Best power company for EV's

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craftybeernz

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#299299 27-Aug-2022 09:07

Hey all,

Do any of you have an opinion on best power company for EV owners? I've traversed the web and there are recommendations. I was leaning towards the Good Nights plan on Contact Energy for 3 hours free charge per night. But not sure about the cost outside of those hours as I'm sure they'll make up for the free hours. I'm currently on Powershop and it says I should contact them for "EV rates". Then there's electrickiwi and Octopus that do some nifty off peak and night pricing. I've gone down a rabbit hole and am looking for the best carrot. Has anyone done this exercise? Trying to get sorted before my EV arrives in November.

Thanks in advance!

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8953 posts

Uber Geek

#2960103 27-Aug-2022 09:22

If you can charge your selected EV enough each day in a plan that has a free period, then go for one of them. If you need longer, then go for a plan with reduced night rates (assuming that is when you will charge).

First you need to work out how long it will take to charge your EV the mount you will likely need each day. That will depend on the efficiency of your EV, the distance you expect to travel each day, and the power of the EVSE (i.e. how quick you can charge).

timmmay

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#2960117 27-Aug-2022 10:08

Perhaps Electric Kiwi (referral link here - get us both $50). The MoveMaster plan gives you one hour of free off-peak power a day (outside the 7-9am and 5-9pm times), and power is tiered approximately full price peak periods, 25% less shoulder periods (9am - 5pm, 9pm - 11pm), and about 50% less 11pm to 7am. If you can use a timer to charge the car that should work out pretty well. I end up paying about 14c/kwh overall.

sidefx

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#2960138 27-Aug-2022 11:52

I recently moved to the movemasterplan on EK and it's great even without an EV. The only other company that seemed comparable was octopus but I've been a happy EK user for years so stuck with them.

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CYaBro

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#2960139 27-Aug-2022 11:59

I moved to Frank (can get a $50 referral if you want) when we got our EV.
Just using the standard 8a charger and charge from 11pm-7am most of the time.
Rates are just under 11c/kWh night and just under 24c/kWh day. Inc gst.
Standard user daily rate just under $1.45 inc gst.
If we ever feel the need to get a 32a charger then I’d look at moving probably, to someone that includes free power hour/s.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

ShrubMonkey

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#2960141 27-Aug-2022 12:14

You can put in your address on the Contact site to get the power cost and compare that to other providers. We have a Model 3 and can travel from Wairarapa to Wellington and back and recharge fully in the 3 hours, although we have 3 phase power which means we get 11Kw rather than 7.5kw on 32A single phase.

Also in that time you should be able (depending on element size and tank volume) to heat all your hot water, run dishwasher, washing machine etc. I get between 45 and 55% of my power free from month to month.

Shindig

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#2960142 27-Aug-2022 12:17

CYaBro: I moved to Frank (can get a $50 referral if you want) when we got our EV.
Just using the standard 8a charger and charge from 11pm-7am most of the time.
Rates are just under 11c/kWh night and just under 24c/kWh day. Inc gst.
Standard user daily rate just under $1.45 inc gst.
If we ever feel the need to get a 32a charger then I’d look at moving probably, to someone that includes free power hour/s.

How are you getting different rates (night and day) from Frank Energy?

The little things make the biggest difference.

Obraik

2123 posts

Uber Geek

#2960152 27-Aug-2022 12:28

Which part of the country are you in? Meridian has an EV plan and in Christchurch I get 9c/kWh from 9pm to 7am. This benefits not only the car but all other high power devices like the dishwasher, drier, hot water, heat pump, etc. If your house is mostly empty during the day then I'd say an off peak plan is the better option

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craftybeernz

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2960157 27-Aug-2022 12:42

I'm in Auckland.

Thanks guys for all your posts. This is very helpful and will hopefully help someone else.

CYaBro

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#2960160 27-Aug-2022 12:50

Shindig:
CYaBro: I moved to Frank (can get a $50 referral if you want) when we got our EV.
Just using the standard 8a charger and charge from 11pm-7am most of the time.
Rates are just under 11c/kWh night and just under 24c/kWh day. Inc gst.
Standard user daily rate just under $1.45 inc gst.
If we ever feel the need to get a 32a charger then I’d look at moving probably, to someone that includes free power hour/s.

How are you getting different rates (night and day) from Frank Energy?

No idea. It’s what they offered when I was looking around.
We had day/night rates from our previous provider here as well, in the Waitaki district.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

jarledb

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#2960164 27-Aug-2022 13:19

Seems like Frank has good rates.

I ended up going through our power bills for the last year and adding up our consumption. Checked out most of the power companies and ended up with Octupus Energy.

Added Frank to my calculations later and found that we probably would have a slightly better deal there, but our offer from Frank doesn't have nigh rates.

So in the end you really have to do your own calculations.

A little tip: Make sure you are comparing apples to apples, some providers seem to like to quote prices excl. gst.

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BuzzLightyear

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2960194 27-Aug-2022 15:11

In Auckland and moved to Genesis EV plan which they don’t advertise. 11c off peak 9pm - 7am and 22 cents peak. Have installed ducted heat pump and charge the Tesla and power bill is cheaper now than pre EV and heat pump. Very happy overall.

jarledb

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#2960197 27-Aug-2022 15:29

BuzzLightyear: In Auckland and moved to Genesis EV plan which they don’t advertise. 11c off peak 9pm - 7am and 22 cents peak. Have installed ducted heat pump and charge the Tesla and power bill is cheaper now than pre EV and heat pump. Very happy overall.

Seems like Genesis is cheaper where you are then where I live.

This is the offer I got:

EV Rates – Standard User Plan

Daily fixed rate: $1.1417
Energy EV Std Controlled (Water heater): $0.2335
Energy Ev Std Day: $0.3565
Energy Ev Std Night: $0.1783

All prices listed incl. GST.

