Best power company for EV's

First thing's to note, is that depending on your mileage in your EV, and the rest of your households energy consumption, the power that goes into your EV could well be quite minor.

We average around 50kWh/day in winter, typically less 5kWh of that would go into the EV, A full charge for my tired leaf comes in under 16kWh (I Have never hit turtle mode to fully test it).

Further, there is a limit to how much EV charging you can move off peak:

Limit's to charging speed. If you get back from a daytrip and want to replenish say 30kWh in a big battery EV, with an 8A portable charge cord (cira 17h charge time), you are going to want to start immediately, rather than wait to 9 or 11pm.
Middle of the day top off's. On a short range like my leaf, (especially when only charging to 80%), it is a good idea to top off whenever possible, so the car still has decent range left for surprise errands etc. On a long range EV, likely rarer that one would bother to plug in in the middle of the day, but perhaps if one was running errands in the morning, and needing to top off before starting a road trip in the afternoon.
Pre-conditioning the cabin. Really nice in winter, This draws quite a lot of power, and if the car is plugged in, it will generally re-start the charge to replenish this. Perhaps 1.5kWh in morning peak (Haven't exactly measured, but it would be pritty easy for me to do if anybody cares).

Result of all of this is that you the optimal power plan for you with an EV, could well be the same as it was without an EV. (assuming of course that you were already on a standard rather than low user plan).

Went power plan shopping a few months back.

Big thread her (ignore top post, I didn't consider mercury prompt payment discount in those numbers):

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=141&topicid=295519

Ultimately Built a big spreadsheet, based on the somewhat flawed assumption that I would use even power 24/7 (i.e. I would be able to move enough power into night time to offset my current daytime biased use pattern), Free hours of power were considered, but at 1/24th of the days consumption each only.

Front runners of my model (29 days, 1130kWh) were:

Octopus at $241 (time of use, prices fixed 1 year)

EK move master at $256 (time of use + 1 hr free)

Mercury 2y contract $259 (fixed / kWh cost. $200 signing bonus, prices fixed two years)

Contact good nights $306 (3 hr free power)

Initially signed up with octopus (great company to deal with by the way, fully recommend)

But before our change over date, in discussions with my partner, decided it wasn't really worth our effort to shift power use to night time for a $16/month saving (when considering that we would need to put some capital into it like installing a hot water timer).

So we are now signed up with Mercuary. 16.86c/KWh + 236.86c/day incl after discounts. Obviously the $200 signing bonus is worth $8.3/ month over 24 months. I also thought it was fairly prudent to lock in pricing for two years given inflation is running north of 7% a year.

Ultimately the decision for OP will come down to how much power they can shift into off peak / free hours.

If it is not much (i.e. work from home most days, hot water heated from solar thermal, small daily travel in EV), then the flat rate plan would be best.

If it is a lot (i.e. commute 200km/day in an ev, and have installed fast enough charging to replenish the cira 35kWh in the off peak period + have a hot water cylinder they are willing to put onto a timer), then a time of use plan would be best.

The Electric Kiwi Move Move master (1 free hour of power), and Contact good nights (3 hours of free power), really come down to how much you can hammer that free period. EK is a little cheaper generally but has a shorter free period.

If your EV can charge at 7kW (cira 32A), you will replenish 40km of range in an hour, or 120km in three hours.

If you are doing somewhere in the area of 120km / day in your EV, so can cover pritty much all your EV running plus a few other loads (hot water, dishwasher & tumble dryer on timers or switched on before you go to bed etc.), the the good nights plan might be great for you.

On Good nights, back when I pulled my numbers they were $2.28/day +$0.2427/kWh, so yes you are paying more for the non free hours. But if you can really hammer the free hours, it is a great deal.

Couple of things to watch out for:

Some energy provided's like pulse require notice before you change providers...
Mercury switched me the day before I asked them to... (thankfully pulse agreed to waive their $150 fee)
The size of your pole fuse limits how much power you can use in free periods. In short, a house like mine has a single 63A fuse on the power pole. It is a fairly slow blow fuse, so draw needs to be above this for an extended period to blow it. This provides a practical limit to how much you can hammer free power periods. (less of an issue if you have a 100A or multiphase feed to your house)

craftybeernz

Scott3