Electricity plan shopping

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3963 posts

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#2927921 15-Jun-2022 13:14

vexxxboy:

sorry slightly off topic but how did you go about leaving pulse and joining Octopus, more to the 30 day notice of leaving Pulse. i am looking to leave pulse to.

Thanks so much for this post. Had forgotten about that notice period. Nearly got stung $150+GST.

But as my switch hadn't been made yet I was able to catch it just in time.

Phoned octapus and asked them to stop / defer the switch (which they emailed pulse to inform).

Phoned pulse to confirm receipt of switch stop, and serve my notice.

Phoned octopus and got them to schedule my switch for the day that pulse said was OK.

A big reminder to me to always check cancellation terms before canceling stuff.

Scott3:

Despite, starting the thread on the 3rd of April, I got distracted and never auctioned anything (was leaning towards electric kiwi movemaster).

Looked back into the situation tonight. Surprised how much Electric kiwi rates have moved in that time.

Ran a simple model, where I used my most recent bill (29 days, 1130kWh) and assumed my consumption would be evenly distributed across the day. Key players:

Pulse (current provider- flat kWh rate): $301
Frank energy (flat kWh rate): $269
Contact good nights (flat kWh rate, except 3 hours for free in the evening): $306
Octopus (peak / shoulder / night): $241
Electric Kiwi move master (peak / shoulder / night + 1 free hour of power): $256

Uncovered an error in my spreadsheets. Turned out I missed accounting for the 12% prompt payment discount from Mercury.

Prices for central Auckland work out to: $2.3686 a day + $0.1686 / kWh (with a $200 signing bonus)

Means their 2 year fixed plan comes out at $259 a month on the same basis as the same numbers. Making them the cheapest non time of use option.

2 year fixed seems quite attractive in the current high inflation environment.

Honestly that was correctly calculated before I probiably would have jumped on it. The $18 a month projected saving from going time of use seems insufficient to justify optimizing for it (an entire year to pay back a $200 hot water timer).

But don't really want to cancel with octapus before even starting as they were great to deal with yesterday. Might be able to stretch more savings from octapus too, between the EV, hot water, dish washer, tumble drying etc.

timmmay

20574 posts

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#2927930 15-Jun-2022 13:26

vexxxboy:

i went to change from Pulse as Powerswitch said the Pulse plan i was on was expensive. But Pulse contacted me and said are you sure because you are on your own separate plan that you signed up for when first joining and we cant change it. It seems i am only paying 12.205 cents a Kw peak and off peak and you would be stupid to leave . So i am staying.

12.2c/kwh is very cheap. I think a good look at your bill is in order.

Scott3

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#2940708 11-Jul-2022 14:25

Ended up my spouse wasn't that keen on having a time of use plan, for such a small projected saving (cira $20 per month).

So I canceled with Octopus energy during my notice period for my current retailer. (Octopus energy was great to deal with by the way who were great to deal with by the way, feel a little bad for messing them around).

So signed up with Mercury instead. $200 signing bonus is obviously attractive, given the rates are also very good. And I think that locking in a fixed price for 2 years is prudent in the current high inflation environment also.

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

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Subscriber

#2943966 19-Jul-2022 21:45

Interesting pricing from Octopus so after some consideration my 2c worth.

We're currently with Ecotricity and have 2 EVs (24kWh Leaf and 64kWh Polestar) and 5kW of PV.

Our present Ecotricity rates are:

Peak
$0.2766 excl GST
$0.3181 incl GST

Off-peak
$0.1820 excl GST
$0.2093 incl GST

Daily charge
$1.12 excl GST
$1.28 incl GST

Solar Buy-back

$0.105 (we're not GST registered and receive this)

Ecotricity's Peak rate scheduling is the same as Octopus but they have no night rate as the Off-peak applies all the time when not at Peak including all weekend.

