Residential Time of Day (Retail Service) - D1.2
When does peak hit on DTE Electric Company’s Residential Time of Day? Peak hits 11am–7pm in Nov–May; 11am–7pm, 7pm–11am in Jun–Oct — every day.
- peak17.42¢
- mid14.32¢
- off-peak14.25¢
What does Residential Time of Day cost a year?
| Household | Uses | Per year | Works out to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment One or two people, no central air, no electric heat | 4,866 kWh | $848 | 17.4¢ / kWh |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $1,548 | 16.4¢ / kWh |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $2,069 | 15.8¢ / kWh |
Estimates, not quotes. We run three made-up but realistic households through this tariff hour by hour for a full year — including the way air conditioning loads the afternoon and an EV loads the small hours. Your own bill depends on when you actually use electricity, which is exactly the thing a per-kWh number hides.
What you actually pay
| Period | Rate | Applies when |
|---|---|---|
| peak | 17.42¢ | 11am–7pm, June–October |
| mid | 16.69¢ | 11am–7pm, November–May |
| mid | 14.32¢ | 7pm–11am, midnight–midnight, June–October |
| off-peak | 14.25¢ | 7pm–11am, midnight–midnight, November–May |
Plus a fixed charge of $9.75 per month.
Should you be on Residential Time of Day?
This is a time-of-use plan, which means the clock decides your bill as much as the meter does. At the worst hour you pay 17.4¢ a kWh; at the best hour, 14.3¢ — 1.2× apart for identical electricity.
That gap is worth real money only if you can move load into it. Every kilowatt-hour a day you shift from 11am to midnight is about $11 a year. A dishwasher run is roughly 1.5 kWh; an EV commute charge is 8 to 12. If your day is fixed — you are home in the evening and the air conditioner runs when it runs — a plan like this costs you more, not less.
Before a single kilowatt-hour moves, this plan charges $117 a year in fixed fees. On the apartment above that is 14% of the whole bill; on the house with a car charging in it, 6%. Fixed charges are invisible in a cents-per-kWh comparison and they punish small users hardest — if you use very little electricity, the headline rate is the least important number on this page.
Expect the bill to move with the calendar. The same family home costs about $179 in July and $99 in February — a $80 spread driven by heating and cooling far more than by anything you chose. Budget against the July figure, not the average, and a summer bill stops being a surprise.
How it compares to DTE Electric’s other plans
Measured against the other residential plans this utility files, a family home lands 7th cheapest of 14. The cheapest option, Water Heating Service Rate D5 (Delivery Charge Commercial), would run about $843 a year less.
Against Residential Service Rate - (Full Service) - D1, which looks like the plan you land on by default, this one comes out $724 less per year (32%). We infer the default from the tariff structure rather than a flag in the data, so confirm it against your own bill before you switch.
If this is new to you
- What is a time-of-use electricity rate?
The same kilowatt-hour, priced differently depending on when you use it.
- Should you switch to a time-of-use electricity plan?
A wide peak-to-off-peak gap is a lever, not a saving. Levers need something to move.
- When should you charge an electric car at home?
The single biggest load most homes can move, and the easiest to automate.
- Why is my electric bill so high in summer?
Usually three causes at once, and only one of them is your air conditioner.
Where this comes from
- Effective
- 2026-04-01
the date this tariff took effect
- Covers
- delivery + supply
Generation + Delivery
- Enrollment
- open to new customers
Tariff document: https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mpsc/consumer/rate-books/electric/dte/dtee1cur.pdf?rev=e0168ab41b8245bba5f3ca7631c29614