No increase in Whanganui on EK, on "Stay Ahead 200" low user plan

dazzanz:

 

I changed to Genesis recently for their EV plan and I'm in Wellington. 20c peak, 10c off peak excl gst. I believe the prices are fixed for a year also.

 

For my address they're 21c all the time. Though Flick is more peak their off peak rates are much better.

timmmay:

 

For my address they're 21c all the time. Though Flick is more peak their off peak rates are much better.

 

The EV plan is only available if you have an EV, but they just give you 50% off between 9pm and 7am. Plus ChargeNet chargers will only cost your home energy rate.

Flick prices for me are pretty similar to Genesis, 19.96 peak, 11.95 off peak. Flick has more off peak time though.

This change is around a $50/mo increase for me.

I'm giving Octopus Energy a go mainly because I can then link my Chargenet + Openloop accounts as I calculated I can save about $30/mo (or $360/yr) through them even taking in the consideration with the hour of free power. Not having to think about that hour would be a bonus.

Like @tdgeek, I am in Christchurch and got the price rise notification from EK today.

Prices exclude GST

And here's the rates from Octopus (fixed for 1 year):

Prices exclude GST

I pulled my usage/price data from 1-31 October and ran a comparison:

EK pricing at current rates: $209.64

EK pricing from 01 Jan for same usage: $240.79

Octopus pricing for same usage: $213.29

(My hour of power usage is always at 11pm-midnight as that's when I turn our hot water on [and off again at 7am] so calculating what I would have been charged for those kWh with another retailer is easy and was taken into account in the above comparison)

The only thing a bit difficult to calculate is the differing off peak times (Octopus has an extra 2 peak hours each weekday, but no peak at all on weekends). EK charges peak pricing for 42 hours each week vs 40 peak hours for Octopus. I think the off-peak weekend mealtime oven use with Octopus will more than make up for the extra peak power charging between 9-11am on weekdays - when the only things running are my laptop/monitors and possibly the fridge.

A few months ago when I did the same comparison there was no motivation to switch, but around $27 a month seems worth it.

EDIT: Although for sh1ts and giggles I just priced up the same kWh usage on the Mercury low user anytime plan, and that came out at just $186.37 - and there's no need to faff around turning the hot water on and off AND the price is fixed for 2 years AND there's a $250 credit on offer. Around $900 savings in the first year!!

Wheelbarrow01:

 

 

 

EDIT: Although for sh1ts and giggles I just priced up the same kWh usage on the Mercury low user anytime plan, and that came out at just $186.37 - and there's no need to faff around turning the hot water on and off AND the price is fixed for 2 years AND there's a $250 credit on offer. Around $900 savings in the first year!!

 

Wow

EK can send you half hourly usage. I put that into a spreadsheet and directly compared Octopus. I just tried Power Switch and it asked for peak / offpeak / night / free power usage so maybe it takes this into account. EK MM still came out best for me, but I will try my spreadsheet on the weekend.

I review my power price every year. Here is a spreadsheet I prepared. Household of 5 people. 2 Adults and three kids under 6. Wife stays home with 1 little one. I can share it if anyone would like to compare it. Dec to March is estimate

I got the EK notification last night, will be looking at this closer in the coming weeks.....

Those with the free 9-midnight, does it make much of a difference?

hsvhel:

 

I got the EK notification last night, will be looking at this closer in the coming weeks.....

 

Those with the free 9-midnight, does it make much of a difference?

 

It's hard to generalise - it really depends on your usage pattern and how much usage you can shift into the extended free period.

I'm currently on EK Movemaster, and using my actual usage data, I've calculated that the Contact Good Nights plan would be very slightly cheaper. At the old rates, for me Contact worked out more expensive than EK, largely due to the much higher daytime and off-peak rates.

I've worked out that Mercury is now cheaper for me than either of those options, and I won't need to do any time shifting.

If you ask for your data from EK, they'll send you a spreadsheet of your hourly usage and then you can calculate what would be the best plan for you.

hsvhel:

 

Those with the free 9-midnight, does it make much of a difference?

 

It can make a difference if you can make it work for you. I went onto it moving from EK after their round of increases last year, and it saved me a lot. I live alone so am easily able to shift usage to that time period, mainly dish-washing, laundry, some food prep cooking, and manually turning on/off water cylinder.

Now that I'm out of contract with Contact and the price has gone up, I looked over all the companies I could. I've gone with Mercury on their 2 year fixed. It will be slightly cheaper for the exact same usage as the Good Nights plan, and I don't have to worry about power shifting. Plus, Good Nights, at least for me, isn't a fixed contact anymore, so the rates can go up anytime. The way things are going that was my major motivation to fix rates.

When running the numbers I was surprised Octopus or EK MoveMaster didn't come out closer, but they were all at least $200 a year dearer.

hsvhel:

 

I got the EK notification last night, will be looking at this closer in the coming weeks.....

 

Those with the free 9-midnight, does it make much of a difference?

 

It is for me, even at the new rates. I have managed to get my free usage up to nearly 50% during the free 3 hours, I have a few high use things that we have shifted, (heat pump, heaters, dishwasher, washer and drier and swimming pool pump and heater). We can get a load washed and dried each night for no electricity cost. DM me if you would like a referral code that gives each $200 off.

I think power prices will keep going up. I'm hoping but not hopeful that the government will step in at some point with regulation - as EK point out in their emails the power companies are making huge profits at the expense of all NZers.

Has anybody had experience with PowerEdge ? Their solar buy back rate of 20c/kWh on their 'Power Shield' plan seems good but there's a suspicious lack of supply prices on their website.