Smart Meters, Controlled Load and Time-of-Use Tariffs in the Essential Energy Area: What Changes With Solar, a Battery and a Heat Pump

Checked and updated by our licensed electricians: October 2026

Every solar, battery or heat pump install in the Northern Rivers changes three things about your electricity account at once: the meter (a smart meter goes in if you do not have one), the tariff shape (time-of-use becomes available, and often becomes the right choice) and the controlled-load circuit the hot water sits on. People searching “smart meter”, “controlled load” or “time of use” are usually in the middle of that decision, so this guide, written by local electricians on the Essential Energy network, sets out what the smart meter rollout means for you and your rights, Essential Energy’s 2026-27 peak and off-peak windows, how controlled load 1 and 2 work (including the October 2026 changes in Tweed Heads and Lismore), how a battery and a heat pump use a time-of-use tariff, when a demand tariff is a trap, and what the Solar Sharer Offer is. No plan recommendations and no bill figures: retailers set the prices and the government’s Energy Made Easy site compares them. The checker at the top gives you a first steer on tariff shape in five taps.

On this page: The checker: which tariff shape suits my home? · Smart meters: the rollout, your rights, what changes · Time-of-use vs flat in the Essential Energy area · Controlled load: what it is and when it comes on · How a battery uses time-of-use · Hot water and heat pumps: off CL1, onto the sun · Demand tariffs: read before you opt in · The Solar Sharer Offer · The export tariff: paid at 5pm, charged at noon · What to do, in order · Questions we get asked

Which tariff shape suits my home? Checker

Five taps: your meter, your solar and battery, when you use power, how your hot water is heated and your big evening loads. The result shows on screen straight away; sending it to your phone is optional.

Smart meters: the rollout, your rights, what changes

A smart meter records your usage every half hour (five minutes on newer ones), is read remotely, and can measure exports separately from imports. Under the national rule every old meter in a home or small business is to be replaced by 1 December 2030. Each network has an approved Legacy Meter Replacement Plan running from 1 December 2025 to 30 November 2030; your retailer installs the meter, not Essential Energy, and a replacement under the rollout is free. You can no longer refuse one (that right ended on 1 June 2025), and if you install solar or a battery you get one straight away because the exports have to be metered.

Your rights. For two years after a rollout install, the retailer must have your explicit informed consent before it changes the structure of your tariff (for example flat to time-of-use, or adding a demand charge); after that it needs 30 days’ notice and an estimate of what your bill would have been on the new structure. Meters installed before 1 December 2025 do not get that protection, and the NSW Government consulted in early 2026 on requiring retailers to keep offering a flat-rate option to smart-meter customers. Read any letter about a “new tariff” carefully: a different shape can suit you very well or very badly, and this guide is about telling which.

What changes for you. Half-hourly data in your retailer’s app, which is the single most useful thing for deciding a tariff; the ability to switch to time-of-use, a demand tariff, Controlled Load 2 or the Solar Sharer Offer; no more estimated reads; and, if the meter board is old, sometimes a request from the installer to fix the board first. We check meter boards on every site visit.

Time-of-use vs flat in the Essential Energy area

A flat tariff charges the same for every kWh. A time-of-use tariff charges more in the peak and less off-peak, following the network charge that Essential Energy sets. These are the network components for 2026-27, before GST and before your retailer’s energy and margin, reproduced from Essential Energy’s schedule; your retailer’s plan adds to them and its windows usually, but not always, mirror these:

Read the Sun Soaker numbers and the shape of a good day writes itself: a kWh drawn at 7pm carries nearly three times the network charge of a kWh drawn at noon. A home that can keep the 3pm to 10pm hours light (timers on hot water, the pool and the EV charger; a battery for the rest) does well on time-of-use. A home that cannot, with no battery and everyone home after five, pays the most for the hours it uses most, and a flat plan can be the safer shape until a battery goes in. SolarQuotes’ standing advice matches ours: time-of-use is normally best for battery households; flat can still suit solar-only homes depending on evening use. More on time-of-use and feed-in tariffs with solar and a battery.

