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Update February 2023: Evergy has even more plan options for customers now. You can check them out here: https://www.evergy.com/manage-account/rate-information-link/plan-options However, you should still read this post so you can learn how to do the math to determine which plan option is best for you.
Evergy’s Time of Use plan for electric bills is offered as a way for customers to save money.
Evergy is the electric company where I live in Kansas City, Missouri. They offer customers a Standard Tier Plan and a Time of Use Plan for calculating monthly payments.
The Standard Tier Plan charges a certain price based on how much electricity you use and the pricing is tiered. For example, the first 600 kWh cost a different price than the next 400 kWh used after that, and another different price for any kWh used over 1000. In addition, those tiered prices change based on the season.
In contrast, the Time of Use Plan charges a certain price based on when you used the electricity. For example, the kWh cost between 4pm and 8pm is more expensive than the kWh cost between midnight and 6am.
Here are tables showing the pricing differences between these two plans:
Note: The plan pricing that I have in this post were accurate as of August 2022 when I was comparing plans.
| Standard Tier Plan | Summer | Winter |
| First 600 kWh | $0.13511 | $0.12013 |
| Next 400 kWh | $0.13511 | $0.07396 |
| kWh Over 1000 | $0.14916 | $0.06561 |
| Time of Use Plan | Summer | Winter |
| On Peak (4pm – 8pm) | $0.32498 | $0.26575 |
| Off Peak (6am – 4pm, 8pm-12am) | $0.10833 | $0.10422 |
| Super Off Peak (12am – 6am) | $0.05416 | $0.04495 |
If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering if you should make the switch to the Time of Use plan.
Well, I can’t tell you the answer to that, because a lot factors into it–how big is your house, when do you work, when are you home, what are using electricity for, when do you use the most electricity, how flexible can you be about when that electricity is used, etc.
Unfortunately, Evergy does not make it easy to compare your monthly bill totals across plans.
In fact, I was only able to determine if we would save money by switching AFTER we switched.
But I wanted to try switching anyway. Even though we weren’t sure if we’d save any money by switching from the standard tier plan to the time of use plan before we made the switch, I figured if it didn’t work out, we could always switch back. (Though, be forewarned that when you change back from the time of use plan, Evergy won’t let you try it again for a whole year.)
If you switch to the Time of Use plan, I can help you determine exactly how much money you’re saving from making the switch.
So, if you decide to make the switch, I’ll be explaining in this post how to determine if you’re saving money or not within the first few months. In order to determine this, you have to calculate how much your bill would’ve been on the Standard Tier plan compared to the same time period as your new bills on the Time of Use plan.
The new information you will get on your monthly bills from Evergy makes this possible.
By taking the extra details on our new monthly bills, I calculated what my own family would be paying on both plans, so I could compare what our monthly bill would be on each.
Keep in mind, our results are from a 1400 square foot home– and I try to schedule a lot of our big appliance use for overnight (so we can get the super off peak pricing), including our washing machine, dish washer, and EV.
When you get your bill on the Time of Use plan, there will be a billing details breakdown section on the second page.
Here’s ours from April 2022 as an example:
Some of those lines are monthly charges that would be the same on either plan so we can ignore them.
These include:
- Customer Chg (fixed charge for being an Evergy customer)
- DSIM Chg (a Missouri charge that covers the cost of energy-efficiency programs)
- FAC Chg (a Missouri charge that covers fuel costs over or under what’s estimated and included in base rates)
- Kansas City Franchise Fee (the “rent” paid to a city to use the rights-of-way for lines, poles, etc)
https://www.evergy.com/manage-account/billing-link/understanding-my-bill/bill-definitions
That leaves the following lines:
- Energy Chg On Peak (charge for the energy used during the Time of Use plan’s on peak hours)
- Energy Chg Off Peak (charge for the energy used during the Time of Use plan’s off peak hours)
- Energy Chg Super Off Peak (charge for the energy used during the Time of Use plan’s super off peak hours)
The information on just 3 lines is going to give us what we need to calculate what our monthly cost is for both the Time of Use plan and Standard Tier plan.
Here’s a close up of those 3 important lines in the Billing Details section:
This is what those three lines tell me about my family’s energy use from 3/21/2022-4/20/2022:
We used 64.7178 kWh of electricity during on peak hours, and since it’s considered winter, we were charged $0.26575 for each of those kWh, for a total of $17.20.
We used 419.9622 kWh of electricity during off peak hours, were charged $0.10422 for each, for a total of $43.77.
And we used 163.5906 kWh of electricity during super peak hours, were charged $0.04495 for each, for a total of $7.35.
