Ausgrid EA116 or EA025? Life After the Ausgrid Test Tariff

Choosing the right tariff after the Ausgrid test can be challenging for homeowners. The decision between EA116 and EA025 depends on various factors. This guide will help you understand both options and make an informed choice.

Understanding EA116

EA116 is a time-of-use tariff. It charges different rates depending on the time of day. The selling point is homeowners can benefit from lower rates during off-peak hours. This tariff is suitable for those who can fully control their energy usage and never make mistakes.

For example, you will never run appliances like dishwashers and washing machines during peak hours and will only do so off-peak.

Time of Use EA025

This tariff is suitable for homeowners who prefer simplicity. This costs a lot extra every kWh during peak times so still encourages less use then but without the penalty should one night be unusual. If you need to run a dishwasher or dryer at night, you pay extra for that but that will only be charged for those kWh used not as a daily fee for the whole month.

Confused? Sorry about that so lets run the numbers.

Check your bill

Have a look at your most recent bill, look for the peak usage (measured in kWh) and peak demand (measured in kW).

Compare the tariffs, look for the latest e.g. Ausgrid 2024-2025.

Then calculate the cost for each:

I think it is much better to look at your actual numbers rather than try to imagine using dishwashers at night. It avoids the trap of stated vs observed behaviour.

Conclusion

So if you have a battery, keep your demand in control, there still might be the odd case where the battery is empty, off or some unusual demand can spike during one night during the month. So it is best to check your actual demand for a few months and see what it will cost. In this case, it is far better to take the ToU EA025 tariff. Paying extra per kWh worked out far cheaper than per kW.