Electricity plan shopping

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638 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2906775 26-Apr-2022 11:10

Eva888: What strikes me about pricing and all these plans that require you to shift your usage is it’s just another thing the consumer has to worry about for an essential you pay for and which we can’t survive without. It puts the onus on the paying consumers to 'work' to get themselves a discount...if they can be bothered and which is probably what these power companies rely on.

I don't see a problem with companies offering these plans. The whole incentive is to shift power usage off the morning and evening peaks. By doing this we can rely more on renewal energies and not have to fire up dirty stations like Huntly to meet peak demands.

If it costs you the same to run your dryer at dinner time, as it does at 2am why would you change your habits. If you're rewarded by doing your drying in the night by cheaper rates off peak, you get the savings.

No company is taking away the standard plans with fixed $/kWh at all hours of the day.

eonsim

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#2906782 26-Apr-2022 11:25

Switching things around to use the off-peak time isn't too hard even with a young family like we have. Flat rates are supposed to make things "easy to understand" but really they're charging you a premium to be disconnected from how your energy is generated, and it's underlying infrastructure. I've been used a range of off-peak and flat rate plans over the last few years (Powershop, Trustpower and Electric Kiwi) and it's pretty easy to save money without doing much (Kids have a bath just before going to bed etc).

We push ~80% of our power usage off-peak with EC's move master. Have a decent-sized hotwater cylinder (300L) which is linked to a solar diverter and solar panels (though could use a timer), so that it either heats up off solar power or at midnight (off-peak) a timer would do the same thing. Spa heats in the free hour (timer) and using solar or shoulder times, Pool runs overnight during off-peak time (timer), solar covers the day. Start dishwasher and washing machine when going to bed (use the built-in timer on the washing machine to wait until free hour at 6am), programmed the heat pumps to fire up in the morning during the free hour to pre-warm the house. Try to get as much into the Off-peak period but not too worried about shoulder usage it's still cheaper than most fixed plans kwh charges...

For things like heating, heat-pumps have built-in timers, as do most spas and many pools. If you're using bar heaters then buy a smart plug and use your phone to set the schedule. Can also use oven timers (usually built in) or slow cookers to move some meals off-peak if you want.

eonsim

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#2906785 26-Apr-2022 11:35

One other thought is, that flat-rate plans are a way for power companies to maximise their profit.

By unlinking customer behaviour from how power is generated, and it's underlying infrastructure, they ensure that the peak periods remain or grow. That way more expensive forms of generation need to start up to cover the peak period. As the most expensive form of generation used sets the spot price then all the generators increase the profit they're making from their hydro and wind which has a much lower power cost.

This increased cost allows them to set their flat-rate $/kwh charge based on the peak spot-prices and customers think they're getting a good deal because they see articles about spot prices hitting 50c a kwh while they're only paying 20-30c. Failing to realise that the rest of the day the price is substantially lower, and the company isn't paying the spot price anyway because they've hedged or have long term contracts.

PolicyGuy

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#2906826 26-Apr-2022 13:50

timmmay:

Interesting - I couldn't get "good nights" plan because they say some smart meters don't work reliably. I was just curious about the price I wasn't looking to change.

Stu: I got the same result from Contact regarding not having a compatible Smart Meter, even though the meter does supply half-hourly readings. It seems they may not have full data on all addresses.

Are your meters by any chance TrustPower smart meters?
I have one and for years Genesis said they couldn't read it remotely and sent a meter reader round every two months, then suddenly they started reading it remotely.

Based on my experience, it could be that Contact couldn't come to a commercial agreement to buy the half-hourly data off TrustPower rather than you having an "unreliable" meter.

timmmay

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#2906939 26-Apr-2022 14:49

PolicyGuy:

Are your meters by any chance TrustPower smart meters?
I have one and for years Genesis said they couldn't read it remotely and sent a meter reader round every two months, then suddenly they started reading it remotely.

Based on my experience, it could be that Contact couldn't come to a commercial agreement to buy the half-hourly data off TrustPower rather than you having an "unreliable" meter.

