Peak and off-peak electricity times in Australia (2026) — every network, every state, one table

“When is off-peak?” has two answers, and most people are only given one.

The first answer belongs to your network — the company that owns the poles and wires to your house. It’s set by your address, you can’t choose it, and its windows are published. The second belongs to your energy retailer — the company that sends the bill — and retailers are allowed to set their own windows. Fewer than you’d expect copy the network’s.

Here are both answers for every network in Australia, current for the 2026–27 year, and the two-minute check that tells you which one is on your bill.

Step 1: find your network

It’s on your bill, usually near the faults-and-emergencies phone number. Roughly:

• NSW — Ausgrid: Sydney’s inner, northern and eastern suburbs, the Central Coast, the Hunter. Endeavour Energy: western and south-western Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Illawarra and Southern Highlands. Essential Energy: the rest of regional NSW.
• Queensland — Energex: the south-east (Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and around). Ergon Energy: the rest of the state.
• Victoria — five networks (CitiPower, Powercor, Jemena, AusNet, United Energy), but since 1 July 2026 they all run the same residential windows, so you only need to know you’re in Victoria.
• South Australia — SA Power Networks, statewide.
• Western Australia — Western Power (Perth and the south-west); Horizon Power everywhere else. Synergy is the only retailer for households in the south-west, so the windows are Synergy’s.
• Tasmania — TasNetworks; Aurora is the retailer nearly everyone is with.
• ACT — Evoenergy.
• Northern Territory — Power and Water; Jacana is the retailer.

Step 2: the network’s windows (2026–27)

These apply if you’re on a time-of-use plan and your retailer passes the network’s windows through. A note on clocks: NSW, Victoria and SA follow daylight saving; Queensland, WA and the NT don’t, so their times are standard time all year. Tasmania and the ACT are the odd ones out — their windows are defined in standard time and not shifted for daylight saving, so in summer everything below moves an hour later on your clock (a “5pm” peak starts at 6pm).

State · network	Peak	Cheapest window	Everything else	Seasons and notes
NSW · Ausgrid	3pm–9pm, every day	none during the day — off-peak is all other hours	—	Peak only Nov–Mar and Jun–Aug. April, May, September, October: every hour is off-peak
NSW · Endeavour	4pm–8pm, business days	”Solar Soak” 10am–2pm, every day	Off-peak, all other times	Peak all year, priced higher Nov–Mar. Public holidays have no peak
NSW · Essential — “Sun Soaker” (default for smart meters since July 2024)	7am–10am and 3pm–10pm, every day	Off-peak 10am–3pm	Off-peak 10pm–7am (same rate as midday)	All year, no change on public holidays. Older smart-meter customers: 5–8pm weekdays peak, shoulders 7am–5pm and 8–10pm, weekends off-peak
QLD · Energex	4pm–9pm, every day	Off-peak 11am–4pm, every day	Shoulder 9pm–11am	All year
QLD · Ergon (regional tariffs 12D/12E)	4pm–9pm, every day	”Day” 11am–4pm	”Night” 9pm–11am	All year. New Solar Sharer tariff (12F): free 11am–2pm, up to 24 kWh/day, with a higher peak
VIC · all five networks	4pm–9pm, every day	”Solar soak” 11am–4pm, every day	Off-peak 9pm–11am	All year. New from 1 July 2026 — peak was 3–9pm with no midday window until this winter
SA · SA Power Networks	6am–10am and 4pm–midnight, every day	”Solar Sponge” 10am–4pm	Off-peak midnight–6am	All year. Yes, that’s 18 peak hours a day — the plan is built around one question: what can you move into 10–4?
WA · Synergy “Midday Saver” (opt-in; the standard Home Plan is flat)	3pm–9pm, every day	Super off-peak 9am–3pm	Off-peak 9pm–9am	All year, standard time. 55c peak vs 8.9c super off-peak — the widest spread in the country
TAS · Aurora Tariff 93 (default for new connections)	7am–10am and 4pm–9pm, weekdays (8–11am and 5–10pm on the summer clock)	Off-peak 10am–4pm and 9pm–7am weekdays	All weekend is off-peak	All year
ACT · Evoenergy (time-of-use option)	7am–9am and 5pm–9pm, every day (6–10pm on the summer clock)	“Solar Soak” 11am–3pm	Off-peak all other times	All year. New smart-meter homes default to a demand tariff instead — see below
NT · Jacana (opt-in)	one rate for all other hours	9am–3pm, every day	—	All year, standard time

