Electricity tariffs explained: single rate, time of use, controlled load and demand

Your tariff is the set of rules deciding how your usage becomes your bill. Same house, same usage, different tariff: genuinely different bill. Retailers rarely explain the difference in plain terms, partly because the plans are built on network tariff structures nobody chose for readability, and partly because a confused customer rarely switches. Here's the plain version.

Single rate (flat rate)

One price per kilowatt hour, all day, every day. Sometimes called flat rate, anytime, or peak only.

Who it suits: households whose usage lands mostly in the evening and can't move (that's most households), and anyone who values predictability. You can't be penalised for using power at dinner time, because dinner time costs the same as 3am.

The catch: you also can't be rewarded for flexibility. If you genuinely can run the dishwasher, washing machine and EV charger overnight, a single rate plan leaves that saving on the table.

Time of use (TOU)

Different prices at different times of day: a peak rate (typically late afternoon into evening), an off-peak rate (overnight and often midday), and sometimes a shoulder rate between them. Requires a smart meter, since the meter has to know when you used the power, not just how much.

Who it suits: households that can shift real load into cheap windows. Overnight EV charging, timed hot water, delay-start appliances, or a battery. Some plans now include very cheap or free daytime windows to soak up solar; useful if you're home at midday or can schedule appliances into it.

The catch: peak rates are meaningfully higher than a single rate. If your life is structurally 6pm-shaped (again: most households), a TOU plan can cost more than the flat plan it replaced. The window times also vary between plans, so "off-peak" on one plan is not "off-peak" on another. When our engine projects a TOU plan onto your usage, it weights your consumption across the actual windows rather than assuming you'll magically become nocturnal.

Controlled load

A separate, cheaper rate for one dedicated circuit, classically electric hot water or slab heating, metered separately and typically energised during off-peak hours. You'll see it on the bill as its own usage line, sometimes labelled CL1 or CL2 (different states use different names; some bills still say "off-peak hot water" or a tariff number).

Who it suits: anyone with a big storage appliance that doesn't care when it runs. Hot water heated at 2am is exactly as hot at 7am.

The catch: it's an addition to your main tariff, not a replacement, and the appliance on the controlled circuit only gets power during its allowed hours. Nothing to decide daily; it's plumbing-level configuration. But when comparing plans, the controlled load rate matters if a big slice of your usage runs through it, and plenty of comparisons ignore it entirely. Ours doesn't, because it's on your bill and we read your bill.

Demand tariffs

The complicated one. On top of usage charges, a demand tariff charges for your highest rate of consumption during defined windows, typically your single biggest half hour in the month, priced per kilowatt. Run the oven, aircon and dryer simultaneously at 6pm once, and that peak sets the demand charge for the whole period.

Who it suits: households that keep their consumption flat and spread out, and know they do.

The catch: it's nearly impossible to evaluate from a headline rate, because your cost depends on a behaviour most people have never measured. We'll be straight with you: where a demand plan can't be fully priced from your bill's data, our engine flags it as incomplete rather than guessing, and ranks it below the plans we can price completely. A plan you can't price is a plan you can't compare, and we'd rather say so than pretend.

Block (stepped) tariffs

The price per kWh changes as your usage passes thresholds within the billing period: the first block at one rate, the next block at another. Sometimes steps up, occasionally steps down. Common on older plans and on gas (where tiers are the norm; see how to read your gas bill).

Who it suits: depends entirely on which direction the steps go and where your usage lands against the thresholds. This is arithmetic, not vibes, which is rather the theme of this whole site.

The overlays: discounts and feed-in

Two things that aren't tariffs but change what a tariff costs you. Conditional discounts (pay on time, direct debit) only exist when you meet the condition; our engine counts a discount only if it's guaranteed, and prices conditional ones as if you'll sometimes be human, because most people sometimes are. Solar feed-in rates credit your exports; a generous feed-in rate stapled to expensive usage rates can still lose to a boring plan, which is why the only fair comparison is the projected total across your actual imports and exports.

So which tariff should you be on?

The honest answer: the one that fits how your household actually uses power, projected across a full year, with the discounts priced honestly. That's not something a table of rates can tell you, but it is something your bill can. Upload your bill and our engine reads your tariff and usage, projects the plans on the government's energy register onto your real consumption pattern, and ranks by projected twelve month cost. If your current tariff is the right one, we'll say so.

First time reading your bill's rates table? Start with every line item explained. Wondering what everyone else pays? The average electricity bill in Australia. And the big question gets the full treatment at why is my bill so high.