Your tariff (also known as variable charge) is the price you pay for each unit of electricity you use. The type of tariff you’re on depends on how your electricity meter is set up. Different meters measure electricity in different ways, so your charges can vary based on when and how you use power. 

Some homes have one meter that measures both controlled and uncontrolled power. This means certain appliances, like your hot water, run on a cheaper, timed rate (controlled power), while the rest of your home uses the standard rate (uncontrolled power). For example, you might see Anytime (standard rate) and Economy (cheaper, timed rate) on the same meter. 

Other homes have only an uncontrolled meter, which means everything, including your hot water, runs on the same standard rate. 

Here are some common types of meter setup:

• Anytime – a 24-hour continuous supply of electricity. This is the simplest setup with one flat rate for all your usage 
• Economy – gives at least 19 hours of power a day for hot water. It can be ‘controlled’ by your lines network company and may be turned off during peak times to help manage the load on the electricity network. This helps keep costs lower. 
• All day economy – a combination of Anytime and Economy through a single meter. This gives a continuous supply of power to all appliances except hot water. Hot water is supplied separately and may be controlled like the Economy option. 
• Night – this is used only at night for 7-9 hours. It’s usually connected to appliances that are only used at night like underfloor heating or night store heaters. As it’s off-peak, it’s usually at a lower cost. 
• Day/Night – a 24-hour continuous supply of electricity. It divides your tariff into two time periods, day and night. Day rate is usually higher than Night rate is usually cheaper. This is good for households that can shift some usage to nighttime. 
• Smart tariff – these are based on ‘time-of-day’ plans. For example, our Good Nights, Good Weekends and Good Charge plans. Different times of the day cost different amounts, which can help save money if you use more power during off-peak times. 

If you have an older non-smart meter tariff, you will be able to see all the meter types you are billed for on your meter board. 

For smart meters, the meter types are contained within one unit and show as ‘registers’. 

You can see your meter setup on the second page of your electricity bill under the detailed breakdown of charges unless you are on a Good Plan.