How Solar Affects Your Bill
Understanding PG&E rate plans, Time-of-Use schedules, and how solar offsets your electricity costs in the Bay Area.
Table of Contents
Fact-check us.
Our best customers are good at math. Every number on this page comes from PG&E's own rate sheets, so check ours.
Will solar actually save me money?
Rule of thumb: if your PG&E bill runs $200 a month or more and your roof isn't buried in trees, you can most likely switch to solar, with battery backup, for about what you already pay PG&E each month. The higher your bill, the more you tend to save.
How Much Does Solar Actually Cut Your Bill?
Choosing to offset 50% of your usage still cuts your PG&E bill in half, every month, starting immediately. Most of our customers target 80–100% offset, enough to erase nearly the whole bill. Offsetting 100% simply takes a little longer to pay back than 50% or 80%, since the system itself costs more upfront. Either way, you're doing one of two things: setting a finish line on your energy costs (100% offset, eventually you owe PG&E nothing), or locking in a permanently lower price per kilowatt-hour on the portion you no longer buy from them.
Here's what that looks like in real numbers. A typical Bay Area PG&E bill today runs around $250/month. Our own rate-projection tool shows that bill compounding to roughly $540/month within 10 years and $999/month by 2044 at the roughly 8% a year PG&E's E-1 prices have risen since 2014, or about $370/month in 10 years at a conservative 4%.
Check our math: the same home on three PG&E rate sheets
One Tri-Valley home using 400 kWh a month: 310 kWh at the baseline price, 90 kWh just above it. I use that same 310 and 90 split in all three years on purpose, so the only thing changing is price. PG&E's allowance today is smaller than 310 kWh, which means the current bill actually runs about a dollar higher than what you see here. Every rate below comes straight from PG&E's own E-1 rate sheets, and each one links to the original. Grab a calculator.
| 310 kWh × $0.13230 | $41.01 |
| 90 kWh × $0.15040 | $13.54 |
| Monthly bill | $54.55 |
| 310 kWh × $0.22281 | $69.07 |
| 90 kWh × $0.28039 | $25.24 |
| Monthly bill | $94.31 |
| 310 kWh × $0.32561 | $100.94 |
| 90 kWh × $0.40702 | $36.63 |
| Base services charge (new in 2026) | $24.15 |
| Monthly bill | $161.72 |
Why 400 kWh? In 2014, PG&E had five tiers, and the upper ones already cost 32¢ to 36¢. Since then PG&E reshuffled its tiers, so a bigger home's history looks different. A 400 kWh home only ever used the two tiers that exist in both years, which makes it the one comparison the reshuffling can't distort. The base services charge shown is the highest income tier; it's lower for CARE and FERA households. The 310/90 split is a simplified example: PG&E's actual baseline changes with the season, the number of days in your billing cycle, and the year (Dublin is currently 9.8 kWh a day in summer and 9.7 in winter), which moves these totals by less than $1.50. All PG&E archives: pge.com electric rates.
New as of March 2026: PG&E now bills a $24.15 monthly fixed charge to every residential customer, solar or not, before a single kWh is counted (about $12 for FERA and $6 for CARE customers). Approved by the CPUC in May 2024. It is not a reason to wait on solar; it is paid either way, and it only makes the do-nothing bill bigger.
A solar loan gives you a fixed monthly payment that won't move unless your own usage changes. You step off most of PG&E's rate increases.
Solar financing has a finish line. Once it's paid off, you're left with little more than PG&E's base services charge. A PG&E bill never pays itself off.
Time-of-Use Rate Schedules
Every plan below charges the most during the exact hours you're actually home: cooking dinner, running the AC, charging the car. That's not a coincidence, it's the design. Solar customers on these same schedules stop caring which hours are expensive, because their panels, and a battery if they have one, are already covering it.
If you haven't actively chosen a plan, you're most likely on E-TOU-C. That's PG&E's standard default residential rate plan.
Rates effective March 2026. Source: PG&E Schedule E-TOU-C, E-TOU-D, EV2-A, E-ELEC.
Residential Time-of-Use Rate Schedule E-TOU-C
Summer
June through September
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.52 | 4PM–9PM every day, 7 days a week |
| Off Peak | $0.40 | All other times |
Winter
October through May
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.40 | 4PM–9PM every day, 7 days a week |
| Off Peak | $0.37 | All other times |
Baseline credit (rates effective March 1, 2026): E-TOU-C subtracts $0.0814 per kWh on usage within your baseline allowance, which in Dublin is 9.8 kWh a day in summer and 9.7 kWh a day in winter, multiplied by the number of days in your billing cycle (your exact allowance is on page 3 of your PG&E bill). E-1 works the opposite way: it starts with a lower Tier 1 price and charges more above your baseline.
Residential Time-of-Use Rate Schedule E-TOU-D
Summer
June through September
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.48 | 5PM–8PM Non-Holiday Weekdays |
| Off Peak | $0.34 | All other times |
Winter
October through May
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.39 | 5PM–8PM Non-Holiday Weekdays |
| Off Peak | $0.35 | All other times |
EV2-A Rate Plan
Summer
June through September
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.54 | 4PM–9PM every day, 7 days a week |
| Partial Peak | $0.43 | 3PM–4PM and 9PM–Midnight |
| Off Peak | $0.23 | Midnight–3PM |
Winter
October through May
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.41 | 4PM–9PM every day, 7 days a week |
| Partial Peak | $0.39 | 3PM–4PM and 9PM–Midnight |
| Off Peak | $0.23 | Midnight–3PM |
E-ELEC Rate Plan
Summer
June through September
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.55 | 4PM–9PM every day, 7 days a week |
| Partial Peak | $0.39 | 3PM–4PM and 9PM–Midnight |
| Off Peak | $0.33 | Midnight–3PM |
Winter
October through May
| Type | Rate/kWh | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.32 | 4PM–9PM every day, 7 days a week |
| Partial Peak | $0.30 | 3PM–4PM and 9PM–Midnight |
| Off Peak | $0.28 | Midnight–3PM |
It's Only a Matter of Time.
PG&E made $2.7 billion in profit in 2025. Its CEO made $19.8 million.
(Source: PG&E Corporation's full-year 2025 earnings report, $2,703 million net income; and PG&E Corporation's 2026 proxy statement executive compensation disclosure, $19,785,133 total compensation for CEO Patricia Poppe.)
Since January 2014, PG&E's baseline price has gone from 13¢ to 33¢ per kWh. Some years it jumped, a few years it dipped, but over 12 years the direction has been clear.
Families who went solar locked in a predictable price. PG&E's keeps moving. The only real question is whether you'd rather lock in yours, or keep riding PG&E's roller coaster.
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