Controlled load: what it is and when it comes on

Controlled load is a separately metered circuit, almost always the electric hot water tank, that Essential Energy switches on only at chosen times in exchange for a much lower network rate. There are two:

October 2026 change. Essential Energy is progressively introducing new controlled-load capability in Tweed Heads, Lismore, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Taree and Port Macquarie. During Minimum System Load events (very low demand and very high rooftop solar, typically mild sunny weekends) it may shift some hot water heating from overnight into the day or reduce the heating hours; most people will not notice, some may have a little less hot water in the morning. Your thermostat still decides whether the tank heats; daytime controlled-load energy is charged at the same controlled-load rate. Anything else on the controlled circuit (irrigation, livestock pumps, slab heating) should not be affected, but check tanks and troughs if stock water depends on it.

The catch for solar homes. A tank on Controlled Load 1 heats from the grid at night while your panels sit idle at midday. That is the single most common thing we fix on a solar install: the electrician moves the tank onto the normal supply with a timer that runs it from about 10am, or your retailer switches it to Controlled Load 2 so it heats in the daytime windows at the low rate. Changing the controlled-load tariff is a request to your retailer; rewiring the circuit is our work.

How a battery uses time-of-use

A home battery is the device time-of-use was waiting for. On a normal day it fills from the panels between about 10am and 3pm, when the network charge is lowest and the export price weakest, then runs the house from 3pm until the sun is back, which is exactly the 3pm to 10pm peak. The grid is barely touched in the hours that cost most. Three refinements:

• Winter top-ups. When a short winter day cannot fill the battery, both the Sigenergy and GoodWe apps allow a timed charge from the grid in the off-peak window, worth doing when the off-peak rate is well below the peak rate the stored energy displaces.
• The export reward. On the current Essential Energy export tariff, exports between 5pm and 8pm earn 11.72 c/kWh from the network on top of whatever your retailer pays, so a battery that exports a little in the early evening is paid twice for it.
• Automation. A retailer like Amber, or a fixed VPP, can run the battery against prices for you; what that involves, and the risks, are in Amber Electric and VPPs with a home battery.

Modes and settings: battery modes explained. Sizing it to carry your evening: what size battery do I need?.

Hot water and heat pumps: off CL1, onto the sun

Hot water is usually the second-biggest load in a Northern Rivers home and the easiest to move. An electric tank uses 1.8 to 4.8 kW while heating; a heat pump about 0.5 to 1 kW for three to four times the hot water per kWh. Either belongs in the solar window:

1. Normal supply plus a timer from about 10 or 11am for three to six hours, so your own panels heat the water and the battery stays for the evening. A Sigenergy or GoodWe system can also switch the circuit on when the panels are exporting.
2. Controlled Load 2 if you would rather the network do the switching: daytime windows at a low network rate, seven days a week.
3. Controlled Load 1 only for a home with no solar, where overnight at the lowest rate is the right place.

The hot water heat pump buyer’s guide and sizing calculator covers brands, sizing, the timer and the 2026 rebates; our heat pump work is the electrical side, with a licensed plumbing partner for the water side.

Demand tariffs: read before you opt in

A demand tariff lowers the energy rates and adds a monthly charge based on your single highest half-hour of draw inside the peak window. Essential Energy’s residential version is opt-in, measured in kVA, with the peak 5pm to 8pm on weekdays. The trap is the word “single”: one Tuesday evening with the oven, the ducted air conditioner and the EV charger all running sets the demand charge for the whole month, whatever the other 29 days looked like. A battery that covers the evening can hold that peak down, but SolarQuotes’ worked example found the demand plan’s higher fixed charges still left it slightly dearer than the best flat tariff for the home it studied. Our advice: do not opt in until you can see six months of half-hourly data showing a small, steady evening peak, and a battery doing the covering. For almost everyone, time-of-use is the simpler and safer shape.

