Ausgrid time of use: the actual peak windows, season by season
Two things about Ausgrid catch people out. The first is that the residential peak window, 3pm to 9pm, runs every day of the week, so there is no weekend relief the way there is on the other two NSW networks. The second is the opposite kind of surprise: for four months of the year, April, May, September and October, there is no peak period at all. This page is the window detail for Ausgrid specifically. For whether time of use beats a flat rate for your household, and what a shifted kilowatt hour is actually worth, use the calculator.
Last checked: 14 August 2026Source: Ausgrid published network tariff informationNext review: January 2027
Which network is Ausgrid, and are you on it
Ausgrid runs the poles and wires across Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter. It is the network, not your retailer: the network owns the meter and sets the tariff structure, your retailer is the company that bills you and decides what you actually pay. If you are not sure which network you are on, your bill names it, and there is a postcode lookup on our NSW smart meter page that will tell you and will say so honestly when a postcode straddles two networks.
The windows
| Customer | Peak window | Days it applies | Months it applies | Everything else |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | 3pm to 9pm | Every day, weekends included | November to March, June to August | Off peak |
| Small business | 3pm to 9pm | Working weekdays only | November to March, June to August | Off peak |
Six hours a day across seven days is 42 hours a week inside the peak window for a residential customer, which is the widest weekly peak exposure of the three NSW networks. Small business gets the same six hours but only on working weekdays.
Two rates, not three
Ausgrid merged its shoulder rate into off peak in 2024. The practical effect is that the arithmetic got much simpler: every half hour of your year is either inside the 3pm to 9pm window during a peak month, or it is off peak. There is no middle band to reason about any more. If you are reading an older guide that describes an Ausgrid shoulder period, it is out of date, and that is worth knowing because a lot of comparison content has not caught up.
The four months with no peak
April, May, September and October sit outside both the summer and the winter peak seasons, and in those months Ausgrid applies no peak period at all. Every hour is off peak. That has a practical consequence people rarely act on: for a third of the year, shifting your dishwasher or your washing to the middle of the night changes nothing on an Ausgrid time of use tariff, because there is nothing to shift away from. Save the effort for the eight months where it counts.
Demand charges, and the half hour that sets them
Some Ausgrid tariffs, mostly business ones, add a demand charge on top of usage. It is a different kind of charge and it trips people up because it does not care how much electricity you used in total. It cares about your worst moment.
The method is this: Ausgrid looks at your highest 30 minute block of demand inside the peak window, on your worst day of the month, measures it in kilowatts, and multiplies by the number of days in the month. One bad half hour therefore prices the entire month.
Ausgrid's own explanation carries a contrast worth repeating, because it tells you which appliances matter. A hair dryer rarely sets your demand, because it runs for a couple of minutes inside a half hour block and the block is averaged. A compressor that runs solidly does not have that property. Anything that draws hard and keeps drawing is what sets a demand charge, which is why refrigeration, and increasingly EV charging, are the loads to look at first.
Two further details matter. Ausgrid removed its low season peak demand charge, so demand does not apply outside summer and winter. And Ausgrid states explicitly that your retailer sets the demand charges you are actually billed, not the network, so the figure on your bill will not match a network schedule.
The business tariff codes, and why the reset matters
If you are on a business demand tariff, find the code on your bill. The reset period is the single most important difference between them.
| Tariff code | What sets the demand | How far back it remembers |
|---|---|---|
| EA251, EA256 | Highest kilowatt half hour, 3pm to 9pm working weekdays, summer and winter | Resets every month |
| EA302 | Highest kilowatt half hour | The previous 12 months |
On EA302, a single bad afternoon does not price a month, it prices a year. If you are on that tariff, one avoidable spike is worth far more attention than a small ongoing saving.
How to tell what you are actually on
Your bill answers this in two places. The charges table names the tariff, and near your NMI you will find a network tariff code, which on Ausgrid begins with EA. The quick visual test is simpler still: if your usage charges are split into separate peak and off peak lines at different rates, you are on time of use. A single usage line at one rate means you are on a flat tariff, whatever meter is on the wall.
