What controlled load is
Controlled load is a separately metered circuit for a single heavy appliance — most often electric hot water, sometimes underfloor heating or a pool pump. The network switches it on during off-peak hours and charges it at its own cheaper rate.
If you have one, it usually appears as a separate line on your bill with its own kilowatt-hours and its own rate, distinct from the general usage above it. It is not a small line: a hot water service can account for a substantial share of a household's annual consumption.
The count
As at 1 August 2026 our cache held **9,315 residential electricity plans**. Of those, **5,531 published a controlled-load tariff and 3,784 did not** — two in five.
That is not a data quality problem. Not every retailer offers a controlled-load rate on every plan, and a plan without one is a perfectly legitimate product. It simply cannot serve that circuit at a special rate.
Why this quietly breaks comparisons
Here is the trap. If a comparison engine sees that the plan has no controlled-load rate and the customer has controlled-load usage, the naive thing to do is charge nothing for it.
The energy does not vanish. If your retailer has no controlled-load tariff, that load does not become free — it lands on your main meter at your ordinary rate. But an engine that returns zero has just handed the plan several hundred dollars a year of free electricity.
The effect is systematic. Every plan without a controlled-load rate gets the same unearned discount, so they all rise together and sweep the top of the ranking for exactly the customers who should be most careful — the ones with a big hot water load.
We had this wrong ourselves. It was found in a pre-launch review of our own engine, and fixed: that usage is now priced onto the main meter at the plan's own general rate, which is the conservative direction. It can make such a plan look slightly dearer than it might really be, but it can never make it falsely cheapest.
What to check on your own bill
- Look for a second usage line with its own rate, often labelled controlled load, off-peak, or a tariff number like 31 or 33.
- Note its kilowatt-hours separately from your general usage. They are different meters and should never be added together for comparison.
- When comparing, check the plan you are moving to actually offers a controlled-load rate. If it does not, ask what happens to that circuit.
- Be sceptical of any comparison that does not ask about controlled load at all. If it never asked, it cannot have priced it.