SmartHours is a program that helps reduce energy use during periods of high (peak) demand by offering customers lower prices to shift their usage to times when electricity costs less to produce (off-peak). Customers can see savings when they change how they use energy and shift their usage outside of peak hours. The more electricity they shift outside of peak hours, the more they can save on their bill. Our SmartHours customers help protect the electric grid and the environment.

SmartHours peak hours are on summer weekdays from 2–7 p.m., June 1 – September 30, excluding federal holidays. There are three rates, or plans, in the SmartHours program, allowing customers to choose the plan that best fits their lifestyle. In 2024, OG&E changed the names of these plans to make them easier for our customers to understand. They are called SmartHours Daily (formerly Variable Peak Pricing/VPP), SmartHours Fixed (formerly Time-of-Use/TOU), and SmartHours Overnight (formerly EV-TOU).

You can choose the SmartHours plan that fits your lifestyle. Your options are:

•    SmartHours Daily: The daily peak price varies. You can plan and shift your usage based on day-ahead pricing notifications. Each day, you’ll receive advance notice of the next day’s peak price – by your choice of text, phone, email, or all three – so you can manage your energy use. Manage your notifications at OGE.com/alerts.

•    SmartHours Fixed: Enjoy the same price for all on-peak hours each weekday, Monday – Friday.

•    SmartHours Overnight: In addition to having the same price for all on-peak hours, you’ll also be able to enjoy greater discounts by shifting some electricity use to overnight, when prices are lowest. This option is only available for Oklahoma residential customers.

You can switch to any of these plans here.

All first-time SmartHours customers, regardless of the plan you choose, have the convenience of Best Bill Guarantee. This means at the end of your subscription term, one year from the date you enroll, your SmartHours bill will be compared to your previous tariff billing using actual usage for the entire period. If the amount billed is higher than what you would have been billed under the previous tariff, you will receive a credit on your bill equal to the difference.

Here are some savings tips to help you save all summer long. 

•    Use Energy Insights during SmartHours season to see how much electricity you use and how to save.
•    Do laundry and run the dishwasher off-peak, after 7 p.m. 
•    Cook later in the evenings, or prep meals during mornings or on weekends. 
•    Turn off lights, TVs and computers when not in use.
•    With summer temperatures, remember to change the direction of your ceiling fan to rotate counterclockwise for more comfort.
•    Pre-cool your home by at least 4 degrees at 11 a.m., then turn up the thermostat in the afternoon at 2 p.m., and you will stay more comfortable during peak hours.  
•    Shut off pool and hot tub pumps during peak hours (without affecting water quality). 
•    Make sure your home is as efficient as possible, so it requires less energy to cool. Learn more about our energy efficiency programs here.  
•    Use our rebate and purchase your own smart thermostat to set it and forget it! The thermostat rebate program is full for 2024, check back in the spring for the 2025 application.
 

•    Use Energy Insights during SmartHours season to see how much electricity you use and how to save.
•    Pre-cool your business by at least 4 degrees at 11 a.m., then turn up the thermostat in the afternoon at 2 p.m. and you will stay more comfortable during peak hours.
•    Make sure your business is as efficient as possible, so it requires less energy to cool. Learn more about energy efficiency programs here.
•    Turn off lights, computers and monitors when not in use.
•    Use ceiling and floor fans to help circulate air for more comfort.
•    Wait to charge forklifts or stock any refrigerators or freezers during off-peak hours.
•    Shut off unused lights and computers at the end of the day.  

The price you pay depends on your SmartHours plan. During the weekday hours of 2–7 p.m.:

•    SmartHours Daily customers will pay a variable on-peak price, either Low, Standard, High, or Critical. Customers are notified of each day’s price a day in advance. Adjust your text, voice, or email notifications at OGE.com/alerts. You can also see each day’s price online for Oklahoma and Arkansas.

•    SmartHours Fixed customers pay the same price for on-peak hours each weekday. You can see prices online for Oklahoma and Arkansas.

•    SmartHours Overnight customers pay the same price for on-peak hours each weekday, but they have a super-off-peak price from 11 p.m. – 6 a.m. You can see the Overnight prices here. 

*SmartHours Overnight is for Oklahoma only.

To meet customer demand during peak hours, OG&E must use its most expensive generating units or purchase electricity from others at a higher cost. SmartHours gives customers the option to change when and how they use electricity so they can benefit by shifting their use to times when the price is lower.

Peak price is determined from the estimated use of all customers and the availability of less expensive electricity. The variable peak prices within the program are determined by a formula in the SmartHours Daily tariff, which you can find in the Oklahoma Rate Tariffs sections of our website.

Most customers are on Residential Service (R-1) or General Service (GS-1). On R-1 or GS-1, the price you pay for electricity changes between summer and winter seasons and depends on how much you use, but it doesn’t vary based on the time of day. The cost for electricity is a combination of the customer charge, energy charge, fuel adjustment amount, applicable taxes/fees and applicable riders.

Critical Events, while rare, can occur any day of the week, at any time of the year and can last up to eight hours. SmartHours Daily customers receive notice of a Critical Event at least two hours ahead. Critical Events are called when customer demand is expected to be high. OG&E is trying to reduce the peaks every summer, and regardless of temperatures, every summer has a peak demand. The goal of the SmartHours program is to reduce the summer peak day by as much as possible. If we believe a summer peak day may occur, we attempt to set the price high to achieve the maximum reduction in usage possible. Critical Events only occur in Oklahoma.

