Power company recommendations

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MikeB4

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#141283 7-Mar-2014 10:08

I looked at this a few months ago but decided to stay with Genesis mainly I wasn't up to the hassle health wise, however having received an email this week from Genesis advising of close to a 82% increase in my fixed line daily rate I feel it is really time to consider my options.

What are peoples recommendations for power companies?

I need supply of both Electricity and reticulated Gas.
I would also like electronic billing and payment, online power consumption ability would be nice but not vital.

I have asked Genesis to justify their 82% increase I will wait with anticipation for the corporate spin and BS on it.

Oh and I live in the Wellington region.

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#1000578 7-Mar-2014 10:25

Powershop have been pretty good. All the door knockers who come around to get us to switch say they can't match powershop's rates, so they don't even try.

MikeB4

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#1000581 7-Mar-2014 10:32

Does Powershop do reticulated gas?

sbiddle

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#1000588 7-Mar-2014 10:40

It won't matter who you go with, the daily charge will be the same as this increase is from the lines company (WE) who are increasing their daily charge from 15c to 90c and is simply being passed on by every power companmy. There is already a big discussion on here around this increase and the price increases are on theie website (http://www.welectricity.co.nz/disclosures/Pages/Pricing%20Information/pricing14-15.pdf)

old3eyes

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#1000592 7-Mar-2014 10:42

KiwiNZ: I looked at this a few months ago but decided to stay with Genesis mainly I wasn't up to the hassle health wise, however having received an email this week from Genesis advising of close to a 82% increase in my fixed line daily rate I feel it is really time to consider my options.

What are peoples recommendations for power companies?

I need supply of both Electricity and reticulated Gas.
I would also like electronic billing and payment, online power consumption ability would be nice but not vital.

I have asked Genesis to justify their 82% increase I will wait with anticipation for the corporate spin and BS on it.

Oh and I live in the Wellington region.

Just imagine if the likes of Telecom put up their line rental (cable pair component) by that amount. The Com Com would pretty soon be on the case but power companies in NZ seem to get away with it..

Regards,

Old3eyes

sbiddle

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#1000596 7-Mar-2014 10:45

old3eyes:
Just imagine if the likes of Telecom put up their line rental (cable pair component) by that amount. The Com Com would pretty soon be on the case but power companies in NZ seem to get away with it..

Ironically some of these increases are a result of Commerce Commission determinations - check out the Electricity Distribution Services Default Price Quality Determination on the ComCom site.

jonathan18

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#1000597 7-Mar-2014 10:46

KiwiNZ: Does Powershop do reticulated gas?

No, only electricity. But there could still be advantages from splitting your services by providers; for many years we were with Powershop for electricity and Nova for gas, and that seemed to give us good savings over the cheapest dual-utility provider. (Ironically, we've recently moved to Genesis, but only on the basis of ok locked-in rates for a year; I'm sure we'll be shifting when that time's up.)

Have you tried the Powerswitch website? Will show you the various options involving both gas and electricity.

MikeB4

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#1000602 7-Mar-2014 10:56

sbiddle: It won't matter who you go with, the daily charge will be the same as this increase is from the lines company (WE) who are increasing their daily charge from 15c to 90c and is simply being passed on by every power companmy. There is already a big discussion on here around this increase and the price increases are on theie website (http://www.welectricity.co.nz/disclosures/Pages/Pricing%20Information/pricing14-15.pdf)

I don't know where they get the 4% figure from, based on my last account my fixed daily charge will go from $30.30 to $55.17 on a total power charge of $174.25 so the under the new rates I would be paying $199.12. Now I am not good at maths but that does seem a tad over 4%

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MikeB4

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#1000604 7-Mar-2014 10:58

jonathan18:
KiwiNZ: Does Powershop do reticulated gas?

No, only electricity. But there could still be advantages from splitting your services by providers; for many years we were with Powershop for electricity and Nova for gas, and that seemed to give us good savings over the cheapest dual-utility provider. (Ironically, we've recently moved to Genesis, but only on the basis of ok locked-in rates for a year; I'm sure we'll be shifting when that time's up.)

Have you tried the Powerswitch website? Will show you the various options involving both gas and electricity.

