Powerwall on Australian time-of-use: beat the evening peak
In plain English: the common Australian TOU shape — cheap overnight power, an expensive weekday evening window, and a feed-in tariff that pays a fraction of what you buy for.
Australian retail plans put their money in one place: the evening peak. And they pay almost nothing for the solar you export at noon. Both facts point the same direction — store the middle of the day, spend it at dinner.
The plan at a glance
| Period | Typical hours | Typical rate |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | ~3–9 PM weekdays (varies by distributor & season) | 45–55¢/kWh |
| Shoulder | daytime & late evening | ~30¢/kWh |
| Off-peak | ~10 PM–7 AM | 20–25¢/kWh |
| Feed-in tariff | solar exports, any time | 3–10¢/kWh |
NSW-flavoured 2026 typicals, GST inclusive — retailers and distributors vary, and peak windows shift seasonally. Your bill has the real numbers.
What this plan means for a Powerwall
The feed-in tariff is the tell. When exports earn 5¢ and evening imports cost 50¢, every solar kWh you store instead of export is worth roughly ten times more spent at dinner than sold at noon. The battery’s day: absorb the midday solar surplus, then carry the house clean through the 3–9 PM peak. In winter, when solar thins out, an off-peak top-up at 22¢ still beats buying the peak at 50¢ by more than the round-trip loss.
The automations worth having
Peak coverage with a reserve floor so the battery always enters the evening with working room; a winter top-up rule that grid-charges in the off-peak window only when tomorrow’s solar forecast is poor; EV charging pushed to off-peak or midday solar, never the peak; and storm-watch override for the days the grid itself is the risk.
How SolDial runs it
Pick the Australian TOU preset in Utility Rates, adjust the windows to your bill (peak hours vary by distributor and season), and set your feed-in rate. SolDial’s savings math then values every stored kWh honestly — against the peak it avoided, not a flat average — and Energy Autopilot maintains the seasonal strategy so you don’t have to remember when winter peak hours start.
Does this apply to my exact situation?
Plans vary by region, retailer, and season, and rates get revised. SolDial recomputes the strategy — and the honest savings math — from your plan as you set it in the app, not a blog’s snapshot. If your plan differs from this page, the app follows your plan.