Draining my energy

Over the past few days, I had to use a surprising amount of my energy to deal with a bit of household management. As is so often the case, there’s quite a bit more to that story, one that began with me feeling bad about myself, until I didn’t anymore, and then got a resolution—for now, anyway.

The end of the story is that I just changed electricity suppliers, but the story begins back the beginning: When I had the solar power system installed, they had a special deal in which I was offered a two year contract with a company called TrustPower, and that’d give me pretty much double the buy-back credit for the excess power I send to the grid. I was with a company called Mercury Energy, but their buy-back rate was among the lowest in New Zealand.

Late last year, I got an email telling me that they were slightly increasing the amount of the buy-back credit until the end of my contract. Then, earlier this year, TrustPower sold their retail business to—ahem—Mercury Energy. I was assured that the rates, terms and conditions I had would remain the same.

This past Friday, I received the first bill since the branding was changed to Mercury. I didn’t notice the email until Saturday evening, and when I read the invoice, I noticed the rate for the buy-back credit was less than half what it had been: 47.225% of the credit I had been getting. Approximately.

I next looked at the previous month’s invoice, and it was also at the lower rate. So was April’s. And March’s. February was the last month I got the full amount. All of which I worked out as Saturday got later.

I was quite upset by this: How could I have missed that change?! Did I get some sort of notification and missed it? Did I not get a notification I should’ve? Or, was I just stupid? At first I blamed my chronic lack of focus—until I remembered that for several months I hadn’t looked beyond the total amount I was being billed—and not at my May bill at all.

Now obsessed with this, I went to my computer and went to Powerswitch, a non-profit site that helps Kiwis find the best electricity provider based on their actual use. It was good, and offered ranked possibilities for me, however, the site didn’t take solar production into account, although they did have listings of rates for various companies’ buy-back credits, and a thumbnail of the restrictions. It turned out that the new rate I’ve been getting over these past four bills was among the lowest in New Zealand—but half a cent above what Mercury normally pays: I really was getting the same amount I had been under TrustPower.

Next, I went to the various websites of the companies that offered the highest buy-back credits, and read up on the terms and conditions. I found out that this sort of research is a very deep rabbit hole, and before I knew it, it was 3am, and my head was mush. I went to bed.

On Sunday morning, I was still trying to figure out how the rate had changed without me knowing it was going to happen. I went back a re-read the emails I’d received, and none of them said anything about the secondary rate going away. But then I yet again re-read the email from late last year and finally saw the part I’d missed ever since: The rate was “for the rest of your agreement”, and that ended with February’s bill. When I first read that email, and up until the last time I re-read it, I just absorbed that the rate was continuing and I completely missed the mention of an end point.

I then made a spreadsheet (of course I did…) to compare the top contenders with what I have now. I had to look at/compare how much the company charges per kilowatt hour (kWh), and how much their buy-back rate of credit is per kWh of solar power sent to the grid. I completely ignored the results from Powerswitch and evaluated the companies with the best buy-back rates.

The best rate—slightly higher than TrustPower originally offered—was with a contract, but one lasting five years. I felt that was a bit risky: It would expire just before I’m 70, and I don’t know how finances will go once I’m on the pension. More importantly, probably, I don’t know where I want to live in five years, and there would be costs to breaking the contract. I decided a 5-year contract wasn’t a good idea—but maybe their 2-year one would be okay? My spreadsheet told me that even with higher rates to pay and lower buy-back credit I’d still save money.

The next morning, Tuesday, I suddenly realised that my entire spreadsheet was completely wrong because I’d forgotten to include one very important thing: The “daily charge”, a fixed charge per day each company charges. For the companies I was considering, that ranged from 30 cents per day to several dollars per day. Not including that was a huge mistake.

I then added the companies Powerswitch had recommended, and also the daily charges for each company. It turned out that, taking into account their daily charges and the rates they charge for power I buy, the company with the 5-year contract would end up being MORE expensive than Mercury was.

In the end, the company I went with was actually the one Powerswitch suggested in the first place, Powershop. They had the second-highest buy-back rates in New Zealand, but the rates that they charge me vary by time of day—highest at peak (7am to 9:30am, and 5:30pm to 8:30pm), lower at off-peak, and lowest overnight (10pm to 7am). Very few power companies offer differential pricing, and at least one that does has uncompetitive rates. I already have a “smart meter” to track power I take from the grid and send to it, and it can already handle tracking my usage in real time. This means I’ll be charged different rates for the power I buy depending on the time of day, and not a flat rate no matter the time of day, like it’s always been ever since I moved to New Zealand. Makes me feel all modern and stuff.

There’s one more unique thing about the company I chose: The sell packages of power at varying rates, but usually less than what my total daily charges would otherwise be. In essence, this is like pre-paying for power, but at a lower rate. More interesting, they offer blocks of power months from now, often at deeply discounted rates—and with bigger discounts the farther in the future it is. In essence, they’re selling the consumer equivalent of electricity futures, a contract to buy future electricity at a set price, something that only electricity retailers take advantage of to, hopefully, lock in profits on the electricity they sell later on. In my case, I can lock in lower prices and pay less for power when I use more—like winter, for example.

In theory, this should allow me to have cheaper power bills by buying packages at lower rates, and even those “futures”, so to speak. However, if it ends up being too much work or the savings too little, there’s no contract and I can change again at any time.

I have to admit that this totally different way of doing things intrigues me, and I’m interested to see how it works for me. I can also say with absolute certainty that this is the first time I’ve ever been interested in how an electricity company does things. Times change?

It took a lot of my energy to get to this point, but I now have a new electricity provider. I’d still like a bit more sun, though.