In good news for EV owners that must charge overnight, AGL now offers nighttime EV charging tariffs.
Three years of trials demonstrated a customer preference for home EV charging at night, so the tariff package offers prices below AGL’s current off-peak price for EV charging: 8c/kWh (~1.3c per km) between midnight and 6am.
Other EV-friendly plans available include:
- OVO Energy’s EV plan matches the 8c per kWh but currently advertises a 10c feed-in tariff compared to AGL’s 7c.1.
- Simply Energy’s EV plan gives a paltry 6c per kWh discount on overnight charging – with higher usage charges than AGL and a 5.5c feed-in-tariff
- ioEnergy’s SA Sustainable Home tariff – for daytime charging at 8c per kWh between 10am and 3pm
- Synergy’s Midday Saver (WA) – for daytime charging at 8.2c per kWh
AGL’s offer includes a limited-time 5c/kWh discount at BP Pulse rapid chargers for NSW customers, with offers to be made in other states “shortly”.
The company’s brief media release says the Night Saver Energy Plan also gives customers a discounted rate for daytime charging, “recognising the importance of having a fully charged car to help alleviate range anxiety.”
AGL Chief Customer Officer Jo Egan said the company wants to offer products and services that encourage the electrification of transport:
“We are evolving our products and services to ensure they are flexible, simple and suit our customers’ lifestyle. We know our customers charge while they sleep and we have remodelled our EV energy plan to give them an affordable price to charge at the most convenient time.”
Other AGL EV initiatives include its rather pricey EV subscription service and its partnership with software platform Kaluza to roll out demand response software for EV charging and other household loads.
Be Careful If You Own A Home Battery
From Finn: If you have a home battery and charge your EV overnight for 8c per kWh, it makes no economic sense to empty your home battery into your car, which will be the default behaviour for most energy storage systems on the Australian market. You should save the energy for the morning peak.
If you have a Tesla Powerwall, its software is smart enough to work this out itself, but you need to enter the tariff details into your Tesla app and engage ‘Time-Based Control’2.
If you have any other home battery, ask your installer what your options are for configuring it to not discharge into your car. There is a re-wiring trick to achieve this that SQ’s Anthony will cover soon.
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Oh you might need to get better researchers or double check your publishers posting your content as the Simply Energy off peak rate for EV’s is NOT 6c per kWh. It is in fact only a discount of 6c per kWh.
Taken straight from their website:
“6c/kWh super off-peak discount applied to your overnight market rates between 12am – 6am local time.”
You’re welcome.
that’s my fault – updated – thanks!
We’ve recently switched to this plan and loving it, I have my SolarEdge setup controlled by HomeAssistant so I can switch my battery mode to avoid the problem you call out. It too now charges at the same 8c rate ensuring it has plenty of charge ready for the 6am till sun is burning bright AKA peak period.
I’ll tweak the routine over time so I only top up enough until the sun is up, and maybe throw some weather prediction in there!
Comparing Ovo Energy vs AGL.
Although the FIT is higher 10c vs 6c
For Control Load, Peak Rate and Supply Charge, AGL is lower in SA.
Been thinking of switching to the new AGL EV plan once my old EV plan (with quarterly credits) expires in November. Now stuck deciding between AGL and Ovo.
I agree. AGL has lower prices consumption tariffs than OVO in Vic so you need to calc carefully as to which of them is the better deal. I do like I can charge my car and run my pool pumps at 8c with either retailer but daytime use rates suggest AGL is a better deal.
Is it possible for a powerwall to be charged overnight at the cheap rate?
That’s my question too!
The IOEnergy solar sponge time is 10am to 4pm, not 3pm.