Best Powerwall settings for SCE TOU-D-PRIME
TOU-D-PRIME in plain English: SCE’s time-of-use rate for electrified homes — an EV, battery, or heat pump qualifies you.
PRIME rewards electrified homes with a low off-peak rate — and punishes the 4–9 PM window at 56¢. Your battery’s whole job is to make evenings look like midnight.
The plan at a glance
| Period | Hours | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | 4:00–9:00 PM, every day | $0.56/kWh |
| Off-peak | All other hours | $0.31/kWh |
TOU-D-PRIME is designed for homes with an EV, heat pump, or battery. Rates come from the published tariff as reflected in SolDial's rate database in mid-2026 — always verify current numbers with your utility.
What this plan means for a Powerwall
The 25¢ spread makes the play identical in shape to PG&E’s EV plans: store cheap or solar energy, spend it 4–9 PM, and let the house ride through the peak without buying. Ten kWh shifted nightly is on the order of $60–75/month of avoided peak cost after battery losses.
What changes the details is your export scheme. On NEM 2.0, exports still earn near retail — surplus solar is fine going to the grid. On the Net Billing Tariff (post-2023 solar), exports earn a fraction of retail, so the priority flips hard toward self-consumption: fill the battery first, run the house second, and export only what’s left. SolDial reads which scheme you’re on and values every kWh accordingly.
Settings: Time-Based Control, reserve 20–35%, grid charging on for cloudy-week resilience — and on NBT, make sure your battery isn’t exporting stored energy for pennies.
The automations worth having
Pre-peak top-up on solar; a hold that keeps the pack from draining before 4 PM; EV charging locked to off-peak; storm watch override; and — on NBT — an export posture that ships only true surplus.
Does this apply to my exact situation?
Plans vary by zone, season, and enrollment vintage, and utilities revise rates. SolDial matches your account to the actual published schedule from ~50,000 tariffs and recomputes the strategy — and the honest savings math — from your windows, not a blog’s snapshot. If your plan differs from this page, the app follows your plan.