Genesis Energy revolutionary flat rate gas plans: Are they good value?

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frednz

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#217809 13-Jul-2017 10:58

I came across this web page on the site of Genesis Energy:

https://signup.genesisenergy.co.nz/gaspackages/

I would be interested to hear your views about whether these "revolutionary" plans are good value in today's market.

There are 3 plans:

"Gas Essentials" $99 per month for 9722 kWh per year;

"Gas Plus" $129 per month for 13889 kWh per year;

"Gas Freedom" $159 per month for 20833 kWh per year.

If you pay on time there is also a 12% discount available on the above prices which is pretty good.

Do you think these prices are competitive with those offered by other energy companies?

My main reservation is that, if you sign up for say 20833 kWh per year and use say only 12000 kWh in that year, there doesn't seem to be any refund given. In other words, it seems to be a bit of a gamble as to whether you'll get your money's worth or not!

And what happens if you use a bit more than you allocated amount?

And of course, you're tied in to keeping your account with Genesis for 12 months and face an early termination fee if you cancel early. But to get the "revolutionary" savings, do you think it may be worthwhile doing this?

The prices of these plans have increased a lot since they were first introduced e.g. "Gas Essentials" used to be $79 per month (with no discount).

Thanks for your views on these plans, they seem really good to me but I haven't yet checked in detail the prices charged by other gas providers.

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#1821733 13-Jul-2017 11:24

I've been looking at this exact same question, and came along a thread about the original plan a year or so ago. They upped the prices considerably which reduced the value, and someone calculated the cost of just paying as you go (using a rate of about 4.2c/kwh and 160c/daily charge) and found that to use the same amount of power as the "flat rate" plan allows would only cost $152/month. So if you used the maximum amount, and took advantage of the prompt payment discount, it might save you about $10/month. But, like you, I don't know what happens if you go over the maximum allocation. I assume they just charge the standard rates for any overage.

I decided that it wasn't worth it, but I noticed they have another deal - 50% off gas usage until 31 October 2017. This seems to be a pretty good deal, especially as we will be using a lot more gas over the next three months, and can maximise the savings. Even after that deal runs out, it's still going to be a lot cheaper than my current provider (Contact). I've been scrutinising the deal and charges to check for any fishhooks, but haven't found anything so far. I've contacted Contact to see if they will match the deal (doubtful), but if they do then that will be a lot easier than having to switch. But for those kinds of savings it might be worth the hassle of changing providers.

Pumpedd

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#1821754 13-Jul-2017 11:59

Reticulated gas price is my largest gripe on my power bill. I have no idea why gas is so expensive especially the daily charge that now exceeds 1$/day whether you use it or now.

My plan over the summer is to rip out gas and replace my gas hot water cylinder with an electric one. The hear pump I installed last summer has a running cost of approx half of the flued gas heater. No brainer.

davidcole

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#1821765 13-Jul-2017 12:16

It was worth it last year, then it was $130 a month for up for 43,000kw/h/

That level dropped to about 30 something 0000 a year and would cost you $250 a month iirc. I saved about $1200 that firs tyear of having it. Even accounting for using about $40 a month in summer.

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frednz

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#1821771 13-Jul-2017 12:26

Lizard1977:

I've been looking at this exact same question, and came along a thread about the original plan a year or so ago. They upped the prices considerably which reduced the value, and someone calculated the cost of just paying as you go (using a rate of about 4.2c/kwh and 160c/daily charge) and found that to use the same amount of power as the "flat rate" plan allows would only cost $152/month. So if you used the maximum amount, and took advantage of the prompt payment discount, it might save you about $10/month. But, like you, I don't know what happens if you go over the maximum allocation. I assume they just charge the standard rates for any overage.

I decided that it wasn't worth it, but I noticed they have another deal - 50% off gas usage until 31 October 2017. This seems to be a pretty good deal, especially as we will be using a lot more gas over the next three months, and can maximise the savings. Even after that deal runs out, it's still going to be a lot cheaper than my current provider (Contact). I've been scrutinising the deal and charges to check for any fishhooks, but haven't found anything so far. I've contacted Contact to see if they will match the deal (doubtful), but if they do then that will be a lot easier than having to switch. But for those kinds of savings it might be worth the hassle of changing providers.

Hi thanks for your reply. It looks like the current standard rates are 7.11 cents per kWh plus GST and a daily fixed charge of $1.56 per day plus GST (excluding any eligible discounts). The daily fixed charge seems to be very expensive because even if you don't use any gas during a particular month, you still have to pay about $50 for the privilege of being connected through Genesis!

If you exceed the annual kWh limit on your annual plan, it looks like you can either go up to the next plan (if there is one) or go on to the above standard rates. If you use a lot less than you've paid for, there aren't any refunds (is that fair)?

Zeon

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#1821773 13-Jul-2017 12:28

Pumpedd:

Reticulated gas price is my largest gripe on my power bill. I have no idea why gas is so expensive especially the daily charge that now exceeds 1$/day whether you use it or now.

My plan over the summer is to rip out gas and replace my gas hot water cylinder with an electric one. The hear pump I installed last summer has a running cost of approx half of the flued gas heater. No brainer.

