Time to give electricity the flick?

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3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1834509 31-Jul-2017 19:39

Surely your pulse bill will have a cost per kw/hr on it. So easy enough to compare that to EK. Although it would be better for you to use the existing pulse energy or EK threads to discuss this.

Pulse probably only get monthly meter reads done to save on metering fees.

jpwise

590 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1839457 5-Aug-2017 10:00

Finally got persistent data storage and charting on openhab2 working last night.

Using a slightly tweaked copy of the rebol script from @gchiu on raspberry pi via exec, and then parsing the response out.

Interesting to see power stayed high most of the night before dropping briefly around 7am?

Working for Service Plus - www.serviceplus.co.nz

Authorised Service Agent for Apple, BenQ, Sony, and Toshiba - warranty & non-warranty repairs.

Castle

22 posts

Geek

#1839465 5-Aug-2017 10:30

Castle:

So I guess there is a bug in Flick's software that generates the snapshot price. It had been working correctly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, showing the purple "Other Charges" as 18.613c 7:00 - 11:00 am and 5:00 - 9:00pm, and 5.613c the rest of the time, but then today (Saturday) it didn't go up at 7:00 am.

Update... I got an email from Flick midweek simply saying "Just a quick email to let you know that your dashboard prices will be showing the correct prices now!" As it was not the weekend I couldn't tell if the problem was fixed or not. Now it's Saturday and I see the problem is in fact not fixed. This morning's dashboard during what should have been peak:

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1839488 5-Aug-2017 12:02

If you login to the Flick website, and view your usage under the Analyse tab, does it show the correct prices there? Or are they wrong as well? If they are wrong as well, Flick would have loaded an incorrect price file against your price plan.

That problem happened to me. Im on Smart User in Auckland, and interestingly, the cutover times between peak and offpeak that you are getting are exactly the same times as me. - offpeak applies all day Saturday and Sunday in Auckland.

Also the Unison price disclosure is a bit confusing, as to me it reads that medium to large customers don't have to pay peak charges on weekends. I think it would be worth a phone call to Unison to clarify. As maybe offpeak all weekend might be correct.

Note also that there are older meters out there that measure and record peak demand, but they don't record when that peak demand actually happened. They were commonly installed on power connections to commercial and some industrial customers. So it makes sense that Unison would have a price plan to support those meters. Which would mean possibly billing for peak demand on weekends.

Wiggum

1199 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1841571 9-Aug-2017 08:21

So I switched over to Electric Kiwi late this winter due to the unpredictable price spikes. So far the savings have been pretty good compared to Flick (Winter).

I would like to switch back to Flick for the Summer period. Early November looks like a good time to do this. What is everybody's thoughts? And how can I monitor flicks pricing if I am not a customer?

kingjj

1728 posts

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#1841640 9-Aug-2017 10:09

Wiggum:

So I switched over to Electric Kiwi late this winter due to the unpredictable price spikes. So far the savings have been pretty good compared to Flick (Winter).

I would like to switch back to Flick for the Summer period. Early November looks like a good time to do this. What is everybody's thoughts? And how can I monitor flicks pricing if I am not a customer?

That's our current plan as well although I am loving the hour of power and reliability with pricing that comes with EK. However the usual savings during spring/summer/autumn are hard to pass up.

You could use EM6Live to monitor the wholesale price for your area and than add on lines charges + Flick charges (per Flick's pricing schedule for your area) to come to a ballpark.

jonathan18

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#1841649 9-Aug-2017 10:19

kingjj:

Wiggum:

So I switched over to Electric Kiwi late this winter due to the unpredictable price spikes. So far the savings have been pretty good compared to Flick (Winter).

I would like to switch back to Flick for the Summer period. Early November looks like a good time to do this. What is everybody's thoughts? And how can I monitor flicks pricing if I am not a customer?

That's our current plan as well although I am loving the hour of power and reliability with pricing that comes with EK. However the usual savings during spring/summer/autumn are hard to pass up.

You could use EM6Live to monitor the wholesale price for your area and than add on lines charges + Flick charges (per Flick's pricing schedule for your area) to come to a ballpark.

