LADWP Electric Rates Explained

LADWP offers two primary rate choices for typical residential customers. (Special variants, riders, low-income programs, and a separate schedule for large homes on a dedicated transformer also exist, but these two cover most households.)

• R-1A — Standard Residential (default): a three-tier plan with no time-of-day pricing. Fixed monthly Power Access Charge of $2.30 / $7.90 / $22.70 depending on the highest tier reached; $10 minimum bill.
• R-1B — Time-of-Use (opt-in): no tiers; price varies by time of day. Flat $12/month service charge. Weekday periods are High Peak (1–5 p.m.), Low Peak (10 a.m.–1 p.m. and 5–8 p.m.), and Base (8 p.m.–10 a.m.); weekends and holidays are all Base.

One distinction from SCE: SCE moved most eligible residential customers to default time-of-use starting in 2020 while keeping an optional tiered rate; LADWP keeps tiered R-1A as the default and TOU as opt-in. (LADWP is not regulated by the CPUC.)

LADWP’s schedule splits the year precisely — and June already carries the summer Tier 3 premium, so it is not simply “spring.” Standard R-1A tiers ($/kWh):

High Season is June–September; Low Season is October–May. In Low Season, Tier 2 and Tier 3 are the same rate — the Tier 3 premium only applies in summer, as a conservation signal. All charges are also subject to the City of Los Angeles Electricity Users Tax of 10%.

Source: LADWP residential rate schedule · verified August 4, 2026 (LADWP updates adjustment factors quarterly).

LADWP splits the city into two temperature zones. The per-kWh rates are the same in both; only the tier thresholds differ, giving hotter inland areas a larger low-cost allowance:

Your zone is set by service address and appears on your bill; LADWP does not publish a simple ZIP-to-zone table.

The base rate set by the 2016 city ordinance is only about 7¢/kWh and has not changed since. What moves the bill is a set of pass-through adjustment factors — the Energy Cost Adjustment (ECA), reliability adjustments, and renewable-portfolio adjustments among them — reset quarterly (January, April, July, October) by the LADWP Board of Commissioners. Together they total roughly 17–19¢/kWh (Jan–Mar 2026), which is what turns the nominal ~7¢ base into the real 24–41¢ tiers.

The Energy Cost Adjustment Factor (ECAF) is one of those components; for example, the composite ECAF was $0.09372/kWh effective July 1, 2024. LADWP updates several adjustment factors quarterly under its published rate structure, while SCE’s rates are established through a different regulatory process involving the CPUC.

Use the tool to estimate a LADWP bill and compare it with a modeled SCE bill. The comparison is shown before local taxes so the two utilities are measured the same way.

For a non-interactive reference, here is the summer energy charge (the usage-dependent part) computed from the R-1A tiers above. The full bill is: Total = (energy charge + your Power Access Charge) × 1.10 (city tax), minimum $10. Power Access Charge is $2.30 / $7.90 / $22.70 depending on the highest tier reached in the prior 12 months.

Cali Energy calculation from LADWP R-1A summer tiers · LADWP residential rate schedule · verified August 4, 2026.

Many LADWP residential customers are billed every two months; tier allowances are prorated to the length of the billing cycle (so a Zone 1 Tier 1 allowance is effectively 700 kWh over a two-month period). All four services — power, water, trash, and sewer — appear on one combined bill, which is part of why a summer bill can look like a jump: you see roughly two months of charges at once.

LADWP is generally cheaper than SCE, but by how much depends heavily on the details. In Cali Energy’s illustrative 750 kWh summer scenarios — 31 billing days, bundled TOU-D-4-9 service, 20% of usage in the on-peak window, a Tier 2 Power Access Charge of $7.90, and figures shown before local taxes — a modeled SCE bill ran from roughly $240 to $280 depending on the SCE baseline region, versus about $221 on LADWP Zone 2. That is a gap of roughly 9% (hot desert regions) to 27% (cool coastal regions). A single “X% cheaper” figure isn’t meaningful without stating the region, load shape, tax treatment, and Power Access Charge — a Tier 1 or Tier 3 PAC would move the LADWP side.

The structural reasons LADWP tends to be lower: it is a publicly owned municipal utility with no shareholder-return obligation, it finances infrastructure with tax-exempt municipal bonds, and it is not subject to the CPUC regulatory process or the wildfire-liability cost recovery that appears in SCE’s rates. (For a deeper treatment, see the UCLA Law analysis in our sources.)

For solar customers, LADWP’s biggest difference from SCE is net metering. LADWP credits exported energy at the full retail rate (roughly 1-for-1), credits roll over monthly and do not expire, and there is a simplified interconnection path for systems up to 10 kW AC. SCE, by contrast, is on the CPUC’s Net Billing Tariff (“NEM 3.0”), where midday export is credited near avoided cost — far below retail.

Because of that, full-retail export credits may improve solar economics for some LADWP customers compared with net-billing scenarios — but payback still depends on system price, production, consumption, financing, and tariff details. Under SCE’s Net Billing Tariff, a battery often improves economics by shifting exports away from low-value midday hours, though results depend on the same factors. See our LADWP net metering guide for the mechanics.

Sources: LADWP solar programs / net metering · CPUC Net Billing Tariff (SCE) · verified August 4, 2026.

As of August 4, 2026, Cali Energy did not identify a generally available LADWP residential solar rebate for a typical market-rate customer in the official programs reviewed — LADWP’s Solar Incentive Program closed at the end of 2018. Income-qualified, pilot, and limited-funding programs (for example, the state SGIP’s income-qualified tier) may have different availability and are often waitlisted. The federal residential solar tax credit (Section 25D) also expired for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. LADWP does maintain an active EV-charger rebate separate from solar. Program status changes — confirm current offerings with LADWP before relying on any incentive.

Sources: LADWP SGIP page · IRS Residential Clean Energy Credit (§25D) · LADWP EV charger rebate · verified August 4, 2026.

Figures on this page come from the primary sources below and, where noted, from Cali Energy calculations using the stated assumptions. Rates, incentives, and program terms change; each was verified August 4, 2026.

1. LADWP — Residential Rates
2. LADWP — Adjustment Billing Factors
3. SCE — Time-of-Use Plans
4. UCLA Law — Cost & Carbon of Competing Utility Models