Electric Kiwi Pricing Up 14%

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Electric Kiwi Pricing Up 14%

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56 posts

Master Geek

#2779746 17-Sep-2021 09:46

thenine:
I remember EK saying if it cost's more in the first year they'll refund you the difference. Has anyone been through that process? How is it calculated?

I'm seriously considering switching to Contact as it's quite alot cheaper

It's not automatic and I'd had enough negative support experiences with EK that I didn't want to bother

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tdgeek

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#2779750 17-Sep-2021 10:04

timmmay:

It told me to ask live chat, but I put my neighour in. Here's the standard prices. Note that peak includes weekends.

Thanks

Got them now, mine are quite different (all incl GST)

fixed cost: $0.3400 per day (down from 37c as from 8 Oct)

Peak: $0.4265 per kWh (up from 32c from 8 Oct)
Off-peak shoulder: $0.2814 per kWh (Down from 32c)
Off-peak night: $0.2132 per kWh (Down from 32c)

Peak times (7am-9am and 5pm-9pm)
Off-peak shoulder (9am-5pm and 9pm-11pm)
Off-peak night (11pm-7am)

thenine

30 posts

Geek

#2781169 20-Sep-2021 14:58

xor:
thenine:

I remember EK saying if it cost's more in the first year they'll refund you the difference. Has anyone been through that process? How is it calculated?

I'm seriously considering switching to Contact as it's quite alot cheaper

It's not automatic and I'd had enough negative support experiences with EK that I didn't want to bother

Okay, that's my mind made up. I've switched to contact. @Antonknee I used your referral code, thanks for that.

demeter23

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#2781186 20-Sep-2021 15:24

I've also reluctantly made the switch to Contact today. A smooth signup process, and also used @antonknee referral code. That's a decent amount of account credit coming your way...!!

Shame to leave EK, but with how things are, need to look after yourself and the rates were just so much lower its hard to ignore.

michaelmurfy

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#2781211 20-Sep-2021 16:09

I'm staying put on Electric Kiwi personally. They, along with Flick are the ones really driving the pricing down and to be perfectly honest I'd rather be supporting them instead of saving perhaps ~$5/mo by switching to Contact. I am a very high user too averaging about $400/mo billing wise and I do note that Contact is fixed.

So in summer when power prices drop I expect Electric Kiwi will likely drop their rates saving everyone money again while you guys who joined Contact will be on fixed pricing + until the 30th November 2022.

I'm pretty sure there is a 12mo contract too so unless if you shift the majority of your use then there is a very real chance you'll end up spending more over that 12mo.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz | https://keybase.io/michaelmurfy - Referral Links: Sharesies | Electric Kiwi
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MaxineN

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#2781252 20-Sep-2021 17:33

michaelmurfy:

I'm staying put on Electric Kiwi personally. They, along with Flick are the ones really driving the pricing down and to be perfectly honest I'd rather be supporting them instead of saving perhaps ~$5/mo by switching to Contact. I am a very high user too averaging about $400/mo billing wise and I do note that Contact is fixed.

So in summer when power prices drop I expect Electric Kiwi will likely drop their rates saving everyone money again while you guys who joined Contact will be on fixed pricing + until the 30th November 2022.

I'm pretty sure there is a 12mo contract too so unless if you shift the majority of your use then there is a very real chance you'll end up spending more over that 12mo.

Went to go look at Flick and it seems they've paused sign ups due to the state of the electricity market.

https://www.flickelectric.co.nz/joining-flick/

Huh.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

Opinions are my own. They don't represent my employer.

michaelmurfy

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#2781254 20-Sep-2021 17:38

@MaxineN exactly. Because pricing is high / volatile so those contracting themselves in risk here. Happens yearly, people freak out and change.

demeter23

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#2781261 20-Sep-2021 17:46

I get the volatility of the market and the risk of prices dropping during next summer, but I've never had rates with EK as low as Contact have offered. In fact, no where near. I'm saving almost 6c/KwH during the day, and 9c/KwH at night. Thats pretty reasonable in my opinion, and why I've switched.

