Time-of-Use Tariffs Explained: Peak, Off-Peak & Shoulder

If your electricity bill charges different prices at different times of day, you're on a time-of-use (TOU) tariff. The idea is simple: power costs the grid more when everyone wants it at once, so retailers charge you more then and less when the network is quiet. Whether that helps or hurts your bill depends entirely on when you use electricity — and whether you can move it. Here's how to read the windows and actually use them.

The three windows: peak, shoulder, off-peak

A typical TOU plan splits the day into three price bands:

• Peak — the most expensive block. Across much of Australia this lands roughly 2–8pm (it starts later in some states). This is the band to shift out of.
• Shoulder — a middle price, usually mornings and later evenings.
• Off-peak — the cheapest band, typically overnight and sometimes mid-morning or early afternoon.

The exact windows vary by state, distributor and retailer, so don't trust a generic chart — the only source that matters is your own bill. We flag peak as commonly around 2–8pm only as a starting point; confirm the precise times and prices printed on your plan before you change anything.

How to actually shift load (for free)

Saving on TOU is about moving flexible, high-energy tasks out of peak and into off-peak. The big movable loads in most homes are:

• Hot water — if you have an electric or heat-pump system, it can often be timed to heat overnight or in a cheap daytime window.
• Dishwasher and washing machine — use the delay-start timer so they run off-peak.
• Pool pump — schedule its daily run for off-peak hours.
• EV charging — set the car (or charger) to charge overnight, never during the evening peak.
• Air conditioning — pre-cool or pre-heat the house before peak starts, then ease off during the expensive block.

None of this requires buying equipment. Timers and delay-start functions you already own do most of the work. The gain comes from the price gap between peak and off-peak: the wider that gap on your plan, the more each shifted kilowatt-hour saves.

The free midday window

A federal offer called Solar Sharer is live from 1 July 2026, delivered through participating retailers on eligible opt-in plans. It provides a free-power window of 11am–2pm, capped at 24 kWh per day, and requires a smart meter. Availability varies by retailer and state, so you'll need to confirm whether a plan offering it exists where you are.

If you can get onto an eligible plan, that midday window is a genuine lever: run the dishwasher, the pool pump, a wash, or charge the EV between 11am and 2pm and that energy is free up to the cap. It pairs naturally with daytime solar, but note that you don't need panels to use the window itself — it's about when you draw from the grid.

Here's the catch — TOU doesn't suit everyone

Time-of-use is only a win if you can genuinely move your usage out of peak. If most of your household's electricity is used between roughly 2pm and 8pm — because people are home, cooking, running heating or cooling, and there's little you can reschedule — a TOU tariff can cost you more than a flat-rate plan. Shift-workers, families with young kids home in the afternoon, and anyone with inflexible evening loads often do better on a single flat rate.

So before you switch, do the honest test: add up roughly how much of your usage happens in peak versus the cheaper bands, using the interval data most retailers can show you. If you can't realistically move that peak usage, the smarter saving may be a flat tariff — not a cleverer TOU plan. There's no shame in concluding that the simplest plan is the cheapest one for your pattern.

Two more traps to watch: some plans carry a higher daily supply charge to offset lower off-peak rates, and feed-in tariffs for any solar export (a retailer-set rate in most states, commonly in the single-digit cents range and trending down for years) are a separate line to that TOU structure. Confirm the current feed-in rate for your state — VIC, regional QLD and TAS set a regulated minimum, while most states leave it to the retailer.

A simple way to decide

• Pull your plan's peak/shoulder/off-peak times and prices from the bill.
• List what you could realistically shift to off-peak or a free window.
• Estimate how much peak usage is genuinely stuck in place.
• Compare that against a flat-rate plan's single price.
• Check whether a Solar Sharer-eligible plan is available to you.

If the movable load is large and the peak-to-off-peak gap is wide, TOU plus good timing cuts your bill. If not, stay flat and keep it simple.

We don't sell plans, tariffs, timers or hardware — so we have no reason to push you onto TOU or off it. The right answer is whichever one is cheapest for how your household actually uses power, and sometimes that's the boring flat rate. That's exactly the kind of call independent advice is for.

Figures in this guide are current at the date of publication and indicative only — rebate and certificate values change over time (federal battery certificates step down each January and July), and state schemes are amended often. Confirm the current numbers for your situation before you commit. This is general information, not personal financial advice.