For homes · Plan type guide

How do nights and weekends electricity plans work?

The advertised hours are only part of the offer. Use your own electricity pattern to check whether a nights or weekends plan fits your home.

By Voltcheckr Research · Published Aug 5, 2026 · Updated Oct 23, 2026 · 8 min read

What changed: Updated the Home and comparison links to our residential homepage.

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A nights and weekends plan is a time-of-use plan: the price per kWh depends on the time of day or the day you use the power. The PUCT describes these plans as incentives to use power in set periods, such as nights or weekends.^1,2

Inside the window, the energy price is zero or discounted. Outside it, the price is higher. The hours vary from provider to provider and from plan to plan, so one plan's window tells you nothing about another's.^1,2

Every plan's Electricity Facts Label (EFL) shows an average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month. For a time-of-use plan, the PUCT says those averages rest on the provider's own estimate of how much you use in the discounted hours. What you pay follows your actual use in them.^1,3

The rule that sets the label's format has optional lines for the on-peak hours and the average price on and off peak. It has no line for the share of use the averages assume. If the label does not say, ask the provider, as the PUCT suggests.^2,3

CenterPoint's residential delivery charges are not priced by the hour: they are a monthly customer charge, a monthly metering charge and a charge per kWh. The EFL and terms of service show whether a plan's window covers delivery and monthly charges too.^8,9,10

Less at night than the clock suggests. In ERCOT's 2025 profile for most homes on CenterPoint's lines, the nine hours from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. held 31% of the year's use, though they are 37.5% of the hours.^4,6

Three more findings matter for fit. The night share barely moved with the seasons: between 29% and 32% in every month of 2025. One hour at the evening edge of a window moves about 5 to 6 points. And weekends held 29% of the year's use on 28.5% of the days.⁴

In the late afternoon and evening. In the same profile, use climbs from midmorning and peaks between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. The six hours from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. held 36% of the year's use, more than the nine night hours.⁴

About a quarter of CenterPoint's homes carry ERCOT's high winter ratio profile instead. In 2025 its 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. share was 33% for the year and 36.5% in January.^5,6

Take a plan that charges nothing for energy in its window, and compare it with a flat plan, one price at every hour. It breaks even when your share in the window equals 1 minus (the flat price ÷ the plan's price outside the window).

An example, not a real plan: say the price outside the window is 1.5 times the flat plan's price. Break-even is 1 minus (1 ÷ 1.5), or one third of your use. At twice the flat price, it is one half.

A real plan's prices and your own share decide the answer. The EFL lists the prices, and your smart meter data gives the share.

They suit a home that can move enough use into the window to pass the break-even share. The PUCT says shifting your usage to the discounted times will maximize your benefit from the plan.^1,2

A weekend window works the same way. At the example price, a weekend plan clears the one-third break-even only if more than a third of your use falls on weekends. The profile put 29% there.⁴

1. 1

   Find the window and its prices

   Read the plan's EFL and terms of service for the hours and days the window covers, and the price inside and outside it.

2. 2

   Download your 15-minute usage

   Register at SmartMeterTexas.com with your ESI ID, meter number and provider's name, usually printed on your bill. Export up to two years of 15-minute data as a CSV file.

3. 3

   Work out your share

   Add the kWh in the window's hours and divide by your total kWh. Use a full year if you have it, so every season counts.

4. 4

   Find the break-even share

   Divide the flat plan's price by the plan's price outside the window, and subtract the result from 1. The plan's energy charges beat the flat plan's only if your share sits above that number.

5. 5

   Compare totals at your usage

   Add the monthly charges and anything the window does not cover, then compare both plans at your own monthly kWh.

Smart Meter Texas is run by four Texas utilities, CenterPoint among them, and shows your use in graphs and tables as well as the download. Share your ESI ID and meter number only with that site and your provider.¹¹

Questions? Call (469) 708-9311