Switchme Blog

Electricity consulting for commercial customers becomes affordable.

With power prices constantly on the rise in residential and SME markets, commercially supplied business are also facing increases in commercial time of use rates. Higher levels of consumption, compounded by the uncertainty of the New Zealand electricity spot market are making a business’s choice of energy provider more critical than ever. With the potential difference in retailers being thousands of dollars annually, mistakes are often costly and irreversible. As a result businesses need to be asking the following questions:-

• Are they getting the best deal?
• Are they with the best electricity retailer?
• Are they getting as many competitors’ quotes as possible?
• Are they being offered the best plan for their business needs?
• Do they have the ability to accurately assess offers to know exactly what they are agreeing too?

These are all important factors for large electricity consumers with time of use meters to consider. The commercial half-hourly- metered billing system used by all energy retailers is complex and often confusing, this is even before a consumer considers the renewal process.

Unlike most businesses with standard metering, time-of-use customers do not have one fixed unit rate to depend on. In fact, the tariffs offered all depend on time, month, season and the state of the often volatile national electricity spot-market. Consequently, consumers need to be sure that the offer that they are accepting is the best they can possibly negotiate.

Unfortunately, most businesses are happy to simply renew their supply agreements with their current retailers and incur the increased tariffs based on the presumption that power price rises are inevitable. This is also often due to the complicated and time-consuming process of requesting multiple tenders to compete for the power supply and the absence of expert analysis from an industry consultant at an affordable rate.

Switchme has created an easy online service for businesses requiring independent and accurate tender management at an affordable price. Switchme has relationships with all electricity retailers and employs consultants with proven experience in the commercial electricity retail industry.  Switchme will distribute tenders to all major retailers, compile and provide detailed reporting on results, make recommendation on the best retailer for you and assist you with any necessary transition.

Why spend hours contacting all electricity retailers, filling out forms and supplying information to prospective suppliers only to still receive complex tariff data and the potential for further indecision?

Switchme have the tools, relationships and expertise to negotiate the best deal for time-of-use consumers at one fixed affordable rate of $199.00+GST. With the potential to save hundreds of dollars in time and potentially thousands of dollars by having retailers actively compete for your supply, accompanied with the assurance of advice from industry experts, every business can now have the benefit of a comprehensive electricity-supply tender process.

Electricity consumers in New Zealand have dealt with some of the sharpest electricity price increases in the world over the past 20 years.

Kiwi power tariffs now average on a global scale, but in 1990 they were the eighth lowest.

New Zealands annual power prices have increased more than 15c per KiloWatt hour  over the last 20 years , from 9.2c per kWh in 1990 to 25.5c at the end of 2010. That’s compared with a rise of less than 2c per kWh in Australia and around 3c per kWh in the USA.

In 2010 Australians were paying on average 14.83c while for New Zealanders, electricity was retailing for between 22.7c and 24.97c per kWh. Since this comparison was made, New Zealand prices have risen as high as 29.25c per kWh , showing that Kiwis are consistently paying considerably more than the Australian neighbors.

Basil Sharp, University of Auckland head of economics and the head of the New Zealand Energy Centre, said the increase in electricity prices was due to a growing economy.

“If you look at the historical relationship between consumption of energy and growth in GDP, when the economy is growing demand for electricity grows. When the demand is increasing you pay more for it.”

He said another factor was that most of New Zealand’s hydroelectricity had been developed and the next step would be other sources of generation, such as more expensive renewable sources. Australia had coal, which would seem cheap, barring carbon taxes.

But Sharp advises that people should be careful of making international comparisons. Government subsidies of $63.5 Billion were being given to the electricity sector globally every year. Although some countries are paying less for electricity, taxpayers are still paying for it via subsidies whereas New Zealands’ supply in unsubsidized.

Genesis Energy’s public affairs manager Richard Gordon said that the global comparison was meaningless, stating “New Zealand has a very esoteric electricity system that is structurally different from most other countries – mostly renewable generation with some thermal fuelled mostly from local fuel supplies, no shared borders and no cross-border transmission, and a long narrow transmission system.

“New Zealand electricity prices are driven by the local environmental and market conditions.”

Source: Stuff.co.nz

Apart from the ability to turn on your lights each evening, what else does your power company give you?

Genesis Energy are rewarding their residential customers for their loyalty by running rewards point system designed to give customers something in return just for paying for the energy they use!

Customers can gain points each month by using the online services, paying their bills by the due date, making payments by direct debit and helping Genesis to reduce their paper usage by opting to receive their bills online instead of in the post!

Brownie points are accumulated each month and can be used to treat yourself to books and magazines, household gadgets, music, toys, clothing and accessories and vouchers to many nationwide stores such as Farmers, Mitre 10 and Glassons!

Use Switchme.co.nz to find out if you could save money each month and earn rewards by switching to Genesis Energy and you’ll receive 3000 Brownie Points to get you started!

The new electricity regulator has advised an increase in customers switching electricity retailers and that the market has started to become more competitive.

Chief executive of the Electricity Authority Carl Hansen says the government campaign that encouraged households to shop around for a better electricity tariff has generated more interest than was expected when the campaign launched in May last year.

Energy retailer comparison services such as Switchme.co.nz saw a massive increase in customers searching for a cheaper supplier in July last year and switching power companies.

The amount of consumers switching energy suppliers is still on the increase despite the campaign advertising ending months ago, up 18.6 per cent by a year ago.

New offers by major electricity retailers designed to retain customers were a clear sign that power companies are starting to respond to increased consumer activity the authority said.

Hansen said recently that narrowing tariffs might make customers more “sticky” as benefits of switching retailers became fewer.

“You might expect to see are the headline tariffs converging, but there will be a lot more particular deals and tariff options that will offer good value”.

This proves that encouraging consumers to look for a better deal is forcing the electricity retailers to reward their loyal customers and offer better rates to boost their customer numbers.

The switching campaign will start up again this year and is expected to cause an even bigger impact on the household electricity market.

Visit Switchme.co.nz to find out if you could be getting a cheaper monthly electricity bill or call free on 0800 179 482 for advice.