If rates fall in the summer and I overpay, I own it. But EK have never been at or near those rates for me at any point during my 3 years with them.

timmmay

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#2781270 20-Sep-2021 18:41

I wonder if it's because Contact are generators and can supply their own power cheaper than market rates.

michaelmurfy

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#2781372 21-Sep-2021 00:01

timmmay:

I wonder if it's because Contact are generators and can supply their own power cheaper than market rates.

Yep - they can pretty-much set the price. It isn't just marketing, the market is pretty broken right now: https://www.jointherevolt.co.nz

Also, ironic since Flick is owned by Z Energy who have a monopoly on fuel in NZ but anyway I do support this as Flick and Electric Kiwi are attempting to lower power pricing just like how 2degrees are largely responsible for lowering mobile pricing.

mattwnz

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#2781382 21-Sep-2021 01:57

michaelmurfy:

timmmay:

I wonder if it's because Contact are generators and can supply their own power cheaper than market rates.

Yep - they can pretty-much set the price. It isn't just marketing, the market is pretty broken right now: https://www.jointherevolt.co.nz

Also, ironic since Flick is owned by Z Energy who have a monopoly on fuel in NZ but anyway I do support this as Flick and Electric Kiwi are attempting to lower power pricing just like how 2degrees are largely responsible for lowering mobile pricing.

It sort of reminds me of the telco market, before telecom was forced to unbundle the copper lines. Crazy that whoever regulates this isn't proactive in fixing it, as it is consumers that end up paying

itxtme

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#2781565 21-Sep-2021 10:48

michaelmurfy:

So in summer when power prices drop I expect Electric Kiwi will likely drop their rates saving everyone money again while you guys who joined Contact will be on fixed pricing + until the 30th November 2022.

Dec 1 2017 - price increase $0.0136 kwh
Mar 22 2019 - price increase $0.0169 kwh
Nov 29 2019 - price increase $0.0117 kwh
Jan 22 2021 - price decrease $0.0011 kwh
Apr 16 2021 - price increase $0.0117 kwh
Sep 8 2021 - price increase $0.026 kwh increase

These are my changes with EK since signing up. Ultimately I moved as the pricing difference is significant for me. $7 dollar saving from increase, and a $13 reduction from the current pricing. Or in other words $20 cheaper. Ek would need to effectively drop their prices by 24% (taking into account the free hour of power). Daily charges are the same.

I agree the market needs a shakeup and I applaud them for their achievements with their arm behind their backs, but as the saying goes money talks

tieke

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#2781622 21-Sep-2021 12:35

Was prompted by this thread to see if I should move, but doesn't look worth it for me - I'm in Wellington, which makes some difference, but effectively the cost/kWh with Contact is essentially the same as my current cost (20.2c/kWh with Contact and 20.01 with ekiwi) and although the Contact daily charge is lower, Ekiwi become overall cheaper when I factored in the ~9% discount you get with the Stay Ahead topup.

The difference would be in how efficiently I used the extra hours of free power, but the ekiwi time frame is currently more convenient for me.

antonknee

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#2782300 22-Sep-2021 19:33

Hey, big thanks to anyone who did use my code to sign up - that will really make a massive difference and I'm so grateful, I've just today come up against a pretty decent unexpected vet bill so every dollar saved on other stuff helps offset that.

Speaking of savings, it's been around three weeks since I switched to Contact's Good Nights plan. I've used 199 kWh over that time, of which a whopping 152 kWh (ie 75%) is free of charge. You can get a lot more done in three hours than in one hour, obviously.

At my low user rate of around ~30c/kWh including GST (it's less than that but let's round up), and assuming I use about the same amount of electricity in the next 8 days I'm expecting a bill of about $35 for this month. 😳

gjo

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2782660 23-Sep-2021 13:16

I'm a current EK customer, after reading this I thought I would switch to the stay ahead 200 plan. They came back with new prices to switch: 37c/day fixed, 34c/kwh (both Inc gst). This is quite a lot higher than my current low user EK plan. It is now obvious that the only choice is to switch to contact.

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