I've never been with TrustPower, and I've had half hourly billing from Flick and EK, so I think it's a problem with Contact rather than a problem with the meter / data.

larknz

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#2906941 26-Apr-2022 14:57

I have found that Powerswitch doesn't necessarily show all plans. I'm on Meridian's EV plan and it is significantly cheaper than anything I can find on Powerswitch.

crewsaider

70 posts

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#2906989 26-Apr-2022 15:35

A few stats from my 11 days on EK MoveMaster. Using only built-in timers and a little manual hot water switching (when I remember), overall load distribution: Off-peak (incl Shoulder and 12% HoP) = 86%. Most telling is average cost per kWh (incl GST and daily supply charge): EK = $0.1769/kWh, Nova = $0.2923/kWh.

Stu

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#2907022 26-Apr-2022 17:50

timmmay:
@PolicyGuy:

Are your meters by any chance TrustPower smart meters?
I have one and for years Genesis said they couldn't read it remotely and sent a meter reader round every two months, then suddenly they started reading it remotely.

Based on my experience, it could be that Contact couldn't come to a commercial agreement to buy the half-hourly data off TrustPower rather than you having an "unreliable" meter.

I've never been with TrustPower, and I've had half hourly billing from Flick and EK, so I think it's a problem with Contact rather than a problem with the meter / data.

Also never been with TrustPower. The meter will be associated with Counties Energy (was called Counties Power). Mercury Energy have been displaying half hourly data quite happily, as is EK now that we're with them.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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Nate001

638 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2907075 26-Apr-2022 19:40

I'm looking at EK for parents while I'm doing this exercise for myself. Does anyone know if they do anytime/controlled rates? I asked the live chat but the person at the other end had no clue what I was talking about.

Stu

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#2907087 26-Apr-2022 20:44

I asked EK about controlled rates via the online chat. It's mentioned in the FAQ (or, it was) that if your power supplier offers a controlled rate, it would be passed on, but I wanted it confirmed for the MoveMaster plan. I was promised they would ask up the chain and get back to me, but they never did. As it turns out, there is apparently no controlled rate on the MoveMaster plan.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

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Stu

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#2909508 2-May-2022 21:12

@raytaylor:
crewsaider:

I am looking at this Bluetooth timer set-up from the PDL Iconic range.

I am very keen on that device but i cannot find it on the Ideal electrical website

Edit: Nevermind i see its multiple product codes.

Also keen on this setup, unless something better turns up. Looks like ZigBee is an option, also. Will hunt out the product codes and find a sparky.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

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tdgeek

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#2909937 4-May-2022 07:29

michaelmurfy:

As I said before - the Good Nights plan has a much hire per unit charge (and in my case - higher daily charge) meaning you've got to shift -quite a bit- of your usage to that 3 hours for it to be worthwhile.

Movemaster for the majority of households is far better.

I checked mine yesterday, am on Stay Ahead 200, ChCh 32c per kwH 37c Daily

Peak on MM is 33c

Shoulder is 22c

Off Peak is 16.5c

Daily is 34c

All above is incl GST. Seems like a clear no brainer. Oddly I am being charged 32.04c on SA200 even though the rates they gave are 30.97c, strange.

I was going to check my usage periods, but hardly seems worthwhile now

Eva888

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#2909952 4-May-2022 08:32

My Genesis Wellington for comparison and which I don’t really understand what the difference is between anytime and composite except that the majority of the bill is made up of the composite 17.91
Appreciate any suggestions as to a better deal.

Plus standard anytime 20.26 c/unit. (335 units@)

Plus standard composite 17.91 c/unit. (1293 units @)

Plus standard daily fixed 199.880

*Add GST to the above

Eva888

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#2909983 4-May-2022 09:24

For comparison friend in Wellington is on Meridian

SMART VALUE FIXED RATE PLAN 2 yrs GST incl

Anytime 28.23 c/kWh

Controlled 22.99 c/kWh

Daily charge 34.5 c/day

michaelmurfy

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#2909987 4-May-2022 09:43

I got quoted this from Meridian (EV Plan - fixed for 2 years, $200 credit):

28.84c Day
18.59c Night
175.56c Daily Charge

My *new* rates on Electric Kiwi (no contract) are:

31.93c Peak
19.80c Off-Peak Shoulder
15.97c Off-Peak Night
0.97c Daily Charge

All excl GST. So far EK have always had the cheapest rates for me.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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