Looking to change power companies

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AKLWestie

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#2667843 4-Mar-2021 17:28

As someone said before, it depends on your locaton, usage pattern, meter(s) available etc.

I used to get the best, or almost the best rate from Genesis for many years. But they increased the rates by 20%+ (from memory) when the last contract ends. So I shopped around, and to my surprise, Nova Energy gave me the best deal.

Personally I would avoid getting boardband from power companies, because usually it is provided by a third party. I do not want to get into the trouble of getting support (if any) for a non-core product from a power company.

Yes, my total bill (power + gas + broadband) is higher, but it is easier for me to deal with. Also gives me a piece of mind that I can change network provider anytime I want, as my power + gas deals are on contract.

Warn you, from my personal experience, Nova's system is not very automatic or smart. Unlike Genesis and other power companies, which let users to see power usage by the hour. All I can get is a bar chart on my monthly bill showing usage by months.

But so far, works OK for me. Power is power, gas is gas. I get the same stuff coming to my house and I am paying less. :)

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Detruire

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#2667880 4-Mar-2021 19:43

IME those price comparison sites are pretty much useless for actually comparing rates. They're useful to give you an idea which of the smaller companies retail in your area, but the prices are usually way off: I typically can't get the lowest rates shown, and the best (actual) prices are from companies which are middle-of-the-pack on Powerswitch, etc..

Personally I'm with Nova. I switched to them last year after Mercury decreased our prompt payment discount without telling us, which made their rates some of the worst in my area. Nova quoted the best rates, and offered a sign-up credit on a fixed-price contract (with reasonable cancellation terms).

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jonathan18

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#2667882 4-Mar-2021 19:51

tchart:

Wow I dont know how you guys get such good rates - or Wellington is just a complete rort.

My current pricing is;

Day $1.99 ExGST

Per KwH = $0.2026 ExGST

I just looked on Power Switch and it reccomends Electric Kiwi with "proposed savings" of roughly $1000 per year.

However when you look at the rates they are higher! So Im guess its the stacked discounts and free hour?

Fixed Charge Anytime: $2.0500
Anytime Variable charge: $0.2179

Just checking you're comparing apples with apples here as you explicitly state only one of those sets of prices is GST exclusive. If not, and your current provider charges as listed are exclusive and the EK ones are inclusive, that's quite a difference (ie, EK is cheaper): 2.29 v 2.05 and 0.2330 vs 0.2179 (all inclusive; man, it annoys me power companies still so often quote exclusive prices).

In my situation, PowerSwitch significantly overestimated my charges with EK (vs actual) - see this post -but I agree things like the free hour make calculations difficult for PowerSwitch.

rugrat

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#2667903 4-Mar-2021 20:13

What the heck is going on? All those day charges are around $2.00 a day.
My fixed daily charge is 83.5 cents a day with genesis, Christchurch.
I hope it doesn’t go to $2, have a few months to go on contract. I’ve got my power bill around $100 a month, don’t want $60 to be just charges without using any power.

concordnz

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#2667915 4-Mar-2021 20:22

Gurezaemon:
concordnz: I havnt changed power companies in 10-20 years,

Yes:I have researched geekzone threads - most are 3+ years old.

Just checking - have you seen this from a few weeks ago?
https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=48&topicid=281443

I missed seeing that one - thanks, I'll check it out.

concordnz

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#2667926 4-Mar-2021 20:31

Sorry, I did not realise there would be significant regional differences, if I had,
I would have stated that I'm located in Auckland.

Useage, is based off actual useage, and yes, load is spread consistently across 24hrs,
Day/night rates are mostly immaterial (the benefit, is the lower overall average, but I can't move 'useage between timeframes')

I asked Mercury about commercial power rates and they advised that commercial is always more expensive than residential, so they advised against that.

rugrat

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#2667928 4-Mar-2021 20:35

I found prices on Genesis web site, still 83.5, and 12 cents night, 30 cents day.
If I go to low user can get it down to 30 cents a day, variable charges 2 cents higher then now.

timmmay

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#2667930 4-Mar-2021 20:36

tchart:

Wow I dont know how you guys get such good rates - or Wellington is just a complete rort.

