Summer Electric Bills in Surprise, Arizona

For Surprise households on Arizona Public Service, summer pricing covers the May through October billing cycles, and the winter season the November through April cycles (APS Rate Schedule TOU-E).

For reporting a power outage, Surprise's monsoon page gives Arizona Public Service Co. (Electric), 602-371-7171 (City of Surprise, Monsoon Safety). On APS time-of-use plans, the on-peak period is 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday year-round; all other hours are off-peak, and a super off-peak window of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays applies only in the winter season (APS TOU-E).

Weekends are always off-peak on APS's time-of-use plans, and so are the holidays APS names, including Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day and Labor Day; if one of those holidays lands on a Saturday the preceding Friday is off-peak, and if it lands on a Sunday the following Monday is (APS, Compare Service Plans). Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are off-peak holidays only when they fall on a weekday (APS).

Last verified: October 19, 2026, by rereading the APS residential plan page and the TOU-E and R-3 tariff sheets, APS's Energy Support and rate case pages, and the Arizona Corporation Commission's docket E-01345A-25-0105, for Surprise summer bills.

On the APS Time-of-Use 4pm-7pm Weekdays plan, an APS customer in Surprise pays $0.34396 per kWh on-peak and $0.12345 per kWh off-peak in summer, plus a basic service charge of $0.458 per day (APS Rate Schedule TOU-E).

The demand plan, rate schedule R-3, trades much lower energy charges for a monthly demand charge of $19.585 per kW in summer and $13.747 per kW in winter (APS Rate Schedule R-3). APS explains on its plan page that the plan has a monthly demand charge for the highest hour of usage during on-peak hours, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays (APS).

These per-kWh figures are not the whole bill. The TOU-E schedule lists adjustments that are added on top, including the Renewable Energy Adjustment Charge, the Power Supply Adjustment, the Transmission Cost Adjustment and applicable taxes and governmental fees (APS TOU-E). Both tariff sheets carry an effective date of March 8, 2024, under Arizona Corporation Commission Decision No. 79293 (APS R-3).

APS lists these residential plans: a Fixed Energy Charge Plan with the same rate all day and year-round, Time-of-Use 4pm-7pm Weekdays, Time-of-Use 4pm-7pm Weekdays with Demand Charge, and EV Overnight Charging 11pm-5am Weekdays (APS, Compare Service Plans).

On the two standard time-of-use plans, savings come from using less energy during the on-peak window of 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays; APS lists the demand plan as having the lowest-cost off-peak hours and both time-of-use plans as having winter super off-peak rates (APS). The EV plan requires an electric vehicle and enrollment by phone at (602) 216-0318 or (800) 659-8148, with overnight off-peak charging from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays.

APS invites customers to sign in to see a comparison of plan costs based on their own usage, and points to an Energy Estimator for estimating monthly energy use or demand (APS). The TOU-E schedule says it is available to all residential customers, including partial requirements customers with an on-site distributed generation system, who also pay a grid access charge of $0.242 per kW-dc of generation (APS TOU-E).

For time-of-use customers, APS suggests using major appliances before 4 p.m. or after 7 p.m. on weekdays and practicing pre-cooling the home (APS, Energy Saving Tips).

The APS cooling lists say raising the thermostat as little as one degree saves on cooling costs, recommends programming the thermostat to adjust when nobody is home, having the air conditioner serviced at least once a year and changing air filters monthly because dirty filters make the unit work harder (APS). They also suggest keeping the doors inside the home open while the air conditioner runs to improve air flow, using a ceiling fan instead of turning up the air conditioning and switching the fan off on leaving the room, since fans cool people, not rooms.

The APS list also covers shade: install shades on sunny windows, keep drapes or blinds closed during the day, and plant low-water-use shade trees along sunny windows and exterior walls (APS). The city's desert landscape rebates are covered in the Surprise xeriscape landscape conversion guide.

For an empty house in summer, APS says the thermostat can be set as high as 85 degrees when leaving for longer than a day (APS); the closing a house for summer guide covers the rest of that checklist.

APS's Energy Support program gives qualifying customers a 25 percent discount, up to $95 off per month, or a 60 percent discount, up to $165 off per month, depending on household income and size (APS, Energy Support Program).

To qualify, gross monthly household income must be at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines; enrollment requires proof of income for all adults in the household, must be renewed every 24 months, and the discount applies to one address and to the cost of electricity only (APS). The program is funded by APS customers and approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission (APS).

Households with critical medical equipment at home that needs electricity may qualify for Energy Support with Medical, at 35 percent (up to $95 a month) or 60 percent (up to $165 a month), and APS takes program questions at (844) 309-5655 (APS). APS's rate case page also points customers to Crisis Bill assistance and to Budget Billing, which levelizes monthly bills to reduce the seasonal swings Arizona weather can cause, and lists (602) 371-7171 for bill assistance information (APS, Rate Case 2025).

The APS rate case is still open: the Arizona Corporation Commission's eDocket lists docket E-01345A-25-0105 with a status of Open and a filed date of 05/15/2025 (Arizona Corporation Commission, eDocket).

APS says it filed the request with the commission in June 2025, after a notice of intent in May 2025, and that if the request is approved as proposed, the monthly bill impact to a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours would be around $20 (APS, Rate Case 2025). APS says its last rate case was filed in 2022 and produced new rates in 2024 based on 2021 and 2022 costs. The eDocket filed date of May 15, 2025 and APS's June 2025 filing month do not match; both are shown as published.

In a February 19, 2026 update, the commission set out an eight-step rate case process ending with a vote on an administrative law judge's Recommended Opinion and Order, said the APS case was then in step five, discovery and public comment, and noted more than two dozen intervenors; it said the evidentiary hearing would begin May 18, 2026 and was expected to last about eight weeks (Arizona Corporation Commission, What's Next in the APS Rate Case). The commission also said all documents in the case are in its eDocket under the docket number above.

APS's own case for the increase, as stated on its rate case page, is that current rates reflect 2021 and 2022 costs, that the cost of transformers is 64 percent higher than when current rates were set, and that the request includes more than $44 million in plant improvements and system replacements at the Palo Verde Generating Station (APS, Rate Case 2025). APS also says it has proposed an increase of more than 45 percent for extra-large energy users such as data centers, and a formula rate with an annual process meant to keep data center growth costs off other customers (APS).

The commission's release says the commission is bound by the Arizona Constitution to set just and reasonable rates, and that simply denying a utility's application because of not wanting to raise rates would violate Article 15 (Arizona Corporation Commission). APS lists public comment sessions organized by the commission at 1200 West Washington Street in Phoenix or by phone on January 20, January 26 (telephone only) and February 18, 2026 (APS).

The TOU-E and R-3 sheets on aps.com, read October 19, 2026, still carry the March 8, 2024 effective date (APS TOU-E).