Time to give electricity the flick?

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84 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 9

#2045181 28-Jun-2018 09:47

I found this: https://www.energylink.co.nz/news/blog/price-spikes-hit-big-time

On top of that, the 200 MW Stratford Peaking station in Taranaki was notified for an outage of one unit (100 MW) from 2ndto 21st May, but then on the 18th this outage was extended to 28th September. In addition, on the 23rd the second unit at Stratford was put on outage through to the end of May, but then on the 25th this was extended to 30th June. So we now unexpectedly have 200 MW at Stratford out for an extended period: we’re not sure but there must be a significant and unexpected problem discovered at the station.

Buster

297 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 164

#2045247 28-Jun-2018 10:16

pogo:

Looks like there is 250MW at Huntly (coal or gas?), 200MW at Stratford (gas), and 125MW at Manapouri (hydro) all unavailable at the moment (Outages). When you see Diesel being used you know prices are going to be up there

@Buster Where did you get this information?

I'm getting quite frustrated at Flick's silence and the apparent lack of news. I've just put in a complaint that they should attempt to explain the high spot prices. I mean, we're not even in a cold snap, really. What if it decides to snow?.. We'd be screwed.

https://www1.electricityinfo.co.nz/

Under the 'News' section there is a daily report you can download. Could be a couple of days old but the outages info at the bottom of the report is still useful.

pogo

84 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 9

#2045265 28-Jun-2018 10:31

@Buster Brilliant, thanks.

miked

207 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 22

Trusted

#2045269 28-Jun-2018 10:37

So that means that 240MW and 100MW are due back online in 2 days from now? (one at 5pm and the other at midnight)... unless there are further delays...

nickb800

2735 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 829

Trusted

#2045366 28-Jun-2018 12:11

pogo:

I found this: https://www.energylink.co.nz/news/blog/price-spikes-hit-big-time

On top of that, the 200 MW Stratford Peaking station in Taranaki was notified for an outage of one unit (100 MW) from 2ndto 21st May, but then on the 18th this outage was extended to 28th September. In addition, on the 23rd the second unit at Stratford was put on outage through to the end of May, but then on the 25th this was extended to 30th June. So we now unexpectedly have 200 MW at Stratford out for an extended period: we’re not sure but there must be a significant and unexpected problem discovered at the station.

The more interesting part of this post is reminding that in order to have sufficient sustained reserves in case of an issue like the HVDC link breaking, some of the major plants have to run at half capacity. This may explain the graph a few posts ago highlighting that Huntly was at half capacity during peak (putting maintenance outages aside). Goes to show how much generation headroom we need as a country, even with the HVDC link

gorbulas

6 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#2046269 30-Jun-2018 01:31

Okay, so its 1:10am in the morning and spot prices are crazy, forecast to be like this for all early morning, and there is plenty of capacity spare.

SBQ

104 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#2046274 30-Jun-2018 07:58

gorbulas:

Okay, so its 1:10am in the morning and spot prices are crazy, forecast to be like this for all early morning, and there is plenty of capacity spare.

Kinda like a KICK IN YOUR FACE feeling for Flick customers in Christchurch . I'm assuming you're in Chch with the red circle in the Canterbury region chart. It may seem like we're going in circles in this discussion but the message isn't really clear or people don't care enough to want to leave Flick (or maybe all the Chch people have already left Flick). As I said before, at Genesis i'm paying a fixed night rate of 10.95 per unit and in my opinion, this is a very good NIGHT rate for those in Christchurch.

Your experience is not unique and I do feel your pain. As you're asking questions, I did too back in 2017 over the winter months. I thought OK, maybe this was just a reflection of the low hydro lake levels etc. I get that. But as we got into the peak summer where demand for electricity dropped, the prices didn't seem to reflect that. I mean they were no where near the fixed rate prices that Genesis offered. So after many months of watching and analyzing the spot rates etc., it's clear there's a huge disconnect between the overall price that Flick charges and the going wholesale spot rate. Capacity meant nothing. Demand meant nothing. Even the Orion Network line sur-charge didn't really correspond to the set hours in the day as after 9pm where the night rate kicks in, there wasn't the drop I expected. What was consistent is the Flick price was always higher than Genesis ; well if there was any moment that prices were lower, it would only occur for a very short time (like 30 minutes) when everyone is sleeping, like 3AM and of course, no one is going to use a lot of electricity during that time (and running the washing machine takes a lot longer than 30 mins) so you really could not save. Keep in mind, we were using at least 2/3rd of the total electricity consumption in the year during the winter months. I didn't care how cheap the summer month pricing was because 1/3rd of power use in the summer won't save much, and when Dec 2017 came around, I pulled the trigger, bye bye Flick.