The Solar Sharer Offer

From 1 July 2026 retailers in NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia must offer a regulated plan with at least three hours of free electricity a day, 11am to 2pm in NSW, capped at 24 kWh a day. You need a smart meter and you opt in through a retailer that offers it; small businesses and embedded networks are excluded; no solar is required. Rates outside the free window are higher than a standard plan, so it pays only for homes that can genuinely move hot water, washing, the pool, cooking and an EV into the middle of the day. A battery that charges for free at midday and runs the evening is the obvious pairing; whether that beats a solar-and-battery time-of-use plan depends on your usage, and Energy Made Easy is where to test it.

The export tariff: paid at 5pm, charged at noon

Since the smart meter rollout began, a new solar or battery install (or a new connection, or a meter upgrade) in the Essential Energy area also puts the export channel on a two-way network tariff. Exports between 5pm and 8pm every day earn a network reward of 11.72 c/kWh on top of your retailer’s feed-in rate; exports between 10am and 3pm above 7.5 kWh a day (totalled across the billing period) are charged 0.83 c/kWh; other hours are neither. It is small money either way, but it says plainly what the network wants: store the midday surplus, give some back at dinner time. A battery does both; a bigger solar system that dumps the midday surplus does neither.

What to do, in order

1. Find your half-hourly data in your retailer’s app or portal (smart meter homes), or wait for the meter if you still have an old one; the install of solar or a battery brings it anyway.
2. Look at the shape: how much of your use sits between 3pm and 10pm. That one number decides time-of-use versus flat for a home without a battery.
3. Move the hot water off Controlled Load 1 and onto a daytime timer or Controlled Load 2 once solar is on the roof; a heat pump makes it count double.
4. Put timers on the pool pump, the EV charger and the dishwasher for the 10am to 3pm window.
5. Size the battery to carry the evening so the peak barely touches the grid, then choose time-of-use.
6. Compare plans on Energy Made Easy with your own data, and read any tariff-change letter before agreeing; for two years after a rollout meter install the structure cannot change without your consent.
7. Leave demand tariffs until the data shows a small, steady peak with the battery running.

Related reading: how to read your power bill to size solar and a battery and how solar grid connection works in NSW.

Pool pumps are the classic controlled-load-or-timer question: our pool on solar guide shows how to run the pump and a pool heat pump in the solar window.

Questions we get asked

Do I have to get a smart meter?

Yes, eventually. Under the national rule every old meter in a home or small business is to be replaced with a smart meter by 1 December 2030, through a Legacy Meter Replacement Plan for each network (Essential Energy’s runs from 1 December 2025 to 30 November 2030), and the right to refuse one ended on 1 June 2025. A replacement under the rollout is free; asking for one early can carry a retailer fee. Anyone installing solar or a battery gets a smart meter at that point anyway, because exports have to be measured.

Will my retailer change my tariff when the smart meter goes in?

Not without asking, for two years. For a meter installed under the rollout from 1 December 2025, the retailer needs your explicit informed consent to change the structure of your tariff (flat to time-of-use, or to a demand tariff) for two years after the install; after that it must give 30 days’ notice and an estimate of your bill on the new structure. The protection does not cover meters installed before 1 December 2025. NSW also consulted in early 2026 on making retailers offer a flat-rate option to every smart-meter customer. Read the letter, and compare on Energy Made Easy before you agree to anything.

What are Essential Energy’s peak times?

For 2026-27 the current residential time-of-use network tariff (Essential Energy calls it the Sun Soaker) has a peak from 7am to 10am and from 3pm to 10pm every day of the year, and off-peak at all other times, including the 10am to 3pm “sun soak” window and overnight. The older weekday-only peak (7 to 9am and 5 to 8pm) belongs to a tariff that is closed to new connections. Your retailer’s plan windows usually mirror the network’s but can differ, so read the plan’s fact sheet.

What is controlled load, and when does it come on?

Controlled load is a separately metered circuit, almost always the electric hot water tank, that Essential Energy switches on only at chosen times in return for a much lower network rate. Controlled Load 1 has traditionally run overnight, generally 10pm to 7am on weeknights and any time at weekends, with part of that period shifted into the day in some areas. Controlled Load 2 is available most of the day, seven days a week, except roughly 7 to 9am and 5 to 8pm on weekdays. From October 2026 Essential Energy can also shift hot water heating into the daytime or trim it during low-demand, high-solar periods in Tweed Heads, Lismore and other centres, so some mornings may have a little less hot water.

