|
|
Trusted
ID Verified Lifetime subscriber
Trusted Lifetime subscriber
Subscriber
Jase2985:We were with Ecotricity prior to our PV upgrade last winter. They had the advantage of an off peak schedule that ran for the entire weekend so charging our EVs on the weekends during the day was our low risk backup strategy as any generation drops (e.g. cloud covers) saw the demand shortfall being imported at off peak rate. Their FIT was reasonable and we liked their philosophy.
Who is everyone using for power companies?
Would you mind sharing the rates and deals? (Appreciate they may be different for different areas) just want to get an idea
Its so blimn hard to find most companies rates to do a proper comparison
Once we upgraded our generation capacity increased markedly (~x2), our monitoring of the system was improved and we added the Evnex EVSE which had the functionality of 100% solar charging by way of exporting our export rates and reacting accordingly. At this point we reevaluated our choice of supplier on our PV installer's advice and changed to Octopus Energy. Last September they were paying 17c/kWh FIT for a 12 month fixed term which was the highest FIT on offer apart from Meridian but we weren't happy with being tied to Meridian for 5 years as they required to gain that FIT rate. Octopus have since reduced their FIT rate but we will continue on our locked in rate until September (i.e. 12 months).
In September we will investigate our options and if a better opportunity exists we will move accordingly.
If a PV enabled customer has battery storage that complies with Ecotricity's T&Cs they do offer a higher FIT but as we opted to not include storage in our system but instead look forward to V2G ability this didn't appeal to us back in September.
Powerswitch do offer this comparison of FITs over the various suppliers which is of some interest but in order to compare various options for your own situation (export capacity, EV charging, HWC diversion) using a spreadsheet is far more accurate as the Powerswitch website in general is crude at best in this regard.
Taranaki (12 month fixed from Sept 2023)
Our 8.2kW generation capacity has had us in credit with Octopus since November and we charge 2 EVs almost exclusively from solar.
https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/
Subscriber
Trusted
Octopus as well in Hamilton about 16months in, on our second block of 12months locked rates. Have a 5kW solar system which covers about 25% of our usage, and we time shift a lot of our use, ~88% off peak or night. When I recalculated the likely costs for the last year Octopus was best for us, followed by Flick and Powershop (about 15% more), current Octopus rates are higher than what we locked in in December.
Trusted
Be careful comparing rates others show - they can be very different depending on where you live. Here are my Octopus rates near Chch... Note the lower buy back and the significantly higher night rate! (However, no daily charge!)
Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.
Subscriber
https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/
Trusted Lifetime subscriber
ID Verified Lifetime subscriber
So i now have a massive spreadsheet with all my usage from the last few years on it, and i did some calculations on the 4 months from the past 12 (Jan, Apr, Jul and Oct) with the prices i could obtain for 5 providers I was looking at, Genesis, Mercury, Meridian, EK and Octopus.
Mercury had a great buyback offer of 18c but only on the first 500kWh per month
EK and Octopus had 3 different tariffs
Genesis had 50% off night rates + take your night rate with you to chargenet stations.
Meridian had the lowest daily charge (at least55c lower than the rest) and almost the lowest day/night rates
I averaged out 5 random days per month to find the average usage per hour then used each company's peak/off-peak periods to work out how much power I used in each one, then multiplied it by their rates, then by the number of days in a month to give me an average monthly power bill for each company over each of the 4 months.
Meridians EV plan prices for Auckland below, which is looking pretty good. Their power buyback is 12c/kWh
Trusted
Subscriber
Jase2985:Worth factoring in your planned EV home charging as it will significantly influence your consumption. Our Polestar2 is responsible for 200-300kWh/month with our Leaf being 150-month. When you are able to schedule your EV charging makes a big difference too. We both work from home so a high percentage of our EV charging is by way of solar. The economics of this will depend on night vs FIT rates, daylight hours/season and if you, like us, have an export cap being able to plug in an EV can avoid throttling your inverter at times.These sort of consumption quantities may also make the difference in terms of eligibility for 'low user' status if grid supply does the heavy lifting in this regard.
.....
Meridians EV plan prices for Auckland below, which is looking pretty good. Their power buyback is 12c/kWh
An example to explain that is peak generation of 8kW being clipped by 2.5kW (8kw - 5kW cap + incidental home consumption) but if an EV is charging at that time max generation can continue so essentially 2.5Kw of the EV charging offsets the clipping so is actually free as you are using generation capacity that isn't able to exported so would be lost otherwise.
I'm currently waiting for Meridian to get back to me so I can find out their supply rates (including TOD scheduling) for their solar plan. As we do most of our EV charging from our solar the comparison between their night and FIT rates is a crucial part of the economics so the low night rate you're quoting may not be as important for us, unless of course their solar plan also has a very low night rate. My research is in preparation for Octopus decreasing our FIT later this year.
Meridian's daily charge is also significantly higher than we currently enjoying with Octopus but it seems that fixed charges are in the process of rising with most suppliers this year so another factor to be aware of how permanent such quoted rates are.
Also FWIW we have only exported more than 500kWh in 2 months over this summer which was in both cases where we planned badly and ended up EV charging at night, rather than that amount being subtracted from our export by way of solar sourced charging. This serves to highlight the golden rule of maximising PV ROI by consuming your own generation to your maximum ability. By doing that you are in effect gaining full import rate price equivalence (incl GST) for your generation as it is offsetting power that would cost you that otherwise.
https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/
ID Verified Lifetime subscriber
Subscriber
https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/
|
|
|
