Time to give electricity the flick?

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#1851642 24-Aug-2017 07:51

Wiggum:

I guess its because when the figures are really high, most people run around switching everything off, resulting in minimal costs anyway. (Just loads of stress)

The problem for me was that I could not do this. At my worst (mid July) I had 2 days of $40 each in a row, but I was at work.

Ouch. Didnt make sense when some here said the spike period of many days cost me $30 lol

Castle

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#1851650 24-Aug-2017 08:14

My bill this past week was $48. For the week with the bad spikes it was $120. Still I don't regret sticking with Flick through it.

tdgeek

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#1851668 24-Aug-2017 08:50

Castle:

My bill this past week was $48. For the week with the bad spikes it was $120. Still I don't regret sticking with Flick through it.

And fair enough, you will have many weeks at lower rates to even out the spike

gchiu

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#1855568 31-Aug-2017 00:20

Flick needs to reward its loyal customers by providing discounts that match the duration of continuous business.

timmmay

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#1855578 31-Aug-2017 06:58

gchiu:

Flick needs to reward its loyal customers by providing discounts that match the duration of continuous business.

Flicks margin is around 3c / kwh from memory. There's not a lot of room there for discounting.

tdgeek

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#1855581 31-Aug-2017 07:07

timmmay:

gchiu:

Flick needs to reward its loyal customers by providing discounts that match the duration of continuous business.

Flicks margin is around 3c / kwh from memory. There's not a lot of room there for discounting.

Flick, like EK is a low price, lower overhead provider, the discounts we get are our lower daily prices. Cant have the cake and eat it

Aredwood

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#1855784 31-Aug-2017 10:54

On all standard user rate plans, the Flick margin is 1.5c per unit and 40c per day. On low user plans the margin is a little bit higher per unit. But no fixed margin.

And due to the low user regulations, calculating what prices you can charge is actually really complex. And means that profit margin per customer will vary a lot. Even for Flick Electric.

gchiu

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#1856003 31-Aug-2017 15:35

tdgeek:

timmmay:

gchiu:

Flick needs to reward its loyal customers by providing discounts that match the duration of continuous business.

Flicks margin is around 3c / kwh from memory. There's not a lot of room there for discounting.

Flick, like EK is a low price, lower overhead provider, the discounts we get are our lower daily prices. Cant have the cake and eat it

The ones jumping to EK over dry winters are the ones eating cake.

I just want some dessert occasionally.

tdgeek

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#1856008 31-Aug-2017 15:44

gchiu:

tdgeek:

timmmay:

gchiu:

Flick needs to reward its loyal customers by providing discounts that match the duration of continuous business.

Flicks margin is around 3c / kwh from memory. There's not a lot of room there for discounting.

Flick, like EK is a low price, lower overhead provider, the discounts we get are our lower daily prices. Cant have the cake and eat it

The ones jumping to EK over dry winters are the ones eating cake.

I just want some dessert occasionally.

But you want a discount on a discount

Aredwood

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#1856117 31-Aug-2017 19:29

Im on a peak / offpeak pricing plan which AFAIK Flick Electric are the only power company in Auckland who offer it. So I can have my cake and eat it without needing to switch power companies to try and time the wholesale market. As that plan gives me larger than normal savings, As I pay overall lower lines fees on that plan than what I otherwise would. There is also a pricing anomaly which means that any loads which run 24/7 at a constant load, are actually cheaper on that plan than the "anytime" plan. You just have to avoid any loads which only run during peak times.

Im also slowly setting up a solar PV system, which only needs to offset the peak loads. For more savings, and backup power.

Note also that predicting the wholesale price of power long term in the future is like trying to predict when is the best time to buy and sell shares. It is easy to look back in history, but past history can't be relied on to gauge future performance. For example the winters of 2015 and 2016 had low winter wholesale prices. I have means of managing higher wholesale prices, but alot of people don't.

It is almost like investing money. Long term, shares earn higher return than bank deposits. Some people can easily handle the higher risk of share investment, while others should stick to bank deposits.

