Time-of-Use Rates

Electricity rates based on when you use power—in addition to how much power you use—are called Time-of-Use Rates.

Here at Valley Clean Energy, we’re encouraging our customers—whenever possible—to thoughtfully manage their time of use for power. Electricity use at off-peak times costs you less and helps us all. Why?

Simply stated, the demand for electricity is lower in the morning and early afternoon and increases dramatically when people come home from work in the evening and use a lot of electricity to make dinner, do laundry, play online games, or charge their electric cars. Renewable sources like solar aren’t available after the sun goes down without adequate battery storage—we’re getting there, but not quite yet—so all that high demand can sometimes mean that VCE has to rely on more expensive electricity to supply all our customers during the peak demand hours from 4pm-9pm.

So play it smart, and save money. Try to use dishwashers, EV chargers, laundry and other high electricity-consuming appliances early in the day, after 9pm, or on weekends to avoid higher rates. It’s easier than ever to plan with today’s programmable appliances. You can load them now and let them run later.