Peak hours
Definition. Peak hours are the notified evening window during which system demand is highest and time-of-use consumers are charged the higher of two per-unit rates; all remaining hours are off-peak.
Also called: Peak load hours · Off-peak hours · پیک آورز
Where you see it: Printed on TOU bills beside the peak reading, and published in DISCO tariff notifications.
The window moves with sunset
The peak window is anchored to when lighting load stacks on top of everything else, so it shifts between summer and winter schedules. A four-hour evening window is typical, starting later in summer and earlier in winter.
The exact hours in force are printed on the bill and notified by the DISCO. Working from a remembered figure is how people end up running a geyser at exactly the wrong time.
What is worth moving
Rank household loads by how much energy they use and how flexible their timing is. Water heating, laundry, dishwashing, ironing and water pumping score high on both counts and are the obvious candidates.
Refrigeration cannot be shifted, and lighting is precisely what defines the peak. Cooling can be partly shifted by pre-cooling.
Peak hours and load shedding are different things
Load shedding schedules are about supply shortfall on a given feeder; peak hours are about pricing. They frequently overlap because both track system demand, but a feeder can be load-shed outside peak hours and can run uninterrupted through them.
Confusing the two leads people to believe they are being charged a peak rate during an outage, which is not possible — no units are recorded when supply is off.
Frequently asked questions
Do peak hours affect me if I am not on a TOU meter?
Not directly on the bill. A non-TOU meter records a single total and prices it on the ordinary schedule, so the hour of use makes no difference to what you pay.
Are weekends off-peak?
Pakistani TOU schedules for most categories apply the same daily window every day rather than exempting weekends. Check the schedule printed on your own bill.
Related terms
- Time-of-use tariff — How TOU billing works in Pakistan, who is required to have it, and whether shifting your load to off-peak hours is actually worth it.
- Feeder — Why your neighbourhood loses power as a block, how feeder loss performance decides your load shedding hours, and how to find out which feeder you are on.
- Load factor — How to calculate load factor from your own bill, what a good figure looks like, and why improving it lowers demand-based charges without reducing consumption.
Go further
Back to the full 44-term glossary, or open your own bill with the reference number lookup.