I'm considering putting in a heat pump for the cylinder heating - should be cheaper than an electric element:

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richms

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#1821775 13-Jul-2017 12:29

Sounds as silly as buying a certain amount of calling mins per month from a telco that offers no roll over when your usage changes drastically.

You can be sure they will have done the sums to make it look like a good deal but infact be stacked in their favor. They have access to everyones yearly usage data to easily run thru whatever analysis whereas consumers only have their own data and what they can get from friends who usually have no idea what they use.

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frednz

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#1821776 13-Jul-2017 12:31

Pumpedd:

Reticulated gas price is my largest gripe on my power bill. I have no idea why gas is so expensive especially the daily charge that now exceeds 1$/day whether you use it or now.

My plan over the summer is to rip out gas and replace my gas hot water cylinder with an electric one. The hear pump I installed last summer has a running cost of approx half of the flued gas heater. No brainer.

Yes, I think it's a good idea to try and compare the cost of heating your home with gas compared with heating it only with electricity. In any event, a "greenie" might consider that electricity is better for the environment?

I always thought that gas was cheaper than electricity for heating, but your heat pump efficiency sounds amazing (wow 50% of the cost of gas)!

smalltrader

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#1821796 13-Jul-2017 12:43

If you are on high fixed daily charge for gas. The only way the economic will work is if you have Gas Central heating, Gas Hot Water and Gas Cooking all together. I use gas for all of the above and it work out to be significantly cheaper than electricity because the per unit price of gas is very low, 4.something cents.

Lizard1977

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#1821808 13-Jul-2017 13:01

+1. Mileage will vary for every situation, and the costs will be different for different parts of the country. For me, like Smalltrader, we have almost everything running off gas - continuous hot water, ducted central heating, cooking - so paying 4-6c/unit is a lot better than 26-28c/unit for all those things. If you are only using gas for one thing, like heating, then it won't stack up because of that daily charge. Heat pumps can be efficient, but I understand that efficiency drops depending on the external temperature, so in colder climates they don't work as well as in temperate climates.

richms

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#1821941 13-Jul-2017 15:02

Mine stopped blowing last night to do a defrost on the outdoor unit for the second time ever in Auckland. Efficiancy seems fine here other than that. Perhaps in the deep south where it is colder might be a problem but I am getting a crapload of heat out for the 800ish watts that go into it.

Richard rich.ms

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#1821956 13-Jul-2017 15:14

Pumpedd:

Reticulated gas price is my largest gripe on my power bill. I have no idea why gas is so expensive especially the daily charge that now exceeds 1$/day whether you use it or now.

My plan over the summer is to rip out gas and replace my gas hot water cylinder with an electric one. The hear pump I installed last summer has a running cost of approx half of the flued gas heater. No brainer.

Have you looked at converting to LPG?

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Pumpedd

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#1822071 13-Jul-2017 17:44

DjShadow:

Pumpedd:

Reticulated gas price is my largest gripe on my power bill. I have no idea why gas is so expensive especially the daily charge that now exceeds 1$/day whether you use it or now.

My plan over the summer is to rip out gas and replace my gas hot water cylinder with an electric one. The hear pump I installed last summer has a running cost of approx half of the flued gas heater. No brainer.

Have you looked at converting to LPG?

That amazes me as well....we can bottle gas...truck it around the country and its cheaper than reticulated gas. Something seems quite wrong with reticulated gas charges.

Detruire

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#1822079 13-Jul-2017 18:34

Pumpedd:

DjShadow:

Pumpedd:

Reticulated gas price is my largest gripe on my power bill. I have no idea why gas is so expensive especially the daily charge that now exceeds 1$/day whether you use it or now.

My plan over the summer is to rip out gas and replace my gas hot water cylinder with an electric one. The hear pump I installed last summer has a running cost of approx half of the flued gas heater. No brainer.

Have you looked at converting to LPG?

That amazes me as well....we can bottle gas...truck it around the country and its cheaper than reticulated gas. Something seems quite wrong with reticulated gas charges.

It's not so amazing when you think about how much easier it is to deal with bottles than a city-wide network of pipes.

rm *

mattwnz

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#1822105 13-Jul-2017 19:58

Detruire:

Pumpedd:

DjShadow:

Pumpedd:

Reticulated gas price is my largest gripe on my power bill. I have no idea why gas is so expensive especially the daily charge that now exceeds 1$/day whether you use it or now.

My plan over the summer is to rip out gas and replace my gas hot water cylinder with an electric one. The hear pump I installed last summer has a running cost of approx half of the flued gas heater. No brainer.

Have you looked at converting to LPG?

That amazes me as well....we can bottle gas...truck it around the country and its cheaper than reticulated gas. Something seems quite wrong with reticulated gas charges.

It's not so amazing when you think about how much easier it is to deal with bottles than a city-wide network of pipes.

Not sure about that. The gas infrastructure is already there. Are they charging to cover upgrading it in the future? Or whether it becomes uneconomic to replace, and just put eveyone on cylinders. I would have though the cost of purchasing, managing, transporting, certifying cylinders etc would be far more. We don't don't do that with water and piping it around.

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#1822143 13-Jul-2017 21:55

We looked at it recently, and found unless you're using 99% - 100% of the allowance, but no more, it's not worth it. Works out better to just pay standard charges in a lot of use cases.

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