Five things in that table are worth a second look:

The cheap window has moved to the middle of the day — almost everywhere. Look down the “cheapest window” column: 9–3, 10–2, 10–3, 10–4, 11–3, 11–4. Every network in the country except Ausgrid now puts its cheapest hours in daylight on its current time-of-use tariff, because that’s when rooftop solar floods the grid and the network wants your dishwasher running. The old rule of thumb, “overnight is cheapest”, is no longer what the network charges anywhere but Sydney’s inner suburbs — though, as you’ll see below, your retailer’s plan may still say it.

Four places have a morning peak. SA (6–10am), regional NSW’s Sun Soaker (7–10am), Tasmania (7–10am weekdays) and the ACT (7–9am). That catches the shower, the kettle and the heater at full price, every day, and most people on those tariffs don’t know it.

Victoria changed this winter. All five networks shortened the evening peak to 4–9pm and added the 11–4 solar-soak window on 1 July 2026 — and the Victorian Default Offer followed. Not every retailer has caught up yet (see the next section).

Two capitals run on the wrong clock in summer. Tasmania and the ACT define their windows in standard time and don’t adjust for daylight saving. Aurora at least publishes both versions; in Canberra, “5pm to 9pm” quietly becomes 6pm to 10pm from October to April, and the morning peak becomes 8–10am.

Ausgrid’s peak switches off for four months. We’ve covered that one in detail — it’s worth about $100 a year to check whether your plan passes it on.

Step 3: why your bill might say something else

Now the second answer. The network bills your retailer; your retailer bills you — and the retailer decides the shape. Energex puts it plainly: retailers “are under no obligation to pass through our approved network tariff structures.” Ausgrid: “Retailers can offer different peak and off-peak times.” The regulator’s own bill guide says: “Usage times may vary between retailers, so keep that in mind if you change retailers.”

How different? Here’s what the big retailers’ standing offers actually said at 1 July 2026:

Area	Retailers matching the network	Retailers on a different clock
NSW · Ausgrid	AGL and Origin: 3–9pm, summer and winter only	EnergyAustralia: 2–8pm weekdays in summer, 5–9pm weekdays in winter. Red Energy and Alinta: 2–8pm weekdays, all year
NSW · Endeavour	AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia: 4–8pm business days, with the 10–2 solar window	Alinta: 1–8pm weekdays, all year
NSW · Essential	AGL, Origin: the Sun Soaker windows	EnergyAustralia and Alinta: the older 5–8pm weekday shape (Alinta adds a 7–9am morning peak)
QLD · Energex	AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia: 4–9pm daily, cheap 11–4	Alinta and Red Energy: 4–8pm weekdays, with the cheap window overnight (10pm–7am), not midday
VIC	Origin and EnergyAustralia: 4–9pm, 11–4 solar soak, 9pm–11am off-peak — the new network shape	AGL’s published 1 July standing offer: 3–9pm every day, two rates, no midday window at all — the shape the networks just retired. Red Energy is moving customers across through July–August
SA	AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia all pass the Solar Sponge windows through unchanged	—
WA	Synergy is the only retailer — no variance to report	—
TAS	Aurora and 1st Energy: identical windows, both publish the daylight-saving version	—
ACT	ActewAGL mirrors Evoenergy’s hours (it just swaps the labels “solar soak” and “off-peak”)	Its demand plan measures 5–8pm; the network’s window is 5–9pm

So on one Sydney network, “peak” can start at 2pm, 3pm or 5pm; run weekdays only or every day; apply all year or for eight months. In Brisbane, two neighbours on the same street can have their cheapest hours twelve hours apart. And in Melbourne, one of the biggest retailers’ standing offers still charges peak from 3pm with no midday window, two months after every network in the state moved on.

None of this is illegal, and none of it is necessarily bad — a plan with an old-shaped window can still be the cheapest plan if its rates are low. The point is simpler: the times on your bill are your retailer’s, not your network’s, and only your plan’s paperwork tells you which. Retailers change windows, too — the table above is a snapshot, not a verdict.