I'm wondering what impact this will have on the viability of Flick, given there must be an admin cost of managing churn - with the potential for a decent number of consumers to switch from say Flick to EK and back at the whims of the spot price.

I'm in the same position, in that I've switched from Flick to EK (early on in winter), and have made good savings (also 25% usage in 'free' hour), but will no doubt be better off with Flick for the warmer months (that 25% saving will be reduced to very little without heating going). I'm just not sure I feel comfortable flicking (ha ha) between the two...

tdgeek

29740 posts

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#1841661 9-Aug-2017 10:28

jonathan18:

kingjj:

Wiggum:

So I switched over to Electric Kiwi late this winter due to the unpredictable price spikes. So far the savings have been pretty good compared to Flick (Winter).

I would like to switch back to Flick for the Summer period. Early November looks like a good time to do this. What is everybody's thoughts? And how can I monitor flicks pricing if I am not a customer?

That's our current plan as well although I am loving the hour of power and reliability with pricing that comes with EK. However the usual savings during spring/summer/autumn are hard to pass up.

You could use EM6Live to monitor the wholesale price for your area and than add on lines charges + Flick charges (per Flick's pricing schedule for your area) to come to a ballpark.

I'm wondering what impact this will have on the viability of Flick, given there must be an admin cost of managing churn - with the potential for a decent number of consumers to switch from say Flick to EK and back at the whims of the spot price.

I'm in the same position, in that I've switched from Flick to EK (early on in winter), and have made good savings (also 25% usage in 'free' hour), but will no doubt be better off with Flick for the warmer months (that 25% saving will be reduced to very little without heating going). I'm just not sure I feel comfortable flicking (ha ha) between the two...

Same, but dishes, washiing machine are year round, and be handy to whip the heatpumps on cool for an hour each night, to bring down heat and ambient heat

Wiggum

1199 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1843042 9-Aug-2017 20:40

kingjj:

That's our current plan as well although I am loving the hour of power and reliability with pricing that comes with EK. However the usual savings during spring/summer/autumn are hard to pass up.

You could use EM6Live to monitor the wholesale price for your area and than add on lines charges + Flick charges (per Flick's pricing schedule for your area) to come to a ballpark.

Cheers for that, I will give it a go.

jonathan18:

I'm in the same position, in that I've switched from Flick to EK (early on in winter), and have made good savings (also 25% usage in 'free' hour), but will no doubt be better off with Flick for the warmer months (that 25% saving will be reduced to very little without heating going). I'm just not sure I feel comfortable flicking (ha ha) between the two...

LOL I know what you mean. Us humans feel like we owe these suppliers something, and it just feels morally wrong to jump suppliers too often.

tdgeek

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#1843090 9-Aug-2017 21:51

Wiggum:

kingjj:

That's our current plan as well although I am loving the hour of power and reliability with pricing that comes with EK. However the usual savings during spring/summer/autumn are hard to pass up.

You could use EM6Live to monitor the wholesale price for your area and than add on lines charges + Flick charges (per Flick's pricing schedule for your area) to come to a ballpark.

Cheers for that, I will give it a go.

jonathan18:

I'm in the same position, in that I've switched from Flick to EK (early on in winter), and have made good savings (also 25% usage in 'free' hour), but will no doubt be better off with Flick for the warmer months (that 25% saving will be reduced to very little without heating going). I'm just not sure I feel comfortable flicking (ha ha) between the two...

LOL I know what you mean. Us humans feel like we owe these suppliers something, and it just feels morally wrong to jump suppliers too often.

In these modern, who cares days, thats a good thought to have, a little loyalty. Im with EK, and I know from my calcs that summer I'd be slightly better back with Genesis, let alone Flick. But those numbers didn't include the free hour of power, and dishes and washing still tick that box, as does heatpumps on cool.

The spot prices from what I gather are WAY cheap, but you need to add all the other bits on their table. EK was only 6% cheaper than Genesis, plus an extra $15 a month for the dailys. But the free hour improves that. Overall, I dont feel there is much between these two upstarts, but clearly summer and winter can be a gulf.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1844867 11-Aug-2017 01:20

Has anyone switched back to Flick Electric yet? (although I never left them anyway) For me in Auckland, Off peak wholesale prices are now cheap enough for me to use electric heating again.