The total cost of the Time of Use plan for that month was: $17.20+$43.77+$7.35 = $68.32
Now we just have to figure out what it would’ve been if my family was on the Standard Tier plan that same month.
First, we have to add up the total of kWh used across all 3 peaks: 64.7178+419.9622+163.5906 = 648.2706
Then we use the Standard Tier Plan pricing table (included earlier in this post) to determine what to charge for those kWh. Since it’s winter, the first 600 kWh are charged at $0.12013 each, and the next 48.2706 is charged at $0.07396 each.
That’s (600*$0.12013) + (48.2706*$0.07396)
The total cost of the Standard Tier plan for that month would have been: $72.08 + $3.57 = $75.65
With a little math, we’ve been able to determine that between March 21 and April 20, 2022, my family saved $7.33 by being on Evergy’s Time of Use plan.
| 3/21/2022 – 4/20/2022 | Difference: $7.33 saved |
| Time of Use Plan (winter pricing) | Total: $68.32 |
| On Peak (64.7178*.26575) | $17.20 |
| Off Peak (419.9622*.10422) | $43.77 |
| Super Off Peak (163.5906*.04495) | $7.35 |
| Standard Tier Plan (648.2706 kWh) | Total: $75.65 |
| First 600 kWh (600*.12013) | $72.08 |
| Next 400 kWh (48.2706*.07396) | $3.57 |
Note: If the monthly billing cycle has days split between summer and winter, there will be 6 lines in the billing details section that are required for these calculations. You can still add up the cost on the 6 lines to get the Time of Use total, but you will have to take a few extra steps to calculate how many kWh were used in Summer vs Winter because the charge is different. The Standard Tier plan total can still be calculated in this scenario. If it would benefit you for me to show a detailed example, please let me know.
The monthly savings wasn’t as much as I’d hoped when my family switched plans, but savings is savings so we’ve stayed on the Time of Use plan.
I wish there was a way to calculate the costs of the two plans before switching, but the bills just don’t have the necessary information regarding the time that electricity was used. But what’s the harm in trying it out for a few months so you can calculate and compare? You can switch back if it’s not the plan for you. And the information that you glean from your Time of Use bill details may even give you ideas of how to change both how and when you’re using electricity to save even more money while helping take strain off the system.
I hope this post has helped you decide whether or not to make the switch and, more importantly, know for sure whether it was a good decision.
More monthly plan comparison results:
Note: This information was all calculated from a few lines in the billing details section as described above in this post.
| 4/20/2022 – 5/19/2022 | Difference: $5.05 saved |
| Time of Use Plan (summer + winter pricing) | Total: $81.23 |
| On Peak | $27.38 |
| Off Peak | $45.82 |
| Super Off Peak | $8.03 |
| Standard Tier Plan (710.94 kWh) | Total: $86.28 |
| First 600 kWh (600 winter) | $72.08 |
| Next 400 kWh (12.8795 winter $0.953, 98.0605 summer $13.249) | $14.20 |
| 5/19/2022 – 6/20/2022 | Difference: $13.43 saved |
| Time of Use Plan (summer pricing) | Total: $137.96 |
| On Peak (150.7404*.32498) | $48.99 |
| Off Peak (684.2352*.10833) | $74.12 |
| Super Off Peak (274.1712*.05416) | $14.85 |
| Standard Tier Plan (1109.1468 kWh) | Total: $151.39 |
| First 1000 (1000*.13511) | $135.11 |
| Over 1000 kWh (109.1468*.14916) | $16.28 |
| 6/20/2022 – 7/20/2022 | Difference: $3.87 saved |
| Time of Use Plan (summer pricing) | Total: $129.22 |
| On Peak (150.0912*.32498) | $48.78 |
| Off Peak (650.0418*.10833) | $70.42 |
| Super Off Peak (184.9158*.05416) | $10.02 |
| Standard Tier Plan (985.0488 kWh) | Total: $133.09 |
| First 1000 kWh (985.0488*.13511) | $133.09 |
| 7/20/2022 – 8/16/2022 | Difference: $4.25 saved |
| Time of Use Plan (summer pricing) | Total: $136.79 |
| On Peak (154.5710*.32498) | $50.23 |
| Off Peak (713.0439*.10833) | $77.24 |
| Super Off Peak (172.1257*.05416) | $9.32 |
| Standard Tier Plan (1039.7406 kWh) | Total: $141.04 |
| First 1000 kWh (1000*.13511) | $135.11 |
| Over 1000 kWh (39.7406*.14916) | $5.93 |
Over the course of the 5 months, I saved a total of $33.93, an average of $6.79 per month on the Time of Use plan.
If you liked this post, check out my “Saving on Necessities” series, including 29 Ways to Save on Your Bills and Utilities Budget.
