dunno what u were doing but we dont have ripple control in Vic so there is no remote switching of controled load such as hot water and air con, if the fuses were out, some1 took them ok.
In the not to distant future the use of controled loads such as Air Con wil come at a price on these days. Both the elec distribution and retail companies buy electricty at varying prices every 30min according to demand..I had a quick look at the demand price per MWh yesterday and it went though the roof. However the real issue was that one of the interstate suppies used for meet peak demand requirements was taken off line due to the bushfires...
So what can u expect in the future?
Currently u will be on a fixed tariff setup either flat rate or peak off/peak for fixed times during the day. The new systems to be deployed by 2008 will allow more felxability and in reality help these companies make you, the customer, pay for these peak demand times by varying tarriff rates for controlled load especially...in fact you the customer will probably have visability of this and depending on what u signed up for, might even have ur load shed automatically in these situtaions.
In additiont he distribution companies in your area i.e. AGL, SPAusnet, Cipower/POwercore will have the ability to shed you power and esp. controlled loads such as air con remotely under peak times under the banner of network safety. It comming,...just like water saving, the old days are going to end soon.