Peak, Off Peak and Controlled Load Times in NSW: When Power Is Actually Cheapest

What are the peak and off peak electricity times in NSW? On most NSW time of use plans, peak pricing covers the evening, commonly from mid afternoon until around 9pm, and off peak covers overnight, typically 10pm to 7am, with shoulder rates in between. The exact windows are set by your retailer and depend on your network area and meter type, so the only times that count are the ones printed on your own bill. Here is how the system works and how to find yours.

1. Peak, shoulder and off peak in plain English

A time of use plan charges different rates depending on when you use power, not just how much. Peak is the expensive band, priced high because the whole grid is straining at once, mostly on summer and winter evenings when air conditioning, cooking and hot water collide. Off peak is the cheap band, when the network has capacity to spare. Shoulder sits between the two.

The reason evenings cost so much is physical, not commercial. The network has to be built for its worst half hour, so pricing pushes flexible loads away from that half hour. Use the dishwasher at 11pm instead of 6pm and you are genuinely cheaper to supply.

2. The times on your bill come from two layers

This is the part that confuses almost everyone. Your distributor sets network level windows, and your retailer wraps their own retail windows around them. On the Ausgrid network, the residential network peak is 3pm to 9pm every day, but only during June to August and November to March; in autumn and spring there is no network peak at all. Retailers, however, may apply their own simpler year round windows on top, and many do.

So two neighbours on different retailers can have different peak hours, and two homes on the same retailer in different network areas can too. Western Sydney homes sit on Endeavour Energy's network with its own tariff structure, while eastern and northern Sydney sit on Ausgrid's. If you are not sure which side of the boundary you are on, the postcode checker answers it in seconds, and our guide to why nearby suburbs have different electrical rules explains the boundary quirks.

3. How to find your actual windows

Three places. First, your bill: time of use plans list each band with its hours and rate, usually near the usage table. Second, your retailer's app or plan fact sheet, which must spell out the windows. Third, if the bill only shows a single rate, you are on a flat tariff and the clock does not matter to your prices at all.

While you are looking, check whether a separate line item says controlled load. That is the other half of cheap power in NSW, and plenty of households have it without knowing.

4. Controlled load: the cheapest power most homes forget

Controlled load is a separately metered circuit, usually feeding electric hot water, that the network energises during approved windows rather than all day. Because the network controls the timing, the rate is the cheapest you can buy. On Ausgrid's network, controlled load 1 guarantees at least six hours of supply in every 24, suited to large storage hot water systems, while controlled load 2 provides at least sixteen hours including daytime windows. Since 2024 the switching increasingly happens in daylight to soak up solar, not just overnight. For the full story of what controlled load is, which appliances belong on it and how a circuit gets added, see our controlled load explainer.

Controlled load pairs naturally with hot water, heat pumps and pool equipment. If you are weighing a heat pump hot water system, the tariff choice is a real part of the decision, covered in our heat pump electrical work guide and the heat pump switchboard guide.

5. What is actually worth shifting

The loads worth moving are the big, patient ones: hot water, pool pumps, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and EV charging. Lighting and cooking happen when they happen. Our guide to what Sydney households can move to off peak power ranks the candidates, and if you are costing up the metering side, see our guides to off peak meter installation costs and cutting bills with off peak metering.

One caution: shifting load only pays if your off peak rate is genuinely cheap relative to your peak rate. Compare the spread on your own plan before rearranging your life around the clock.

6. When the electrician comes into it

Tariffs are retail decisions, but the hardware behind them is electrical work. Adding a controlled load circuit, separating hot water onto its own supply, or reworking the board so an EV charger can run on a managed circuit all happen at the switchboard, and metering changes go through your retailer with the physical work done at your meter board. Our smart meter upgrade service handles that side, and where supply or metering work touches the network connection it needs a Level 2 electrician.

How High Demand Electrical helps

We set homes up to actually use cheap power: controlled load and dedicated hot water circuits, board work for heat pumps and EV chargers, switchboard upgrades where the old board has no room, and metering coordination through the retailer. If you are not sure what your current setup can support, an electrical safety inspection maps the board, circuits and metering in one visit and tells you what a tariff change would involve.

Set your home up for cheaper power

Ask about metering and controlled load work or call 0402 559 777. Every job starts with a site assessment so the scope and pricing are confirmed before work begins.