The Risks of Controlled Loads on Hot Water Systems in South Australia

Demand response is actually not new. Controlled load hot water is a perfect example of demand response. It allows for more sophisticated control, more adaptable control and more responsiveness to changing situations than just setting up dumbly something to switch on or off at all times. There's a risk I think that the proposal now to turn what is traditionally a peak charge time into an off peak charge time encouraging people to use more energy during the day could have unintended consequences. And it's about how we consider what's an essential service and what's a flexible service. This energy has been marketised arguably I think the market has failed to give consumers who need it the affordable least cost energy supply with no risk of