[edited to add]

Going off some NBR articles, Mercury energy made massive extra profits due to the dry spell. As they have mostly north island hydro, which mostly maintained good flows. Trustpower also did well (as they also own North Island hydro generation). Contact made big losses as a result as they were overselling hedge contracts (which had previously worked well for them). So even the big companies get knocked around financially due to the weather.

jpwise

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#1863079 12-Sep-2017 22:06

jpwise:

gchiu:

I've created a new script for those who know their supply_node details to dump the current and 30 minute predicted price. It now sleeps until the next price change over but you can change it to whatever you like.

rebol-api-script

After almost 2 hours cracking my head at it, I've finally got a ren-c r3 binary that actually functions on the raspberry pi. :)

Looking forward to the next step of trying to integrate the output into openhab, followed by building an rflink module to turn on/off 433mhz plugs dependent on what the spot prices are doing.

Hey @gchiu - do you know if they've changed the API this week? Getting authentication errors now.

** Access Error: protocol error: "Authentication not supported yet" ** Where: fail switch awake switch check-response switch --anonymous-- wake-up either until --anonymous-- wait until sync-op either --anonymous-- write either do catch either either --anonymous-- do trap if --anonymous-- ** Near: _ fail error ?? **

No changes to the script, but doesn't look like it's been able to receive updates since just after the spike on Monday morning.

Thx.

Jp.

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

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

gchiu

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#1863321 13-Sep-2017 10:01

I've been overseas the last month behind the Great Firewall of China, and just got back late last night.

I'll try and take a look at it this afternoon :(

gchiu

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#1864796 13-Sep-2017 21:58

jpwise:

Hey @gchiu - do you know if they've changed the API this week? Getting authentication errors now.

Yes, unfortunately the form variables and app credentials have changed.

Wiggum

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#1867115 15-Sep-2017 22:01

So I left Flick about two months ago due to the Price Spikes over July. I joined Electric Kiwi

Interesting email from Flick today in my inbox:

Hey

A lot happened this winter - rain fell in all the wrong places, Flick won NZ's Energy Retailer of the Year, and you, clever Flicker, exercised your right to shop around for the best power deal for you. Nice work.

But it might be time to come home. Before this year's Dry Winter, you'd saved $115.00 on power with Flick in just a few months, so you'll be interested to know that hydro levels are up, spot prices are down, and forecasts tell us prices will keep on dropping - it's time to start saving again!

This chart shows you the average spot price Flicksters paid this winter, and what the forecasters say you'll pay in the coming months with Flick.

We genuinely want Kiwis to get a fairer deal on power. That's why we'd never lock you into a fixed term contract, and why we chose to be totally upfront about the unusual high prices we saw this winter.

But Dry Winters only happen once every 5 years or so, and we're confident you'll be better off in the long run with Flick. Click the big yellow button to check your details and let us know you're ready to come home.

So it seems that flicking between providers may just be OK after all.

nickb800

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#1867208 16-Sep-2017 09:39

Wiggum:

So I left Flick about two months ago due to the Price Spikes over July. I joined Electric Kiwi

Interesting email from Flick today in my inbox:

Hey

A lot happened this winter - rain fell in all the wrong places, Flick won NZ's Energy Retailer of the Year, and you, clever Flicker, exercised your right to shop around for the best power deal for you. Nice work.

But it might be time to come home. Before this year's Dry Winter, you'd saved $115.00 on power with Flick in just a few months, so you'll be interested to know that hydro levels are up, spot prices are down, and forecasts tell us prices will keep on dropping - it's time to start saving again!

This chart shows you the average spot price Flicksters paid this winter, and what the forecasters say you'll pay in the coming months with Flick.

We genuinely want Kiwis to get a fairer deal on power. That's why we'd never lock you into a fixed term contract, and why we chose to be totally upfront about the unusual high prices we saw this winter.

But Dry Winters only happen once every 5 years or so, and we're confident you'll be better off in the long run with Flick. Click the big yellow button to check your details and let us know you're ready to come home.

So it seems that flicking between providers may just be OK after all.

OK for Flick, but pretty expensive for EK. EK probably wasn't hedged for as many customers as they gained this winter, so I'd suggest that they've made a hefty loss on all of the Flick customers switching over.

Don't get me wrong, I would have done exactly the same thing myself.

I do hope that we get more incidents like this - clashing between old and new electricity pricing models - to force a change in how the industry charges for power.

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