 PM windows on current plans, and tiered rate elements that combine time-of-use and tiered billing. Some long-tenured SCE customers, particularly those who went solar under NEM 1.0 or early NEM 2.0, may still be on TOU-D.

TOU-D is not available as a new enrollment option. If you are currently on TOU-D and have gone solar, your system was designed around rate structures that no longer reflect the best available options. The noon to 6 PM peak window on TOU-D actually overlaps significantly with peak solar production hours in Temecula, which means solar production was partially landing in the peak window and earning higher self-consumption value during those midday hours. Switching to a current plan changes that relationship materially.

If you are on TOU-D legacy, the transition to a current plan requires analysis of your specific usage profile. Do not assume TOU-D-4-9PM is automatically better because it is the default. Depending on your household loads, time of day distribution, and whether you have a battery or EV, any of the three current plans could be the correct switch. Run the comparison through My SCE or ask your solar installer to model it using your last 12 months of usage data before making the change.

SCE TOU Plan Comparison Table for Solar Customers

The table below compares all four plans across the metrics that matter most for Temecula solar homeowners: peak window, summer peak rate, summer off-peak rate, overnight EV charging rate, and the household profile where each plan performs best.

Rates reflect 2026 SCE rate schedules. Summer rates apply June through September. TOU-D-PRIME includes an additional daily fixed charge of $0.79/day (~$24/month) not shown in the per-kWh columns. All households are also subject to the AB 205 Base Services Charge of approximately $24.15/month effective November 2025. Verify current rates at sce.com before making a plan change.

NEM 3.0 Export Rates: Why the Avoided-Cost Credit Does Not Follow TOU Peaks

The most common misunderstanding among new NEM 3.0 solar customers is the assumption that exporting energy during peak hours earns the peak retail rate. It does not. Under the Solar Billing Plan that governs all NEM 3.0 customers, export credits are calculated using the Avoided Cost Calculator, a methodology set by the California Public Utilities Commission. The resulting credit averages approximately $0.08 per kWh across all hours.

The avoided-cost rate does vary somewhat by time of day and season based on what generation the utility is displacing at any given hour. In late afternoon summer hours when the grid is stressed, the avoided-cost credit is somewhat higher than it is at 1 PM when solar generation is abundant statewide. But even at its highest, the NEM 3.0 export credit is a fraction of the retail peak rate. The gap between self-consumed solar (worth $0.58/kWh in avoided grid purchases) and exported solar (worth approximately $0.08/kWh in credits) is why every kilowatt-hour you can keep inside your home is worth seven times more than every kilowatt-hour you send to the grid.

New NEM 3.0 customers who enrolled in the first year of the program (April 2023 through April 2024) received a 4-cent-per-kWh export rate adder that applies for the first nine years of operation. This adder lifts the effective export credit to approximately $0.12 per kWh during that period, which is still far below retail rates but meaningfully better than the base avoided-cost credit for those early adopters.

The practical implication for rate plan selection is this: do not choose your rate plan based on which one produces the highest export credit, because none of them do. Choose your plan based on which one most effectively reduces what you pay when you do draw from the grid, given your household load patterns. The export credit is largely fixed at roughly $0.08 per kWh no matter which plan you are on. The variable is the rate you pay when you need grid power during peak, off-peak, or super off-peak windows.

Battery Storage and TOU Arbitrage: The Case for TOU-D-4-9PM

Battery storage under SCE TOU-D-4-9PM creates one of the cleanest arbitrage opportunities available to California residential solar customers. The mechanics are straightforward: your solar system charges the battery from roughly 9 AM to 3 PM when production exceeds household load. The battery holds that stored solar at zero ongoing cost. From 4 PM to 9 PM, when the grid charges $0.58 per kWh, you discharge the battery to cover household loads instead of drawing from the grid. Each kilowatt-hour discharged avoids a $0.58 purchase.

A Tesla Powerwall 3 with 13.5 kWh of usable capacity, fully discharged across the five-hour 4-9 PM peak window, avoids 13.5 kWh at $0.58, which equals $7.83 in grid purchases avoided per evening. In Temecula, the summer peak rate applies from June through September, covering approximately 120 days. At $7.83 per day over 120 days, the summer peak-hour savings alone total approximately $940 per year from one battery. Winter mid-peak savings at $0.41 per kWh add additional value across the remaining months. The total annual value of peak-hour displacement for a single Powerwall on TOU-D-4-9PM is typically $1,100 to $1,400 per year in Temecula, depending on household load patterns.

The higher $0.74 per kWh peak rate on TOU-D-5-8PM makes each battery kWh worth more per discharge cycle. At $0.74 per kWh, discharging 13.5 kWh avoids $9.99 in grid cost per evening versus $7.83 on TOU-D-4-9PM. Over 120 summer peak days, that is $1,199 versus $940, a difference of $259 per summer. However, TOU-D-5-8PM only works if you can eliminate all grid draw during the three-hour peak window. If the battery runs out before 8 PM and you draw from the grid at $0.74 per kWh, the penalty is severe. TOU-D-4-9PM gives you a five-hour window to spread the same battery capacity, making it more forgiving for days with higher-than-expected evening loads.