You can use any thermostat with SmartHours, and you always control your temperature. It’s easiest to save if you use a smart thermostat. Just set your preferred temperatures, keeping in mind that the cost will be highest on summer weekdays (excluding Juneteenth, Independence Day, and Labor Day) from 2–7 p.m. We suggest you pre-cool your home or business by setting a slightly warmer temperature during peak hours. Don’t have a smart thermostat? Use our rebate and purchase your own smart thermostat to set it and forget it! The thermostat rebates for 2024 are full, check back next Spring for the 2025 application.

Pre-cooling is designed to cool your home or business to a temperature below your set-point prior to the peak demand period (2 p.m. – 7 p.m.). This process is done while the cost of electricity is the least expensive. By pre-cooling, the temperature in your home or business, will allow your HVAC system to remain off and coast for a period of time (approx. 2 hours) and save you money by decreasing the operating time when prices are high. How long it coasts is dependent on how much you pre-cool and how well your home or business is insulated. When your thermostat was installed, you may have been prompted by your installer to set a temperature to pre-cool your home. This is a recommended setting for customers and will allow your home to stay cool longer while your thermostat is bumped up a few degrees during peak hours.

Some customers may have thermostats in their home that were installed during a previous OG&E promotion. These thermostats receive price signals from OG&E and can be scheduled to respond to them.

If you have moved into a home with an OG&E thermostat, you can use it to schedule your temperature adjustments with SmartHours – just switch to SmartHours.

Please see the following resources for support. If you are not able to troubleshoot a problem with your thermostat, we suggest contacting your local HVAC repair service.

View our SmartTemp Thermostat tutorials on YouTube.

You can also access all of the user manuals here:

Carrier Thermostat Manual

P1 Thermostat Manual

P2 Thermostat Manual

IFTTT is “If This, Then That” technology that works with a customer’s smart thermostat to react to daily price signals. A customer can set their thermostat to react to Low, Standard, High, and Critical Prices in response to the daily price that OG&E communicates. IFTTT takes care of the rest. An IFTTT connection and a smart thermostat is another convenient tool to help customers stay in control of their energy costs. The customer can still adjust their settings at any time. This service essentially delivers the daily pricing tiers to the customer’s thermostat, the same as our OG&E Energate and Carrier thermostats, enabling a “set it and forget it” experience.

NOTE: IFTTT works for SmartHours Daily customers only. OG&E partnered with IFTTT to enable a customer’s thermostat to automatically react to our SmartHours Daily price signals. It allows their thermostats to react to each price signal, whether it's Low, Standard, High, or Critical.

No. SmartHours Fixed and SmartHours Overnight customers have the same price for all on-peak hours. Their price does not change daily.

IFTTT connects to Somfy, WarmUp and Aquanta water heaters, in addition to ecobee and Honeywell thermostats.

We created connections based on customer feedback and adoption. We will continue to add more connections over time.

AMB helps level out the unusually high bills from months of high electricity use.

The AMB amount is based on the current month’s billing and includes the previous AMB balance forward, plus available billing amount history up to 11 months with the total divided by 12 or when less than 12 months billing amount history exists, the total available billing amount history including current months billing is divided by the total number of days available for a daily average, then times the actual number of days of the current bill.

A customer must be serviced under a residential rate for at least six months. A customer must not have a previous balance when the pricing option is initiated, and you must not have current billing that is past due.

AMB can be made available to commercial and industrial customers. Approval for commercial and industrial customers to be enrolled in the pricing option rests with OG&E.

You can unenroll on OGE.com by signing into your online account, going to the View Enrollments page, and then selecting the Average Monthly Billing selection to unenroll. You can also call the Call Center OKC Metro 405-272-9595 All Other Areas 800-522-6870.

When a customer withdraws from AMB but does not discontinue service with OG&E, the customer will have the option of paying the account balance in full, or if qualified, under a deferred payment agreement. Any refund due to the customer will be made by billing credit unless the customer requests otherwise.

Yes, a customer may be automatically removed from the AMB pricing option if payment is received after the due date twice in a 12-month period. If the customer is removed due to late payments, they must wait 12 months before becoming eligible for reinstatement to the AMB pricing option, unless waived by OG&E. Billing under this pricing option may be automatically terminated upon discontinuance of service. Any amounts owed for service billed under this pricing option shall be due as any other final bill for service. Any amounts overpaid for service billed under this pricing option shall be refunded to the customer by check.

GFB offers customers the option to pay the same monthly amount for their energy usage for a year.

The GFB offer is calculated by a formula that inputs the following information: historical weather patterns, expected customer usage, standard customer rate, base monthly customer charge, and the risk factor percentage for OG&E. You can find more information on the formula here.

The program is available to residential customers in Oklahoma who have been in their current residence over the previous 12 months, have had their electricity priced on the applicable residential tariffs and riders over the past 12 months, and are currently in good standing with OG&E.

Common reasons for ineligibility include:

• You currently do not meet the eligibility criteria
• You currently have less than 12 months of history with OG&E
• You currently have a low monthly and/or annual kWh usage
• You are not in good standing with OG&E. For example, you have had multiple late payments.

The contract is for 12 months and renewed on a yearly basis. All eligible GFB renewal offers will be recalculated and the contract will automatically be renewed for the following year unless the customer notifies OG&E otherwise.

If a customer’s recorded usage includes a 3-month period in which actual usage exceeds expected usage by at least 30%, OG&E may, at its discretion, return the customer to the traditional tariff for the remaining months of the GFB contract with early departure fees.

Customers cannot be on another rate while enrolled in the GFB program.

You can unenroll by calling OG&E Customer Service. A customer who withdraws from the program prior to the end of the 12-month contract period will be required to pay any positive difference between their actual usage as if billed on the standard Residential (R-1) tariff and the amount billed under GFB. No GFB credits will be returned.