The biggest gain for us would be the $0/day fixed charge for low users assuming we would be eligible for that. But if we shifted our car charging to gain the night rates our usage would increase heaps due to our recently acquired Polestar (via 7kW charger unit) and we were previously scheduling charging to use PV generation as much as possible. The higher buy back tariff would compensate to some extent but if we were pushed into standard user rates under Octopus which are close to our current rates (other than a 7c/kW gain using night rates) and we'd be hit with a higher daily rate than now.

Octopus's website isn't recognising our address or ICP # so I've emailed them and are looking forward to their reply and whether the quantity of PV export is deducted from our overall usage to thereby avoid breaching their low user threshold. Also our 'normal' electricity usage will change now that we have the Polestar so that's uncertain as yet.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#2946684 26-Jul-2022 18:34

HarmLessSolutions:

Octopus's website isn't recognising our address or ICP # so I've emailed them and are looking forward to their reply and whether the quantity of PV export is deducted from our overall usage to thereby avoid breaching their low user threshold. Also our 'normal' electricity usage will change now that we have the Polestar so that's uncertain as yet.

Eventually got a reply from Octopus and also worked out that their website wasn't working for us because it's not compatible with Firefox.

We've decided to stay with Ecotricity due to the amount of solar generation we'd be selling, instead of charging our EVs, in order to gain from Octopus's lowest night rate. Currently we have the advantage with Ecotricity that we can charge our EVs on weekends and only pay off-peak rates (which are much lower than with Ecotricity than Octopus's low user). Octopus's night rate is only marginally (3c) lower than our present Ecotricity rate.

It would be so much more convenient if the power supply comparison websites included input capability for solar (export tariff rates) and EV ownership (peak/off-peak is especially relevant for us EV owners. The current options such as Powerswitch are woefully basic and out of date with the way consumers are managing their consumption (and generation) now.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

Ragnor

8218 posts

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#2946745 26-Jul-2022 22:25

Ragnor:

Tried switching to Genesis as the new rates are competitive for us however their website totally fails, the link from powerswitch with the ICP isn't used it takes you to a generic join form that doesn't work for our address.

Similar problem on Frank (which is also Genesis) our addresses resolves to our neighbours ICP.. classic, I wonder how many run into these basic issues and give up on that provider, I won't be spending any time chasing them to fix their systems.

I guess I should analyze whether Electric Kiwi Move Master would be worthwhile without excessive time shifting of usage from our normal usage....

So I did end up signing up for Frank with the correct address as they seemed to be the cheapest don't care about time shifting anytime rates at the time.

Of course they translated my correct address into the wrong address internally during their signup process and did the power equivalent of ISP slamming.. classic

Interesting how little verification they do for these changes.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#2946759 27-Jul-2022 00:04

Ragnor:

Interesting how little verification they do for these changes.

Yes I came across this problem with another provider and it seems a very slack system. I could switch my parents supplier easily , and it switches in just a few days.

I like Franks easy to understand pricing, and it seems low compared to others, especially their daily rate for low power users, which powershop phased out. I was tempted by Octopus but their peak prices are quite high, and I don't want to be change the way I use power, just to benefit from a cheaper rate. Also referred some friends to Frank which gave me some free credit.

Ragnor

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#2947117 27-Jul-2022 21:41

mattwnz:

I like Franks easy to understand pricing, and it seems low compared to others, especially their daily rate for low power users, which powershop phased out. I was tempted by Octopus but their peak prices are quite high, and I don't want to be change the way I use power, just to benefit from a cheaper rate. Also referred some friends to Frank which gave me some free credit.

Also it's just sub brand of Genesis now (renamed from Energy Online accquisition) so should be solid/reputable (like Skinny is to Spark)

billgates

4705 posts

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#2990986 2-Nov-2022 13:30

Anyone here with Flick electricity that also has Solar PV setup able to advise please what their 1year average spot price was that they got back for solar buy back? Currently deciding between Flick and Genesis. Octopus is not available in Waipa Networks. Meridian's Solar plan buy back of 15C is good, but their anytime/day/night rates are bad.