Probably still not worth it to switch back yet if you are in the South Island. But definitely consider switching back if you are in the North Island, and you have alot of late night power consumption. Will post some more stuff later.

Also Transpower have added more information to their website. They now do a weekly electricity market analysis called Market Insights. And they have info on the impact of the national reserves market and info on the HVDC sticky point. Both interesting reading if you have an interest in how wholesale electricity prices are calculated.

droopanu

168 posts

Master Geek

#1844868 11-Aug-2017 01:27

Aredwood:

Has anyone switched back to Flick Electric yet? (although I never left them anyway) For me in Auckland, Off peak wholesale prices are now cheap enough for me to use electric heating again.

Probably still not worth it to switch back yet if you are in the South Island. But definitely consider switching back if you are in the North Island, and you have alot of late night power consumption. Will post some more stuff later.

Also Transpower have added more information to their website. They now do a weekly electricity market analysis called Market Insights. And they have info on the impact of the national reserves market and info on the HVDC sticky point. Both interesting reading if you have an interest in how wholesale electricity prices are calculated.

The price that I pay meridian currently is equivalent to 5c/kwh spot price. So for now I have no incentive to move back :)

Plus, no spot price anxiety .

Saying that, it took me a while to stop looking at the price all the time, and I still miss it sometimes :)

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1845395 11-Aug-2017 21:36

droopanu:

The price that I pay meridian currently is equivalent to 5c/kwh spot price. So for now I have no incentive to move back :)

Plus, no spot price anxiety .

Saying that, it took me a while to stop looking at the price all the time, and I still miss it sometimes :)

What Meridian plan are you currently on? As in my area, standard user flat rate lines fees are 7.15c+gst per unit. So adding your quoted 5c margin, then adding GST. Im up to 13.97c per unit. But the only pricing that I can find on the Meridian website is 23c per unit inc GST. But not including any prompt payment discounts as they are not listed on the meridian website.

Unless Meridian offer a 40% prompt payment discount. You are either getting a crazy good deal, Or meridian have a cheaper plan that they are not listing. (Im assuming that your 5c figure has been correctly calculated).

droopanu

168 posts

Master Geek

#1845408 11-Aug-2017 21:53

Aredwood:

droopanu:

The price that I pay meridian currently is equivalent to 5c/kwh spot price. So for now I have no incentive to move back :)

Plus, no spot price anxiety .

Saying that, it took me a while to stop looking at the price all the time, and I still miss it sometimes :)

What Meridian plan are you currently on? As in my area, standard user flat rate lines fees are 7.15c+gst per unit. So adding your quoted 5c margin, then adding GST. Im up to 13.97c per unit. But the only pricing that I can find on the Meridian website is 23c per unit inc GST. But not including any prompt payment discounts as they are not listed on the meridian website.

Unless Meridian offer a 40% prompt payment discount. You are either getting a crazy good deal, Or meridian have a cheaper plan that they are not listing. (Im assuming that your 5c figure has been correctly calculated).

There is a special offer for wellington and wairarapa.. I think. It's called naked plan, or something like that.

It's not available on their site. You have to ask for it or be offered by a "telemarketer".

But I can find it on powerswitch:

Daily:$1.8009

Electricity Authority Levy:$0.0020

Economy 24:$0.1618

These prices include GST.

Benefits: Prices are fixed until 31 March 2019 (excludes taxes or Electricity Authority levies).

Conditions: The offer is open to new customers only who receive their bills by email and pay by variable direct debit. Standard supply terms, Naked Fixed Terms Plan and Fixed Rate Plan terms and conditions apply.

Plus, it's an open plan, with a fixed price. No long term contract :D

Actually:

Kraven

729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1847312 15-Aug-2017 23:22

The Electricity Authority has published the switching stats for July, looks like Flick has taken a bit of a hit with a net loss of 2,173 ICP's (or about 9%).

https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/

(information can be found under Reports)

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