The two-minute check

1. Find your plan’s times. The reliable place is the plan’s fact sheet — search your retailer’s name, your plan’s name and “basic plan information document” — or the plan’s page on the government’s Energy Made Easy comparison site (NSW, Queensland, SA, Tasmania, ACT) or Victorian Energy Compare, where the time-of-use charges expand to the exact hours, the season, and the network tariff the plan sits on. Some retailers also print the windows on page two of the bill.
2. Compare them with your network’s row above. Same? You’re on a pass-through plan and the table is your answer. Different? Then your retailer’s clock is the one that matters — and it’s worth pricing the alternative.
3. One price for every hour of the day? You’re on a flat-rate plan and none of this affects you. Spend your two minutes on our free bill comparison instead — it tells you whether the problem is your usage or your plan.

What to actually do with the times

Time-of-use only saves money if something moves. The honest candidates are the loads you can schedule without noticing: the dishwasher, the washing machine and dryer, a pool pump, EV charging, and — if it’s on a timer — hot water. Heating, cooking and the evening telly don’t move, and you shouldn’t pretend they will.

If your cheapest window is midday (nearly every network now, and the retailers that follow them): run the appliances at lunchtime, which is easy if someone’s home or the machines have delay-start, and harder if nobody is. If your cheapest window is overnight (Red, Alinta, the older shapes): delay-start before bed — the oldest trick in the book, and it still works on those plans.

Either way, keep the peak clear of the big draws. On the 4–9pm networks that’s the whole early evening; in SA it’s most of the day outside 10–4; and on the four morning-peak tariffs, it’s breakfast too.

A note on demand tariffs

If your bill has a “demand” or “capacity” line, there’s a second window to know: the hours in which your single highest half-hour of the month is measured. For Endeavour it’s the 4–8pm business-day peak; for Essential’s opt-in demand tariff, 5–8pm weekdays; for Energex and Ergon, 4–9pm every day; in the ACT, where new smart-meter homes are put on a demand tariff by default, 5–9pm every day (6–10pm in summer). Victoria and SA have closed their residential demand tariffs altogether. How those charges work — and the free fix — is its own article.

The verdict

• Your address sets the network; your retailer sets the clock. They’re often different, legally and on purpose.
• The cheap hours have moved to midday on every network but Ausgrid — 9–3, 10–4, 11–4 — but plenty of retail plans still put them overnight. Check which you’ve got before you move anything.
• Four tariffs have a morning peak — SA, regional NSW, Tasmania, the ACT. Worth knowing before the morning routine.
• Tasmania and Canberra run an hour late in summer. The published times are standard time; add an hour from October to April.
• Victoria just changed, and not every retailer has. If you’re in Victoria on a time-of-use plan, look for the 11–4 window on your plan — if it isn’t there, your retailer is still on last year’s clock.
• Flat rate? Not your problem. Use the time on the bill comparison.

Network windows: Ausgrid Network Price List 2026–27; Endeavour Energy Network Price List 2026–27 (28 April 2026); Essential Energy Network Price List and Explanatory Notes 2026–27 (24 April 2026); Energex Network Tariff Guide 2026–27; Queensland Government Gazette tariff schedule for regional Queensland (30 June 2026, QCA); the five Victorian networks’ AER- approved 2026–27 pricing proposals (May 2026) and the ESC’s Victorian Default Offer 2026–27 final decision; SA Power Networks’ 2026–27 pricing proposal (April 2026); Synergy’s Standard Electricity Prices and Charges (1 July 2026) and the ERA’s Western Power price list 2026–27; the OTTER-approved Aurora standing offer schedule 2026–27 and TasNetworks’ 2024–29 Tariff Application Guide; Evoenergy’s schedule of network charges 2026–27; Jacana Energy’s 2026–27 residential pricing. Retailer windows: AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia standing-offer price schedules effective 1 July 2026; ActewAGL and Aurora schedules; Red Energy plans as listed on Energy Made Easy; Alinta’s published pricing (NSW/QLD) — NSW and Queensland as read on 23 August 2026, the rest on 14 September 2026. Networks re-price every 1 July, and windows occasionally change with them; retailers change windows whenever they like. Your plan’s fact sheet beats any article, including this one.