For households with two batteries (27 kWh total), TOU-D-5-8PM becomes more viable because the larger storage capacity reduces the risk of running out during the peak window. The general guidance: with one battery, use TOU-D-4-9PM. With two or more batteries totaling 25 kWh or more, run a 30-day comparison analysis between TOU-D-5-8PM and TOU-D-4-9PM on your actual historical usage before committing to a plan switch.

EV Owner Optimization: Why TOU-D-PRIME Wins on Charging Cost

For any Temecula household with one or more electric vehicles, TOU-D-PRIME deserves serious attention as the primary rate plan. The reason is the midnight to 6 AM super off-peak window at approximately $0.13 per kWh. No other standard SCE residential plan offers that rate overnight.

Consider the charging economics for a typical EV in Temecula. A Tesla Model 3 Long Range has a 75 kWh battery and gets roughly 4 miles per kWh, meaning 12,000 annual miles requires approximately 3,000 kWh per year for home charging. At the TOU-D-PRIME super off-peak rate of $0.13 per kWh, that annual charging cost is $390. At the TOU-D-4-9PM off-peak rate of $0.24 per kWh (the best available on that plan for overnight charging), the same 3,000 kWh costs $720 per year. The TOU-D-PRIME advantage on EV charging alone is approximately $330 per year per vehicle.

Against this savings, TOU-D-PRIME carries its daily fixed charge of approximately $24 per month, or $288 per year. For a one-EV household saving $330 per year on charging, the EV savings covers the fixed charge with about $42 left over. For a two-EV household saving $660 per year on charging, the net benefit after the fixed charge is approximately $372 per year. The more EVs and the more miles driven, the stronger TOU-D-PRIME becomes relative to TOU-D-4-9PM.

The EV charger schedule configuration is straightforward. On most Level 2 chargers including the Tesla Wall Connector, ChargePoint Home Flex, and Wallbox Pulsar Plus, you can set a departure time and let the charger calculate the optimal start time to complete charging by morning at the lowest overnight rate. Configure the start window to align with SCE midnight and the end window to complete before 6 AM for maximum super off-peak capture on TOU-D-PRIME.

One planning consideration: if you add an EV within the 12-month commitment window after switching to another plan, you are locked out of switching to TOU-D-PRIME until the window expires. If an EV purchase is anticipated within the next year, factor that into your plan selection now rather than discovering the 12-month commitment rule after the vehicle arrives.

Pool Pump Scheduling Under Each TOU Plan

Pool pumps are one of the most schedulable loads in a Temecula home, which makes them an important part of rate plan optimization. A standard variable-speed pool pump running a 6-hour filtration cycle can be scheduled to any window of the day. The optimal schedule under any SCE TOU plan is to run during peak solar production hours: roughly 9 AM to 3 PM in summer and 10 AM to 4 PM in winter.

Under TOU-D-4-9PM, scheduling the pool pump during solar production hours means the pump load is directly covered by your own solar generation at effectively zero grid cost. Even if solar production does not fully cover the pump load on cloudy days, running the pump during off-peak hours (before 4 PM) limits grid draw to the $0.24 per kWh rate rather than the $0.58 per kWh peak rate. Running a 1,000-watt pump for 6 hours during peak hours versus off-peak hours costs $3.48 versus $1.44 per day during summer, a difference of $2.04 daily. Over a 180-day pool season in Temecula, that scheduling choice saves $367 per year.

Under TOU-D-5-8PM, the same daytime scheduling strategy applies, but the penalty for running the pump during the 5-8 PM window is even steeper at $0.74 per kWh. A homeowner who forgets to reschedule the pump after daylight saving time transitions and inadvertently runs it from 5-8 PM faces a significant rate penalty that erases the plan's theoretical benefits quickly.

Under TOU-D-PRIME, daytime scheduling during solar production hours is still optimal. However, TOU-D-PRIME does not have a super off-peak window during mid-afternoon hours, so the daytime off-peak rate is approximately $0.28 per kWh versus $0.24 per kWh on TOU-D-4-9PM. If your solar system reliably covers the pump load during daytime hours, this difference is irrelevant because you are using self-generated solar at zero marginal cost. If your system is undersized or shading limits daytime production, the slightly higher daytime off-peak rate on TOU-D-PRIME is a factor.

For pool owners with a single-speed pump, this is the right moment to evaluate a variable-speed upgrade. Beyond the scheduling flexibility a variable-speed pump provides, it reduces consumption by 60 to 75 percent compared to a single-speed pump at full speed. That reduction changes the solar sizing calculation, reduces the battery capacity needed to cover evening loads, and makes all of the above rate optimization math work on a smaller baseline number.

Summer vs. Winter Rate Differentials and Seasonal Strategy

SCE TOU rates differ significantly between summer (June through September) and winter (October through May). Understanding the seasonal structure helps you plan which loads to shift and when to make the most of your solar production throughout the year.

