Do I have to accept a TOU electricity meter?

Silentforce said :

Why don’t ACTEW offer a fair domestic usage price to domestic users?

If domestic users choose to install alleged energy saving devices on their properties and others do not (for whatever reason), there should be a level starting field for such. That is, up or down from a fixed point.

Utilities and Telcos are muddying the field with bundles and options that do not always fit in specific individual and family circumstances and cost those outside of the advertised offers more, as they are “extras”. Their own research targets specific consumers and percentage growth consumers who lie in this category.

But you can opt for the flat rate if you don’t want to save money by using off peak. I prefer to save by using off peak, or at least mid peak. The choice is there.

Why don’t ACTEW offer a fair domestic usage price to domestic users?

If domestic users choose to install alleged energy saving devices on their properties and others do not (for whatever reason), there should be a level starting field for such. That is, up or down from a fixed point.

Utilities and Telcos are muddying the field with bundles and options that do not always fit in specific individual and family circumstances and cost those outside of the advertised offers more, as they are “extras”. Their own research targets specific consumers and percentage growth consumers who lie in this category.

I had to have a TOU-capable meter installed at the time as solar panels. You don’t have to sign up to a TOU tariff. You can opt, as now, to have all electricity at the same tariff regardless of when you use it. However, we have a timer on the electric booster for our solar hot water. Similarly, our dishwasher has a delay button. We have opted for the TOU tariff and we save some money compared with what the bill would be on the flat rate.
The hot water booster is set to only be able to come on for a couple of hours before 7AM. That way there is always hot water from the cheapest rate but then the sun has all day to heat the cold water that went in during our morning showers. We could override the timer if we had lots of guests wanting showers and no sun.
Similarly, we can load up the dishwasher, set it to come on after 10PM (11PM on summer time) and go to bed early or late. If we need the dishes done some other time we can and we just wear a slightly higher cost for that particular load.
If we were able to charge our electric cars at our unit we could save quite a bit more by avoiding peak times, but our parking in our set of townhouses is away from our unit and I have to charge from the unit of a neighbour who is next to the parking area. We have a sub-meter for the power point I use so I can reimburse him (at the flat rate). Fortunately, electric cars are cheap to run anyway but it would probably save a few hundred dollars if we could take advantage of the off-peak rate most of the time.

I found this information: http://www.actewagl.com.au/Help-and-advice/How-to-read-your-meters/Time-of-use-rates.aspx
Since 1 October 2010 all customers connecting a new premises have been put on a time of use (TOU) network tariff, unless they choose an alternative rate.

There are three time periods for both residential and commercial customers. The times for each class of consumer are different. Please note that the clocks on the meters are not changed for daylight savings time so that during the daylight savings period time, all times are one hour later.

For residential consumers, the classifications are the same for every day of the week:

max times — 7.00am to 9.00am and 5.00pm to 8.00pm
mid times — 9.00am to 5.00pm and 8.00pm to 10.00pm
economy times — 10.00pm to 7.00am

I have this metre. I try to turn on my dishwasher after 10pm. However I just noted the daylight savings issues reading this. Or failing that, at least not during peak times. Also, if my solar hot water needs the booster turned on I have it on after 10pm. Etc!

Updating your meter has nothing to do with what electricity plan you’re on. ActewAGL have 4 different plans: Home, Home Saver, Home Saver+, and Home time-of-use, and it’s up to you to decide which one you use.

With the new TOU meter (and after a year’s worth of data) you can then assess whether the TOU plan would be worth it for you, or one of the other ones. You can also call the customer service team (13 14 93) who will look over your past electricity bills and work out for you which plan is the cheapest for your situation.

You can see the plans here: http://www.actewagl.com.au/Product-and-services/Prices/ACT-residential-prices.aspx#electricity