California Power Hour

California families are struggling to keep up with rising utility bills. That’s why we’re proposing the Power Hour: up to two hours of completely free electricity every day for millions of working households across the state.

During your Power Hour window, you can run the appliances your family depends on — air conditioning, washing machines, dishwashers, and device charging — without paying a dime. It’s a simple idea: give families a predictable window each day to do the things that cost the most, at no cost at all.

Who Qualifies

Eligibility is based on household income and household size. This program will start by focusing on affordability first for working class families using CARE and FERA program income guidelines. As an example, a family of four earning less than $82,500 a year would qualify for the program. Income thresholds are scaled for smaller and larger households, and full eligibility guidelines will be finalized as the program is developed.

How it works

Power Hour provides up to two hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, before traditional peak pricing hours begin. That timing matters: it lets families run high-usage appliances like washing machines, dishwashers, and air conditioning earlier in the day, ahead of the hours when electricity typically costs the most.

The free hours would apply automatically to a household’s bill, with no separate enrollment process beyond existing programs.

Why it’s good for you

For an eligible family that uses the program regularly, Power Hour could reduce their annual utility bill by approximately $1,000 a year.

Why it’s good for California, too

Power Hour isn’t just about savings for individual families. It’s designed to make the whole state’s energy system work better. By encouraging households to shift high-usage activities earlier in the day, the program helps spread out demand instead of concentrating it during the traditional peak hours in the late afternoon and evening. That reduces strain on the grid during its most vulnerable hours, which lowers the risk of the brownouts and blackouts Californians have experienced during past periods of peak demand.

Power Hour will deliver relief to California families by doing three things at once: lowering bills for working families, encouraging smarter energy use, and strengthening the reliability of California’s power grid.