My current pricing is;

Day $1.99 ExGST

Per KwH = $0.2026 ExGST

I just looked on Power Switch and it reccomends Electric Kiwi with "proposed savings" of roughly $1000 per year.

However when you look at the rates they are higher! So Im guess its the stacked discounts and free hour?

Fixed Charge Anytime: $2.0500
Anytime Variable charge: $0.2179

Copied from my EK console, both inc GST

$2.0800/day
$0.1868/kWh (this went down recently)

rugrat: What the heck is going on? All those day charges are around $2.00 a day.
My fixed daily charge is 83.5 cents a day with genesis, Christchurch.
I hope it doesn’t go to $2, have a few months to go on contract. I’ve got my power bill around $100 a month, don’t want $60 to be just charges without using any power.

You're likely on a low user plan. Your per kwh charge is probably quite a bit higher. Or maybe it's just a south island thing.

A family of three including a youngster we paid $160 in Jan inc all charges, but that doesn't take into account the 8% bonus for prepaying. Last July that was $380, but we keep our house at about 23 degrees all winter.

concordnz

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#2667936 4-Mar-2021 20:42

I made a mistake, thinking Mercurys new rates were gst inclusive(the same way they are displayed on their monthly bill) . - this was wrong,
I have now spotted some very fine print, which states these incoming rates which I posted in my initial post are actually 'GST Exclusive'...

I will update opening post with correction.
& I will add prompt payment info.

Hammerer

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#2667951 4-Mar-2021 21:32

rhy7s:

Talking about regional differences, is there anywhere that provides the approximate difference to be expected by region?

Powerswitch shows regional trends for the following regional centres "Based on an average annual consumption for a medium sized household (7576 kWh per year)":

Auckland
Auckland North/West
Hamilton
Tauranga
Wellington
ChristchurchDunedin

https://www.powerswitch.org.nz/trends

I regularly look at them to see what is happening between regions e.g. Is Auckland cheaper than Wellington? Usually.

Scott3

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#2667953 4-Mar-2021 21:42

Detruire:

IME those price comparison sites are pretty much useless for actually comparing rates. They're useful to give you an idea which of the smaller companies retail in your area, but the prices are usually way off: I typically can't get the lowest rates shown, and the best (actual) prices are from companies which are middle-of-the-pack on Powerswitch, etc..

Personally I'm with Nova. I switched to them last year after Mercury decreased our prompt payment discount without telling us, which made their rates some of the worst in my area. Nova quoted the best rates, and offered a sign-up credit on a fixed-price contract (with reasonable cancellation terms).

I have never had much luck with the comparison sites either. Better luck manually checking 10+ retailers websites...

Scott3

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#2667958 4-Mar-2021 22:04

concordnz: Sorry, I did not realise there would be significant regional differences, if I had,
I would have stated that I'm located in Auckland.

Useage, is based off actual useage, and yes, load is spread consistently across 24hrs,
Day/night rates are mostly immaterial (the benefit, is the lower overall average, but I can't move 'useage between timeframes')

I asked Mercury about commercial power rates and they advised that commercial is always more expensive than residential, so they advised against that.

Note that "Auckland" & "Auckland North / West" are different area's for power pricing. I am in "Auckland". Pricing can also vary based on if you have a controlled load (typically hot water).

Went through the exercise in Dec 2020.

Ended up deciding between (all prices INCL GST):

Meridian EV day/night plan ($300 signing bonus)
- 21.24c / kWh day
- 11.97c / kWh night (9pm - 7am)
- 179.95c daily charge
Pulse energy
- 16.494c / kWh anytime
- 178c/day

We spend a lot of time at home during the day so decided not to go the day / night route.

Assuming even power power usage, the meridian time of use plan works out to 17.38c kWh.

Anyway should be some decent savings to be had vs the $21.82/kWh incl GST (+ EA levy) in your initial post.

snnet

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#2669584 7-Mar-2021 19:09

I was surprised that looking at the likes of electric kiwi etc I wasn't actually going to save money compared to what I was paying genesis

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