I will give Powerswitch a whirl. I am also looking for real life experiences with these companies

sbiddle

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#1000610 7-Mar-2014 11:04

KiwiNZ:
sbiddle: It won't matter who you go with, the daily charge will be the same as this increase is from the lines company (WE) who are increasing their daily charge from 15c to 90c and is simply being passed on by every power companmy. There is already a big discussion on here around this increase and the price increases are on theie website (http://www.welectricity.co.nz/disclosures/Pages/Pricing%20Information/pricing14-15.pdf)

I don't know where they get the 4% figure from, based on my last account my fixed daily charge will go from $30.30 to $55.17 on a total power charge of $174.25 so the under the new rates I would be paying $199.12. Now I am not good at maths but that does seem a tad over 4%

Most of this has already been discussed in the other thread.

The 4% figure they refer to is the total bill increase for a retail customer. While the daily charge is going up by a few hundred % the c/kwh rate will drop as this consists of both a line charge which is dropping and the actual power cost. This means the overall increase for a customer will really depend on your usage, with higher use users actually having a lower increase.

Low use customers do not have an increase in their line charge.

MikeB4

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#1000623 7-Mar-2014 11:06

sbiddle:
KiwiNZ:
sbiddle: It won't matter who you go with, the daily charge will be the same as this increase is from the lines company (WE) who are increasing their daily charge from 15c to 90c and is simply being passed on by every power companmy. There is already a big discussion on here around this increase and the price increases are on theie website (http://www.welectricity.co.nz/disclosures/Pages/Pricing%20Information/pricing14-15.pdf)

I don't know where they get the 4% figure from, based on my last account my fixed daily charge will go from $30.30 to $55.17 on a total power charge of $174.25 so the under the new rates I would be paying $199.12. Now I am not good at maths but that does seem a tad over 4%

Most of this has already been discussed in the other thread.

The 4% figure they refer to is the total bill increase for a retail customer. While the daily charge is going up by ~500% the c/kwh rate will drop as this consists of both a line charge which is dropping and the actual power cost.

cheers for that

I will read the other thread, this one is about company recommendations not a price hike soapbox.

alasta

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#1000633 7-Mar-2014 11:19

KiwiNZ:
sbiddle: It won't matter who you go with, the daily charge will be the same as this increase is from the lines company (WE) who are increasing their daily charge from 15c to 90c and is simply being passed on by every power companmy. There is already a big discussion on here around this increase and the price increases are on theie website (http://www.welectricity.co.nz/disclosures/Pages/Pricing%20Information/pricing14-15.pdf)

I don't know where they get the 4% figure from, based on my last account my fixed daily charge will go from $30.30 to $55.17 on a total power charge of $174.25 so the under the new rates I would be paying $199.12. Now I am not good at maths but that does seem a tad over 4%

Is that figure just a typical summer bill for you, or is it representative of your monthly average over the course of a year? If the latter then you're probably using less than 8000kwh per year which means you'd be better off on the low usage plan.

MikeB4

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#1000643 7-Mar-2014 11:24

That is a summer bill and does not include the Gas, that would add $84.

Our winter average is around $550. However that was before our Spa pool went to Valhalla so I am not sure what our winter accounts will be. It is looking like approximately $100 reduction in consumption without the Spa.

MikeB4

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#1000808 7-Mar-2014 15:23

I was looking at Trustpower as they offer Power/Gas/Phone/Internet as a one stop shop but in their T&C's their is a nasty gotcha, if you swap from Trustpower to another provider at anytime in the future a $95 per service switched exit fee applies. So if you switched all four it will cost $380 exit fees. Ouch!

vexxxboy

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#1000866 7-Mar-2014 16:13

the cheapest at the moment is Energy Direct based in Wanganui, they gave me $100 and 13 months frozen fees for switching and they also have the cheapest charges, the only drawback is they have no online anything except their site , they also do gas

Common sense is not as common as you think.

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#1000871 7-Mar-2014 16:19

KiwiNZ: I was looking at Trustpower as they offer Power/Gas/Phone/Internet as a one stop shop but in their T&C's their is a nasty gotcha, if you swap from Trustpower to another provider at anytime in the future a $95 per service switched exit fee applies. So if you switched all four it will cost $380 exit fees. Ouch!

The only place I can find that is in the T&Cs for a 24-month term as part of an "electricity acquisition campaign". I'm not sure whether it applies if you just sign up normally through the site, which appears to be open term.

Trustpower does seem to be the cheapest for my usage (Energy Direct doesn't offer service here) so I've been thinking about switching to them. I don't want to get stuck on a contract though!

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