Peak and off-peak electricity times in NSW and Queensland (2026) — every network, 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 NSW and Queensland, 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:

• 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
• Energex — south-east Queensland (Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and around)
• Ergon Energy — the rest of Queensland

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. NSW times follow the clock (daylight saving included); Queensland doesn’t have daylight saving, so its times are standard time all year.

Network	Peak	Cheapest window	Everything else	Seasons?
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 and October: every hour is off-peak
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
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
Essential — older smart-meter tariff	5pm–8pm, weekdays	Off-peak 10pm–7am weekdays, and all weekend	Shoulder 7am–5pm and 8pm–10pm weekdays	All year
Energex	4pm–9pm, every day	Off-peak 11am–4pm, every day	Shoulder 9pm–11am	All year
Ergon (regional QLD tariffs 12D/12E)	4pm–9pm, every day	”Day” 11am–4pm	”Night” 9pm–11am	All year

Three things in that table are worth a second look:

The cheap window has moved to the middle of the day. In four of the five networks, the cheapest network rate now covers a daytime solar window — 10–2, 10–3, or 11–4 — and in Queensland and on Endeavour it’s the lowest rate of the day outright. The grid is flooded with rooftop solar at lunchtime, so that’s when the network wants your dishwasher running. The old rule of thumb, “overnight is cheapest”, is no longer what the network charges — though, as you’ll see below, your retailer’s plan may still say it.

Essential’s default has a morning peak. If you’re in regional NSW on the Sun Soaker tariff, 7–10am is peak, every day including weekends. That catches the morning shower, the kettle and the heater at full price. Most people on it don’t know.

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.

Regional Queensland has one more option worth knowing: a new Solar Sharer tariff (12F) from 1 July 2026 gives you three free hours a day, 11am–2pm, up to 24 kWh — with a higher peak rate to pay for it. Same idea as the south-east’s Solar Sharer Offer: a win if you can move real load into the window, a loss if you can’t.

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
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
Endeavour	AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia: 4–8pm business days, with the 10–2 solar window	Alinta: 1–8pm weekdays, all year
Essential	AGL, Origin: the Sun Soaker windows	EnergyAustralia and Alinta: the older 5–8pm weekday shape (Alinta adds a 7–9am morning peak)
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

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.

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, where “Time of use charges” expands to the exact hours, the season, and the network tariff code 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 (most network tariffs now, and the AGL/Origin/EA Energex plans): 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; on Essential’s Sun Soaker it’s the morning 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. 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 most networks — 10–2, 10–3 or 11–4 — but many retail plans still put them overnight. Check which you’ve got before you move anything.
• Regional NSW’s default tariff has a 7–10am peak, every day. Worth knowing before the morning routine.
• Ausgrid’s peak only exists eight months a year — and fewer than half of retailers pass that on.
• 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 (v1.0, 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). Retailer windows: AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia standing-offer price schedules effective 1 July 2026; Red Energy plans as listed on Energy Made Easy; Alinta’s published pricing — all as read on 23 August 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.