That distinction matters more than it used to. A smart meter does not by itself put you on time of use. The network tariff and the retail tariff are two different things, and it is the retail one you are billed on. If your meter was replaced on or after 1 December 2025, the retailer that installed it cannot move you onto time of use without your explicit informed consent for two years, so it is worth checking your tariff name across the swap and querying anything you did not agree to.
What is actually worth shifting
Because the Ausgrid peak runs every day, the shifting job is more consistent here than on networks with a weekday only peak: the same routine works Saturday as Tuesday. The loads worth moving out of 3pm to 9pm, roughly in order of how much they move the needle, are hot water if it is not already on a controlled load, pool pumps, EV charging, and then the discretionary ones like dishwasher and laundry. Cooking is the one nobody should try to move, and it is fine to say so.
The honest caveat is that none of this is worth doing blind. Whether shifting pays, and by how much, depends on your own usage split, and that is exactly what the time of use calculator works out. The time of use tariff page puts all three NSW networks side by side if you want to compare.
Questions people ask
What are Ausgrid's peak times?
Peak is 3pm to 9pm, and on the residential time of use tariff it runs every day of the week, weekends included. It applies only in two blocks of the year, November to March and June to August. In April, May, September and October there is no peak period at all.
Does Ausgrid charge peak rates on weekends?
Yes, on the residential time of use tariff the 3pm to 9pm peak runs all seven days, so a Saturday afternoon is charged the same as a Tuesday one. Small business time of use is different, with the peak window limited to working weekdays. Your bill names which tariff you are on.
Which months have no peak period on Ausgrid?
Four months have no peak at all: April, May, September and October. Ausgrid applies its peak window only across summer, November to March, and winter, June to August. In the four shoulder months every hour is charged at the off peak rate, so shifting load then changes nothing.
Does Ausgrid still have a shoulder rate?
No, not since 2024, when Ausgrid merged shoulder into off peak. The network now has two rates rather than three, which makes the arithmetic simpler: every half hour is either inside the 3pm to 9pm peak window in a peak month, or it is off peak. Older guides still showing three rates are out of date.
How is an Ausgrid demand charge worked out?
One half hour sets it: the highest 30 minute block of demand you hit inside the peak window on your worst day that month, measured in kilowatts and then multiplied by the days in the month. It is a capacity charge, not a usage one, so a single bad afternoon prices the whole month.
Do Ausgrid demand charges apply all year?
No, only in the two peak seasons. Ausgrid removed its low season peak demand charge, so demand does not apply outside summer and winter. One warning worth reading twice: Ausgrid states plainly that your retailer sets the demand charge you actually pay, so the network's own figures are not your bill.
What is the difference between Ausgrid's EA251 and EA302 tariffs?
Two of the three reset monthly: EA251 and EA256 measure your highest half hour each month and start again, while EA302 remembers the highest half hour across the previous 12 months. On EA302 one bad afternoon can price a whole year, which changes how much a single spike costs you.
How do I tell which Ausgrid tariff I am on?
Your bill names it, usually in two places: the tariff name in the charges table and the network tariff code near your NMI. Look for a code beginning EA. If you see separate peak and off peak lines with different rates you are on time of use; a single usage line means a flat rate.
Who wrote this
- Angus Lewington
- Founder of Alien IT Solutions (ABN 32 385 519 280), which runs Smart Home Fix. Day to day that means Home Assistant rescues, smart home repair and getting household data into something a person can actually read. More at anguslewington.com.au.
- Why we write about tariffs
- Because a smart meter is the first time most households get their own interval data, and turning that into something you can act on is the work we do. We are not a retailer, we do not sell you electricity, and we get nothing from you switching plans.
- How this page is maintained
- Windows checked against Ausgrid's published network tariff information on 14 August 2026, and reviewed again each January and July, because network tariffs reset on 1 July. If you spot something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Knowing the window is the easy half. The harder half is knowing what your own house actually does between 3pm and 9pm, which your smart meter records and almost nobody ever looks at. We set up a home energy dashboard that shows your usage against your tariff windows, tells you whether a tariff change cost you money, and automates the shifting worth automating. See how the dashboard setup works.