July 12, 2026 · 6 min read · Daylight Solar
You didn't imagine it: the bill really did jump. In October 2025 SCE's average residential rate rose roughly 13% in a single step, from about 31¢ to over 35¢ per kilowatt-hour, and further increases are proposed through 2028. Late 2025 also brought something new: a fixed monthly Base Services Charge of $24.15 that applies no matter how little you use. Here's what the structure of your bill now looks like — and which parts of it you can actually do something about.
The anatomy of a 2026 SCE bill
Three layers. First, the fixed charge: $24.15/month, immune to conservation (income-qualified discounts exist). Second, the rate structure: on the tiered plan, usage above your baseline allocation jumps past 40¢/kWh; on time-of-use plans, the 4–9pm window is priced highest, with summer peak rates on some plans reaching well past 50¢/kWh. Third, the trajectory: annual increases are the pattern, not the exception.
For an Inland Empire household, the cruel geometry is that 4–9pm is not optional. It's dinner, laundry, and the AC clawing the house back from a 105° afternoon. The utility priced the exact hours your life happens.
What doesn't work
Conservation theater — the sixth LED swap, the thermostat set to sweaty — nibbles at the middle layer while the fixed charge ignores you completely and the rate trajectory eats your gains annually. Conservation is virtuous; as a strategy against this bill structure, it's bringing a coupon to a rent increase.
What does work
Structural moves that change which rates you pay rather than how virtuously you consume: generating your own daytime power (solar), time-shifting it into the expensive window (storage), and moving big flexible loads — EV charging, pool pumps — into off-peak hours on the right rate plan.
Whether those pencil for your specific house is a design question with a written answer. Sometimes the answer is 'not yet' — a small bill, a shaded roof, a move planned in two years. We put that in writing too, because a company that can't say 'no sale' can't be trusted saying 'yes.'