When will my controlled load operate?

Ordinarily you do not need to think about this. As the name suggests, your controlled load operates under the control of your local electricity network company and will do so automatically without any need for you to program or operate it. That said, there may be some room for customisation depending on your region and circumstances.

South Australia

In South Australia there are two controlled load time windows and one uncontrolled time window: 11:30pm - 6:30am and 9:30am - 3:30pm, and 'any other time.' These windows are fixed in CST (Central Standard Time) and do not change with daylight savings.

To encourage using electricity at beneficial times, SAPN (SA Power Networks) offer different network tariffs depending on time-of-use. An indicative price guide is below.

By default, every controlled load operates over the first two windows and for the same length of time, although the precise start and end times are randomised by up to an hour to avoid thousands of devices all turning on and off at the exact same time.

Customers with legacy (i.e. basic) meters have no choice in when their controlled load will operate, but customers with smart meters do. If you have a smart meter your two basic choices are to:

• limit your operation to just one inexpensive time window (worth considering), and
• extend your operation into the expensive time window (not recommended).

If you wish to change the operating time of your controlled load, you can choose from the following settings.

CL3 and CL1 are good options for you if you can afford to reduce the length of time that your controlled load operates, because it will reduce your energy cost. If you wish to do either of these things simply ask our Energy Locals customer service team to organise it.

Note that if you reduce your controlled load's operating hours it may affect your personal comfort (e.g. your may run out of hot water faster). But if that happens you can ask our customer service team to restore it to the default setting.