Do whatever you want to do man.

nickb800

2715 posts

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#2990989 2-Nov-2022 13:43

billgates:

Anyone here with Flick electricity that also has Solar PV setup able to advise please what their 1year average spot price was that they got back for solar buy back? Currently deciding between Flick and Genesis. Octopus is not available in Waipa Networks. Meridian's Solar plan buy back of 15C is good, but their anytime/day/night rates are bad.

There's good data on wholesale rates here - you could download and filter by your grid exit point and the times of day you expect to be generating: https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Dashboards

More generally, the futures market is suggesting a steep rise in wholesale rates going into next year, sitting towards 20c/KWh for winter periods and over 10c/KWh for summer https://www2.asx.com.au/markets/trade-our-derivatives-market/derivatives-market-prices/energy-derivatives (filter to baseload and quarterly contracts)

billgates

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#2991000 2-Nov-2022 14:30

I would have thought that winter wholesale would be cheaper due to plenty of rain so hydro levels are great and summer would be more expensive due to low hydro levels. Flick might be the best way to go then as overall from the sounds of it, solar buy back should average 13c to 15c

Do whatever you want to do man.

wratterus

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2991003 2-Nov-2022 14:44

We've been with Frank (EOL) for years, and always been happy with them. Recently moved house, smooth as anything, couldn't ask for more really. Any time we compare pricing, they seem to be cheapest.

panther2

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2991177 2-Nov-2022 16:39

Got an application in to go to Frank from Nova

Just waiting for phone call which hasn't happened

cokemaster

Exited
4927 posts

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#2991215 2-Nov-2022 19:23

I recently got a non-descript email from Contact, informing me that my Goodnights fixed term plan was coming to an end... but don't worry - we'll move you onto Goodnights open.
I calculated it - its nearly a 20% increase which I thought was a bit on the nose.

Contacting Contact about sharpening their pencils resulted in this gem.

As a result, I've opted to switch to Flick. Their Offpeak plan is quite attractive and reduces the pressure on 'extreme timeshifting to 2100-2359' that we have on Contact (although we have managed to get 50%+ at times).
Switching to Flick won't result in a 20% increase. In fact based off my modeling, the difference to be around +/- $200 pa. Riding out the remaining 29 days with Contact and only now they're trying to offer better pricing.

Thanks but no thanks.

At the risk of getting political - I really think there is value:

In having required open data API's that allows aggregator sites (and/or competitors) to see what pricing is available for your location.
Having residential pricing inclusive of GST AND prompt payment discounts presented by default.
Disallowing power companies from having plans that are not visible on the website as it makes it very difficult for one to make an informed decision.
Having Telco style porting, where the losing service provider is not able to spike the request to change to a different provider... thus removing the "we'll only give you good pricing if you put the steps in to leave us".

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

billgates

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#2991246 2-Nov-2022 22:29

I contacted Genesis who is my current electricity/gas provider and asked them to send me hourly data of the past 61 days to cover two full months of billing and they did even better and provided 30 minutes usage for the past 61 days in a nice spreadsheet. I then calculated the peak and off-peak usage against the plans that I find pricing attractive for. Octopus energy is not available under Waipa networks yet. I am getting solar installed next month so a good solar buyback rate is important. Without taking solar into account, the current Anytime Genesis plan is still the cheapest taking the last two full months' usage into account.

Genesis Standard user EV plan or Flick Off Peak Standard User plan might be the winner. Genesis EV team confirmed that I will not have to pay the $300 early disconnection fees moving from current Genesis contract to their EV plan. Flick's solar buy could be great considering next year spot prices are going up but is it worth paying $300 Genesis early disconnection fees to move providers? The Current Genesis deal includes no power shouts but the EV plan migration will include power shouts as well.

Do whatever you want to do man.

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