In summer, the rate differentials are starkest. TOU-D-4-9PM charges $0.58 per kWh at peak and $0.24 per kWh off-peak, a 2.4x spread. TOU-D-5-8PM charges $0.74 per kWh at peak and $0.24 per kWh off-peak, a 3.1x spread. These wide spreads mean battery arbitrage and load scheduling deliver the most savings per kilowatt-hour during the four summer months. Temecula's solar production is also highest in summer, so the combination of maximum production and maximum rate spread makes June through September the financially most impactful period for solar households.

In winter, the rate structure changes in ways that favor different behaviors. TOU-D-4-9PM's winter mid-peak rate is $0.41 per kWh, down from $0.58. More importantly, the winter schedule on TOU-D-4-9PM introduces a weekend super off-peak window from 8 AM to 4 PM at $0.23 per kWh. This window overlaps directly with Temecula's winter solar production hours. Solar energy self-consumed during this window displaces $0.23 per kWh grid power rather than the $0.08 per kWh export credit, still a meaningful advantage even though the rate is lower than summer peak savings.

For battery optimization, the winter strategy shifts. Summer calls for full battery discharge between 4 PM and 9 PM at $0.58 per kWh. In winter, the mid-peak rate drops to $0.41 per kWh, which is still worth discharging the battery for but delivers less savings per cycle. Some battery management systems allow seasonal charging and discharging strategies. If your battery software supports it, setting a slightly higher reserve state-of-charge in winter (holding back 20 to 30 percent of capacity for outage backup rather than full arbitrage discharge) is reasonable given the lower winter rate differential.

The EV super off-peak window on TOU-D-PRIME applies year-round at the same $0.13 per kWh rate. This makes TOU-D-PRIME even more advantageous relative to other plans in winter, when the battery arbitrage value from peak-rate displacement is lower but overnight EV charging savings remain constant. For households that anchor their plan choice on EV charging economics, TOU-D-PRIME's year-round consistency is a structural advantage.

How to Switch TOU Plans in My SCE and the 12-Month Rule

Switching your SCE rate plan is done entirely online through the My SCE account portal at sce.com. Log in, navigate to the Billing and Payments section, and select Rate Plan Options. The portal shows your current plan, the available alternatives, and a bill comparison tool that estimates how each plan would have affected your bill over the past 12 months based on your actual usage data. This comparison tool is genuinely useful and is the right starting point before committing to a switch.

SCE limits rate plan changes to once every 12 months. Once you switch, you cannot switch again for a full year. This commitment period means the decision warrants care. Switching to TOU-D-PRIME because you are planning to buy an EV in a few months makes sense. Switching to TOU-D-5-8PM because the lower peak hours sound appealing, without modeling whether your household can actually achieve zero grid draw during those hours, is a costly mistake if the answer turns out to be no.

New solar customers enrolled under NEM 3.0 are placed on TOU-D-PRIME by default. You can switch from TOU-D-PRIME to TOU-D-4-9PM or TOU-D-5-8PM after enrollment if you determine one of those plans fits your household better, subject to the 12-month window. If you switch away from TOU-D-PRIME and later add an EV or battery, you will need to wait out the 12-month window before switching back.

Before making any switch, run the SCE bill comparison tool using at least 12 months of actual usage data, not an estimate. Your summer peak consumption versus winter patterns, your off-peak load, and whether you have scheduled loads that reliably stay out of peak windows all affect which plan wins for your household. The 30 minutes spent on this analysis is worth far more than the annual cost difference between plans for most households.

Rate Plan Recommendation by Household Type

Based on the rate structures, peak windows, and household profiles above, here is the recommendation framework for the four most common Temecula solar household configurations.

What the Plan Choice Actually Means in Annual Dollars

To make the rate plan comparison concrete, consider a Temecula home using 1,500 kWh per month with a 10 kW solar system, one EV, and one Powerwall battery. The system produces approximately 1,400 to 1,500 kWh per month, self-consuming 85 to 90 percent and exporting a small surplus.

On TOU-D-4-9PM: the battery covers the peak-hour window, generating approximately $1,200 per year in avoided peak-rate grid purchases. The EV charges at $0.24 per kWh off-peak, costing approximately $720 per year. Total combined annual value from battery plus charging optimization: approximately $1,920 per year above grid consumption at flat rates.

On TOU-D-PRIME: the battery covers the peak-hour window at the nearly identical $0.59 per kWh, generating approximately $1,215 per year in avoided peak-rate purchases. The EV charges at $0.13 per kWh super off-peak, costing approximately $390 per year versus $720 per year on TOU-D-4-9PM, saving $330 per year on charging. The fixed charge premium is $288 per year. Net benefit from switching to TOU-D-PRIME for this household: $330 minus $288 equals $42 net improvement per year above TOU-D-4-9PM, plus the soft benefit of the cleaner overnight charging cost signal.

For two EVs, the charging savings double to $660 per year, the fixed charge premium stays at $288, and the net benefit from TOU-D-PRIME is $372 per year above TOU-D-4-9PM. The EV count is the clearest determinant of which plan wins financially once solar and battery are already in the picture.

Frequently Asked Questions