[Mod Edit: Murph - Removed link.]

pogo

84 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 9

#2046279 30-Jun-2018 08:14

Kinda like a KICK IN YOUR FACE feeling for Flick customers in Christchurch.. (blah blah)

Do you work for Genesis or something?

SBQ

104 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#2046283 30-Jun-2018 08:37

pogo:
Kinda like a KICK IN YOUR FACE feeling for Flick customers in Christchurch.. (blah blah)

Do you work for Genesis or something?

Of course not! I just regret not staying with them in the 1st place. I'm sure others Christchurch residents could go with Mercury, Nova, Trust, Meridian, and half dozen other retailers and experience similar savings as I do with Genesis.

What I didn't see in Flick is they should be more receptive to their customers in Christchurch. Don't lead them on to believe that they're fully exposed to market price spikes etc. as their only excuse. When they could really be more proactive and breakdown the total cost of why i'm getting charged 38c per kW/hr at nights. At least point out the cause? After all, they're only suppose to take a flat rate commission.

If it was for any other business, when prices or something goes out of hand, there customers are informed. Oh and their savings calculator figure they show each time they email a bill is hardly accurate. I always wondered how they would say I saved -30% this past month when they have no data of my power consumption a year ago or in the past few months after switching over.

tdgeek

30048 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9455

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2046285 30-Jun-2018 08:38

I get 365 hours of free power, not 4 in July

tdgeek

30048 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9455

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2046287 30-Jun-2018 08:39

SBQ:

pogo:
Kinda like a KICK IN YOUR FACE feeling for Flick customers in Christchurch.. (blah blah)

Do you work for Genesis or something?

Of course not! I just regret not staying with them in the 1st place. I'm sure others Christchurch residents could go with Mercury, Nova, Trust, Meridian, and half dozen other retailers and experience similar savings as I do with Genesis.

What I didn't see in Flick is they should be more receptive to their customers in Christchurch. Don't lead them on to believe that they're fully exposed to market price spikes etc. as their only excuse. When they could really be more proactive and breakdown the total cost of why i'm getting charged 38c per kW/hr at nights. At least point out the cause? After all, they're only suppose to take a flat rate commission.

If it was for any other business, when prices or something goes out of hand, there customers are informed. Oh and their savings calculator figure they show each time they email a bill is hardly accurate. I always wondered how they would say I saved -30% this past month when they have no data of my power consumption a year ago or in the past few months after switching over.

If you leave Flick due to spot prices will you return once its subsided?

Wiggum

1199 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 472
Inactive user

#2046289 30-Jun-2018 08:43

This week is turning out to be my most expensive yet.

Not complaining. Going to ride it out as I was expecting a few like this during winter. I have enough in my Volt to hopefully see me through.

pogo

84 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 9

#2046324 30-Jun-2018 11:09

Can anyone make any sense of the outages described on this page? https://pocp.redspider.co.nz/search/calendar?period_start=2018-06-30

voy1d

178 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 35

#2046345 30-Jun-2018 11:49

pogo:

Can anyone make any sense of the outages described on this page? https://pocp.redspider.co.nz/search/calendar?period_start=2018-06-30

What exactly do you want to know?

As for the high prices, a big driver of this is the cold settled weather over the country and the lack of wind generation due to no wind. This is a risk that we have and illustrates perfectly why wind generation is not the solution to shutting down gas, because when you get sequences like this (which usually occur in Winter) the market price reacts in the way that it is. Until wind generation picks up, I think you can expect significant volatility in prices across the country.

SBQ

104 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#2046401 30-Jun-2018 12:36

tdgeek:
If you leave Flick due to spot prices will you return once its subsided?

Since January, it does not appear Flick was able to match Genesis's flat price day/night (i'm on low user plan). The correct question to ask is "Would Flick's future price be lower than Genesis?" Of course only the future would tell and the key reason why I still keep an interest in this Flick message board posting is to confirm and compare ; if my decision to moving back to Genesis was the right one.

Wiggum:
This week is turning out to be my most expensive yet.

IMO, the whole pricing scheme is rigged. Yes it is expected prices would be higher in winter. Everyone gets that. What people aren't accustomed to are insanely high prices, on the order of x 3 to 6 times higher at peak demands (well there's really no point in comparing demand data). Your total Flick price you pay really doesn't correspond to anything other than it's a lot higher than before. Monitor all the lake levels and unused generating capacities all you want, I learned the hard way by staying with them for over a year. What i'm not willing to do is risk my savings on the pure basis that the future weather in NZ would be more favourable. That's a tough model to sell to any customer because essentially, even the expert meteorologists don't even know with certainty what the weather will be like in 6 to 12 months time.

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