Backroad Connections

Tasmanian residential tariffs

The move to time-of-use tariffs

Traditionally, most Tasmanian residences bought electricity on two different tariffs:

  • tariff 31 light and power:  Circuits on this tariff may be used for any purpose (including hot water)

  • tariff 41 heating and hot water: This additional cheaper tariff is only allowed to be used for storage hot water and wired-in space heating. Unlike ‘controlled load’ tariffs on the mainland, tariff 31 can be used at any time of the day.

As a result of national policy pressure to move to more ‘cost-reflective’ tariffs, a new residential tariff 93 has been introduced. 

The residential Tariff 93 has two prices:

  • peak 7-10am and 4-9pm Monday to Friday,

  • all other times including all weekend are off-peak.

Note that these times do not change with daylight saving time so the apparent peak times move to 8-11am and 5-10pm on weekdays during daylight saving time.

Ensuring that your hot water does not heat during peak times is the simplest way to save money on tariff 93. For more detail on this see our fact sheet on Saving money on hot water with tariff 93. 

It will be increasingly difficult for people to stay on the tariff 31/41 combination. This is no longer available for new connections.

Should you move to tariff 93?

Most households are likely to save money by voluntarily changing to tariff 93 but beware that you cannot change back.

If you are an Aurora customer and have had a new electronic meter for at least 12 months, Aurora can advise if you would be better off on tariff 93 (based on past usage patterns).

Time-of-use tariffs do present a number of options for reducing your electricity bills, all of which come down to moving consumption to off-peak times. Ways of doing this include:

  • Ensuring that hot water is only heated at off-peak times. See our fact sheet on Saving money on hot water with tariff 93.
  • Charging electric vehicles during off-peak times.
  • Changing the times when you wash and dry clothes (if this is practical).
  • Pre-heating a well-insulated house in order to avoid or reduce the need for heating at peak times.

The most common scenario where tariff 93 is not cost-effective is when your house is unoccupied during the day and most of your cooking and heating happens in peak times.

Peak rates only apply for about 24% of the time ((5 days * 8 hours)/(7 days * 24 hours)) so there are plenty of opportunities to shift consumption to off-peak times

How do time-of-use tariffs impact on solar?

There are many sources of advice on whether you should install solar. We would recommend you start with the consumer guides provided on the New Energy Tech Consumer Code website and Finn Peacock’s Solar 101.

Two additional relevant Tasmanian issues for those considering solar are:

  • Tariff 93 charges less than tariff 31 in the middle of the day, so savings from self-consumption of solar generation will be slightly lower. You should deal with a Tasmanian based solar sales company that can calculate the details and advise on the best tariff (if you have the option to choose).
  • Traditional tariff 31 and 41 metering only allows the solar to be installed on one tariff (normally tariff 31 is chosen). This means you will not benefit from any solar generation that is used to heat your hot water or run a heat pump. With tariff 93 all your consumption is on one circuit so this problem is avoided.