Free midday power: new energy plans for Australian members 💡🔌🪫⚡

Our Facebook group is founded on a love of cloth nappies. Many members stick around long after they finish cloth nappies because they enjoy thinking more deeply about textiles and sustainability. 

We love helping members get the best results from their laundry, with the least possible cost. Today’s post is focusing on something that could save you $100s each year: your energy bills.

Using our abundance of solar energy

Australia now generates so much solar power during the day that the grid sometimes struggles to soak it all up. Because of this, electricity providers offer plans with free or heavily discounted rates for energy use during peak solar output. These plans are designed to shift energy usage to the middle of the day. This way, the abundance of solar energy generated across the grid during daylight hours is used, and demand is reduced at night.

The free-power period is in the middle of the day when solar generation generally peaks. It runs during the following 3-hour windows:

• New South Wales and South East Queensland: 11am to 2pm
• South Australia: 12pm to 3pm

Households can access up to 24 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of free electricity during the 3-hour window each day.

~ Energy.gov.au – Solar Sharer Offer

Understanding time-of-use tariffs

Older basic electricity meters only measure the total amount of electricity a property has consumed. Because they just provide a single running total that is read manually every few months, energy retailers have no way of knowing what time of day the electricity was actually used.

Smart meters (also known as digital meters) solve this by digitally measuring and recording electricity usage in short blocks, typically every 30 minutes. They then send this data to your electricity provider remotely. This detailed, time-stamped breakdown is what makes it possible for providers to charge different prices for peak, off-peak, and super off-peak/ free periods.

Is a time-of-use tariff right for you?

If you switch to a time-of-use tariff, your electricity will be free, or heavily discounted, during the solar peak. However, the rates you pay outside of these hours (especially during the evening peak) will probably be higher than your current plan. Your daily supply charge also might increase.

Energy retailers typically do not pay a solar feed-in tariff with free power windows. Switching plans can still work in your favour if you have a large battery and high evening electricity usage. The discounted or free grid charging will likely save you much more than a standard 2–5 cent feed-in tariff would earn. Use the free midday power to charge the battery, then solar to keep the battery topped up, then run off the battery once solar has stopped producing and overnight.

If you don’t have solar power, it can still be worth switching. You’ll benefit most if you can move high-energy use appliances to the middle of the day.

• Washing machines, dryers and dishwashers on delayed start
• Pool pumps and hot water heaters on a timed schedule
• Preparing meals in the middle of the day
• Charging an EV
• Heating and cooling your house

Comparing plans

The Australian government runs a free, independent website, Energy Made Easy, that compares available electricity plans in your area.

This is great for simple comparisons, but we know some of our members love to delve deeper. Simple Living is an independent comparison site where you can upload the data from your smart meter and use it to compare real costs based on actual usage on a half-hourly basis.

The government’s reference price compares plans against a model household’s usage, not yours. Two plans that look identical against that benchmark can differ by hundreds of dollars a year once your actual usage pattern is priced — especially if you have solar, an EV, or a plan with free or very cheap windows.

~ Simple Living

Smarter Living creates an individual comparison for you using your NEM12 file. However, your supplier might label this as a detailed report, detailed data, or interval data. With so many different electricity retailers, we can’t list all the different names they call the file.

Using these comparison sites will help you figure out the best value plan for your situation. Your supplier might have other plans available offering discounted power for different times of the day. And if you are already on the best value plan, congratulations!