Mercury are a complete rort. I had originally shifted from Meridian to Mercury because they were cheaper. Mercury started increasing prices and supposedly doing me a favour by locking in at special rate for 2? years. Turns out I ended up on rates higher than Meridian. I took the $150 penalty and went back to Meridian.

I was offered good rates on a 1 year term that noone else would match and when it ran out the rates went to their standard ones which were still less than I was on with genesis before moving to mercury.

dunnersdude: Electricity pricing plans are strange. The last time I looked it fixed term contracts I discovered that the rate over that time was higher than the standard rate. Made no sense to me at the time.

They are counting on people believing that the historic increases in power mean that it will keep on doing that in the future to lock in todays price before it goes up.

The increased use of LEDs and other increases in efficiency will likely keep a cap on near term residential demand growth, and there is a bit more generation coming on stream in the next 1-2 years (Mercury and Genesis Windfarms), so its unlikely that prices are going up much...

On the other hand I'm  Mercury shareholder,  so you should probably take it   :) :) :)

richms:

 

I was offered good rates on a 1 year term that noone else would match and when it ran out the rates went to their standard ones which were still less than I was on with genesis before moving to mercury.

 

I find that strange , because I am with genesis and they are the cheapest I could find at the time (although I am with power and gas). I note that my contract has expired, I'll have to renegotiate or move to a new supplier now.

The power switch website should give you a good idea what is the best value in your location, and whether you are buying both power and gas.

Dulouz:

 

I'm a mercury energy customer and have been offered a 2 year fixed price deal i.e. no price increases for two years - is this a good deal?

 

Who can tell if it is a good deal if we don't have any numbers to work compare with what's available: your current annual plan, usage, prices and discounts and their offered plan, prices and discounts.

Re Mercury, they have had some excellent prices for high users. When I chose to leave for a lower price, they offered me a deal fixed for two years that would beat anything else I've seen since then.

They only make their best offer once you start the move to another company.

Hammerer:

 

They only make their best offer once you start the move to another company.

 

And the nutty government wants to stop that form of negotiation with changes to the power industry.

Does anyone have any idea how to compare prices for power for commercial property, without contacting the companies individually? Thanks!

Are the energy companies prices all about the same? There are only a few commercial providers?

We checked Powerswitch 6 months back which showed Meridian had the best deal for our use case - so we started the move from Mercury to Meridian.

Mercury's retention team kicked in - offered a $300 Credit and increased the discount to 22% - so they became the cheapest - so I stayed with them.