'Ripple' controlling your heating

Orion supports options for customers to reduce electricity bills through coordinated “ripple” switching of electrical heating and charging. This help us operate the electricity network more efficiently.

This schedule sets out the main options for water heating, night store heating, battery charging, and electric vehicle charging. The options range from a near-continuous supply through to turning on for a few hours each night. As a condition of our electricity service, residential water heating must be on one of these options, but they are voluntary for all other electrical heating and charging.

Many of these options provide significant savings on your power bill, but it’s important to choose one that suits your needs, and you’ll also need to check which options your electricity retailer supports. Most electricians are familiar with our requirements and these options, and can help you select the one that’s best for you and ensure you have the right wiring installed.

1. Emergency control (for water heating)

This option provides near-continuous water heating without any regular control. There’s no cost savings with this option, and it is nearly left on all the time, but we can use it to briefly lower loading levels when we have a problem on the network, and this helps us avoid power cuts. These options are linked to ‘anytime’ retail tariffs.

E1 Emergency control (residential)	Only off during emergencies (expect less than 2 events per year, lasting up to 2 hours).
E2 Emergency control (business)	The same as E1 (above), but given priority for restoration.

2. Peak control (for water heating)

Under this option Orion routinely controls water heating when network loading is high, usually just on the colder winter weekday mornings and evenings. We limit the duration of control to ensure that customers continue to have hot water. These options support lower priced retail tariffs called ‘inclusive’, ‘composite’, ‘controlled’ or ‘economy’.

P1 Peak control (residential)	Turned off during peaks and emergencies. We aim to limit control to no more than 4 hours in any 8 hour period (and no more than 8 hours per day).
P2 Peak control (business)	Turned off during peaks and emergencies. We aim to limit control to no more than 2 hours in any 5 hour period (and no more than 6 hours per day).

3. Fixed time control (for water heating, night store heating, battery and vehicle charging)

These options are turned on at night, when network loading levels are low and electricity prices are cheaper. These options are best used with ‘night only’, ‘day/night’ or ‘weekender’ type retail tariffs.

F1 Night only	Provides approximately 7½ hours per night in one or two blocks, between the hours of 9pm and 7am.
F2 Night with afternoon boost	The same as F1 (above), but with an additional 3 hour boost between the hours of 12pm and 4pm in the afternoon.
F3 Nights and weekends	The same as F1 (above), but with an additional 4 hour boost between the hours of 9am and 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
F4 Night 8 (reserved)	Provides 8 hours heating between 9pm and 7am in one continuous block (reserved for use only with Orion’s permission).
F5 Night only for batteries & vehicles	Provides 8 hours charging between 9pm and 7am in one continuous block.

Talk to your electricity retailer about their retail pricing plans they can help you select or change to a plan that suits your needs. If you need more detail than we’ve provided in this summary, give us a call on 03 363 9898 or send an email to [email protected]