Peak Savers Rate

The key to keeping your peak charge as low as possible is spreading out your usage on Peak Days between 3 and 8 p.m. so you're not drawing a lot of kW at once. See below for some practical tips for lowering usage:

• Cook dinner using a grill or a countertop appliance such as an air fryer, instant pot, or crock pot.
• Load the electric clothes dryer, but wait to run it until after 8 p.m.
• Load the dishwasher, but wait to run it until after 8 p.m.
• Pre-cool your home by running your air conditioner until the peak time starts at 3 p.m.
• If you have an electric water heater, avoid using a lot of hot water between 3 and 8 p.m.
• Avoid running your pool pump from 3 to 8 p.m.
• For those with electric vehicles, wait to charge them until after 8 p.m.

For more information, see our Energy Use Basics page.

For SmartHub Users

• Heartland members on the Peak Savers rate who are enrolled in our free SmartHub service will receive an email or text notification the afternoon before a forecasted Peak Day advising them that they can save money on their bills by reducing usage from 3 to 8 p.m. the next day
• Consumer-members will receive email notifications by default, but will need to opt into text notifications through SmartHub if desired

For Heartland Members Not Enrolled in SmartHub

• If you are not enrolled in SmartHub and either cannot enroll or do not wish to do so, but still want to receive text notifications of Peak Days, you can text the word "peak" to (833) 626-2631
• If you do not have a phone capable of sending or receiving text messages, you can call our office at (800) 835-9586 to find out whether a Peak Day has been declared
• Alternatively, you can simply control your usage from 3 to 8 p.m. on any summer weekday where temperatures are expected to reach 90 degrees or higher

• For each summer month, the peak charge of $6 per kW will be calculated by examining the member’s hourly usage between 3 and 8 p.m. on Peak Days.
  • Whichever one-hour increment has the highest usage will be used to calculate the peak charge.
  • For example, if a consumer-member’s hour of highest usage is 10 kW from 4 to 5 p.m. on July 29, their peak charge for July would be $60 (10 kW × $6).
• Members can save money on their bills by spreading out their usage between 3 and 8 p.m. on Peak Days and avoiding using too many appliances at the same time.

• Service availability charge: $42.85
• Energy charge: $0.110896 per kWh
• Peak charge: $6 per kW used during the consumer-member’s monthly peak hour (hour of highest electric usage)
  • Peak charge only occurs in June, July, August, and September
  • Peak hour will only be calculated on Heartland-declared Peak Days
  • Peak hour can only occur between 3 and 8 p.m.
  • Peak Days will never occur on weekends or holidays
  • Peak charge is only based on ONE HOUR OF USAGE for the entire month