Should my hot water be on controlled load if I have solar?

Usually not on Controlled Load 1. A tank on CL1 heats overnight from the grid while your panels sit idle at midday. The two better options are moving the tank (or a new heat pump) onto the normal supply with a timer that runs it from about 10am, so the solar heats the water, or asking your retailer for Controlled Load 2, which gives daytime windows at a low network rate. A heat pump draws so little (about 0.5 to 1 kW) that most solar systems carry it with room to spare. Our heat pump guide covers the timer and circuit detail.

How does a home battery use a time-of-use tariff?

It charges from the panels in the middle of the day, when the network charge is lowest and the export price weakest, then carries the house through the 3pm to 10pm peak when every kWh from the grid costs most. On the Essential Energy export tariff a battery exporting between 5pm and 8pm also earns an export reward on top of the retailer’s feed-in rate. Some owners add a short overnight top-up from the grid in winter when the off-peak rate is well below the peak rate they would otherwise pay; both the Sigenergy and GoodWe apps allow timed charging. Time-of-use is normally the right shape for a battery household.

What is a demand tariff, and should I take one?

A demand tariff adds a monthly charge based on your single highest half-hour of draw during the peak window (Essential Energy’s residential version is opt-in: 5pm to 8pm weekdays, charged per kVA per month) in exchange for lower energy rates. One evening of the oven, the air conditioner and the EV charger together can set the whole month’s charge. A battery that covers the evening can push that peak down, but SolarQuotes found the demand plan’s higher fixed charges still made it slightly dearer than the best flat tariff for the home it studied. Unless you can see your half-hourly data and know your peak is small and steady, time-of-use is the safer choice.

What is the Solar Sharer Offer?

A regulated plan that started on 1 July 2026 in NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia. It gives at least three hours of free electricity a day (11am to 2pm in NSW), capped at 24 kWh a day, to households with a smart meter who opt in through a retailer that offers it. No solar is needed. The catch is that rates outside the free window are higher than a standard plan, so it suits homes that can run the dishwasher, washing, pool pump, hot water and an EV in the middle of the day. A battery that charges from the grid for free at midday and runs the evening is the obvious pairing, though whether it beats a good solar-and-battery time-of-use plan depends on your usage.

Does Sun Connect Solar choose my electricity plan?

No. We are electricians: we design and install the solar, the battery and the circuits, set the battery’s schedule for your tariff shape, move the hot water onto a timer or the right controlled load with your retailer, and explain what your smart meter data shows. The plan is your choice; compare them on the government’s Energy Made Easy site, and if you want wholesale pricing we refer you directly to Amber. Our team never quotes what you will pay or earn on a plan.

Sources

Essential Energy: “Controlled load and hot water heating” (read 24 October 2026, including the October 2026 Minimum System Load changes), Controlled Load fact sheet, “Your electricity meter”, and the 2026-27 network tariff schedule as reproduced in Amber Electric’s help centre (26 August 2026); Australian Energy Market Commission smart meter rollout final rule and the two-year tariff-consent transitional rule; Australian Energy Regulator Legacy Meter Replacement Plans (September 2025); NSW Climate and Energy Action smart meter and tariff reform pages (consultation closed 2 February 2026); Australian Government energy.gov.au Solar Sharer Offer page and July 2026 coverage; SolarQuotes “Will a demand tariff improve home battery payback?”, “Residential demand tariffs have arrived”, “Australian smart meter rollout: when will it be complete?” and “Three hours of free power? You’ll need a smart meter”; Energy Made Easy (AER) for plan comparison. Full list in our research note. Checked October 2026.

More from Sun Connect Solar

• All our free solar and battery calculators
• Time-of-use and feed-in tariffs with solar and a battery
• Hot water heat pump buyer’s guide and sizing calculator
• Amber Electric with a home battery and VPPs in NSW
• How to read your power bill
• Northern Rivers home battery buyer’s guide
• Home battery installation in the Northern Rivers