They have up to 6% discount if you sign up for a year, get your bills by email and pay by direct debit.

Scott3

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#2960225 27-Aug-2022 15:40

First thing's to note, is that depending on your mileage in your EV, and the rest of your households energy consumption, the power that goes into your EV could well be quite minor.

We average around 50kWh/day in winter, typically less 5kWh of that would go into the EV, A full charge for my tired leaf comes in under 16kWh (I Have never hit turtle mode to fully test it).

Further, there is a limit to how much EV charging you can move off peak:

Limit's to charging speed. If you get back from a daytrip and want to replenish say 30kWh in a big battery EV, with an 8A portable charge cord (cira 17h charge time), you are going to want to start immediately, rather than wait to 9 or 11pm.
Middle of the day top off's. On a short range like my leaf, (especially when only charging to 80%), it is a good idea to top off whenever possible, so the car still has decent range left for surprise errands etc. On a long range EV, likely rarer that one would bother to plug in in the middle of the day, but perhaps if one was running errands in the morning, and needing to top off before starting a road trip in the afternoon.
Pre-conditioning the cabin. Really nice in winter, This draws quite a lot of power, and if the car is plugged in, it will generally re-start the charge to replenish this. Perhaps 1.5kWh in morning peak (Haven't exactly measured, but it would be pritty easy for me to do if anybody cares).

Result of all of this is that you the optimal power plan for you with an EV, could well be the same as it was without an EV. (assuming of course that you were already on a standard rather than low user plan).

Went power plan shopping a few months back.

Big thread her (ignore top post, I didn't consider mercury prompt payment discount in those numbers):

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=141&topicid=295519

Ultimately Built a big spreadsheet, based on the somewhat flawed assumption that I would use even power 24/7 (i.e. I would be able to move enough power into night time to offset my current daytime biased use pattern), Free hours of power were considered, but at 1/24th of the days consumption each only.

Front runners of my model (29 days, 1130kWh) were:

Octopus at $241 (time of use, prices fixed 1 year)

EK move master at $256 (time of use + 1 hr free)

Mercury 2y contract $259 (fixed / kWh cost. $200 signing bonus, prices fixed two years)

Contact good nights $306 (3 hr free power)

Initially signed up with octopus (great company to deal with by the way, fully recommend)

But before our change over date, in discussions with my partner, decided it wasn't really worth our effort to shift power use to night time for a $16/month saving (when considering that we would need to put some capital into it like installing a hot water timer).

So we are now signed up with Mercuary. 16.86c/KWh + 236.86c/day incl after discounts. Obviously the $200 signing bonus is worth $8.3/ month over 24 months. I also thought it was fairly prudent to lock in pricing for two years given inflation is running north of 7% a year.

Ultimately the decision for OP will come down to how much power they can shift into off peak / free hours.

If it is not much (i.e. work from home most days, hot water heated from solar thermal, small daily travel in EV), then the flat rate plan would be best.

If it is a lot (i.e. commute 200km/day in an ev, and have installed fast enough charging to replenish the cira 35kWh in the off peak period + have a hot water cylinder they are willing to put onto a timer), then a time of use plan would be best.

The Electric Kiwi Move Move master (1 free hour of power), and Contact good nights (3 hours of free power), really come down to how much you can hammer that free period. EK is a little cheaper generally but has a shorter free period.

If your EV can charge at 7kW (cira 32A), you will replenish 40km of range in an hour, or 120km in three hours.

If you are doing somewhere in the area of 120km / day in your EV, so can cover pritty much all your EV running plus a few other loads (hot water, dishwasher & tumble dryer on timers or switched on before you go to bed etc.), the the good nights plan might be great for you.

On Good nights, back when I pulled my numbers they were $2.28/day +$0.2427/kWh, so yes you are paying more for the non free hours. But if you can really hammer the free hours, it is a great deal.

Couple of things to watch out for:

Some energy provided's like pulse require notice before you change providers...
Mercury switched me the day before I asked them to... (thankfully pulse agreed to waive their $150 fee)
The size of your pole fuse limits how much power you can use in free periods. In short, a house like mine has a single 63A fuse on the power pole. It is a fairly slow blow fuse, so draw needs to be above this for an extended period to blow it. This provides a practical limit to how much you can hammer free power periods. (less of an issue if you have a 100A or multiphase feed to your house)

BuzzLightyear

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2960230 27-Aug-2022 16:13

jarledb:
BuzzLightyear: In Auckland and moved to Genesis EV plan which they don’t advertise. 11c off peak 9pm - 7am and 22 cents peak. Have installed ducted heat pump and charge the Tesla and power bill is cheaper now than pre EV and heat pump. Very happy overall.

Seems like Genesis is cheaper where you are then where I live.

This is the offer I got:

EV Rates – Standard User Plan

Daily fixed rate: $1.1417
Energy EV Std Controlled (Water heater): $0.2335
Energy Ev Std Day: $0.3565
Energy Ev Std Night: $0.1783

All prices listed incl. GST.

They have up to 6% discount if you sign up for a year, get your bills by email and pay by direct debit.

That’s quite a bit higher. I did sign up 12 months ago too on a contract so things may have shifted.

Obraik

2123 posts

Uber Geek

#2960261 27-Aug-2022 17:37

BuzzLightyear: In Auckland and moved to Genesis EV plan which they don’t advertise. 11c off peak 9pm - 7am and 22 cents peak. Have installed ducted heat pump and charge the Tesla and power bill is cheaper now than pre EV and heat pump. Very happy overall.

Sounds like Genesis is offering the same deal as Meridian. That's exactly what I was on with Meridian and their EV plan while I was in Auckland.

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