Ecotricity Wholesale plan

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HarmLessSolutions

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#294124 6-Mar-2022 19:29

We've recently installed 5kW of PV and have an EV (Leaf) with another higher capacvity EV in the planning stages. The reductions we expected to see on our monthly power bills haven't so far eventuated, but we have some lifestyle adjustment to implement with the intention of essentially 'shifting our load'.

We are with Ecotricity on an Eco Saver plan but are considering their Wholesale plan. Anybody made this move with an EV and/or PV? Interested to hear what your experience has been as Ecotricity are understandably non-committal on the price we can expect if we make this move.

One complication we have is that cellular reception at our place is very dodgy so text alerts of price movements of wholesale prices will be very much delayed.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2879958 6-Mar-2022 20:00

Wholesale price plans are risky. Price spikes can and have hit $20/kWh. Unless you have automation set to severely cull energy usage when prices spike, I probably wouldn't risk it. While these are very rare events, it's also a situation where you can burn through $1k in a day without noticing.

Look for a provider with lower off-peak pricing - it will depend on your region, but here in Wellington they're about 50% dearer than what Electric Kiwi charge for night off-peak, and more expensive for peak too. The bigger the difference in price between the two, the more that load shifting will save you.

Investigate how much you're exporting to the grid and whether trying to get a better export rate is feasible.

cokemaster

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#2879959 6-Mar-2022 20:02

There are significant risks and rewards by using wholesale spot pricing. At the moment, Auckland has a market price of $167.41... which works out to be around 16.7 cents per unit, excluding GST, excluding distribution costs (eg. local lines company, transpower etc). However for most of the colder months, spot pricing was out of this world.

I guess if you had the freedom to switch between, you could make it work but for me - I tend to suggest some certainty. With EV's in the mix, the last thing you'd want is to be paying 60 cents per kilowatt (or more) to recharge them just because the spot prices were high.

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Scott3

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#2879971 6-Mar-2022 20:55

Note That conditions are currently not favorable for being on a wholesale exposed plans.

I spent a couple of year's exposed to wholesale pricing with flick (about 5 years ago).

Those year's were really good. Wholesale prices often down around the $50/MWh mark (5c/KWh+ transmission, distribution, retailer margin etc). Essentially ample power supply (largely rainfall in the right spots), made for cheaper wholesale prices than usual. I saved a lot of money.

Had price spike notifications set up on my phone (via internet, so wifi when I was at home), to alert me of any price spikes. Depending on the level of the spike I would choose my response. Typically just be frugal, and look to defer power use to late at night. That said, generally I would set times on the likes of the dishwasher so it ran in the middle of the night.

Never happened, but I was quite willing to manually cut all power to my home if price spiked massively. At that time we had a wood burner for heat, and I would have been fine going out for dinner etc.

Ultimately market conditions changed (pretty rapidly - a matter of 2 - 3 weeks), and wholesale prices cranked up, and it was no longer such a sweet deal to be exposed to the wholesale market. Like many flick users at the time I fled to mainstream company.

As a consumer the main way to do really well from a wholesale plan is to pick your timing. They are an ineradicable deal when wholesale prices are low for an extended period, and if you flee as market conditions change, you don't have to pay the expensive time period. But be aware that other companies are aware of this. Having customers that come to them in the high wholesale price times, but leave when times are good is not good for business. If I recall correctly, some power companies stopped sign up at the time I was looking to move.

Personally I was a little sick of actively managing stuff too, so have stayed on a 24/7 rate since. Must say it was quite nice to sit back and relax as my wife cranked every heater she could find on the coldest night of the year. (We don't have the wood fire anymore)

Be aware that this is something to take quite seriously. USA headline, but could well happen here [Texus resident went on a wholesale plan, price spiked due to storm, rolling blackouts, but his power stayed on, but at crazy high wholesale prices resulting in a USD17,752 power bill.:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html

darkasdes2

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#2880118 7-Mar-2022 10:38

I have my parents on Flick's home harvest plan which means they get wholesale rates for their PV production that is put back into the grid and then are on a fixed power plan for buying their power. Flick have put their wholesale plan on hold at the mo due to the high whole prices we have seen lately. If you consider moving to Flick, DM me so we can both get a referral bonus.

boosacnoodle

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#2880173 7-Mar-2022 12:08

darkasdes2:

I have my parents on Flick's home harvest plan which means they get wholesale rates for their PV production that is put back into the grid and then are on a fixed power plan for buying their power. Flick have put their wholesale plan on hold at the mo due to the high whole prices we have seen lately. If you consider moving to Flick, DM me so we can both get a referral bonus.

I was on the Flick Home Harvest plan for quite a while and it was fantastic! Best of both worlds - fixed for buying & variable for selling.

When the wholesale price dropped recently, we moved to Electric Kiwi Move Master plan which provides fixed 14c/kWh for selling but significant opportunities for load shifting, as well as the "free" power too. We are close to 80-90% "off peak" (EK's definition), meanwhile we get around 25% of our power "free" from the "hour of power". For just over 3 months my power bill is $180, so $60 a month.