Saving money by 'switching' Electricity Supplier/Plan

Late last year I finally got around to using the State Government's "Energy Watch" website to compare my electricity supplier/plan with others that were available. After entering some facts about my current bills (costs and usage pattern) it turned out that the best alternative for us was 'switching' to a different plan offered by our current supplier. (Because I didn't actually change supplier I've since received reminder emails from Energy Watch saying that I didn't complete the switching process).

As I have setup automatic payment of our electricity bills by direct debit (I just have to make sure I remember that the charge is due, so I have enough money in that bank account!) the best plan available for us was one where there is a hefty (around 25%) discount on the energy usage component of the bill (ie. everything except the daily 'supply'/connection charge) if the bill is paid "on time". It also involved locking us in to that supplier for a period of time, but as I hadn't bothered switching suppliers for the past decade that isn't an issue.

Looking at the four quarterly bills we paid for 2017/18 vs 2018/19 our figures were:

FY 2017/18 kWh = 8,941 cost = $2,367
FY 2018/19 kWh = 9,065 cost = $2,092

Therefore our usage had increase 1% (no significant change) while our bill had dropped 12%, despite only making the switch to the discounted plan at the end of 2018.

We also saved a little bit by paying more attention to our usage during 'peak' times - managing to reduce our 'peak' time electricity usage from 10% of our total to only 6% (basically by DW not doing any washing during the 'peak' hours, and us not starting to cook dinner most days until after the 'peak' period ended (peak period is 2pm-8pm on weekdays). Peak electricity cost around 60c per kWh, compared to 27c for 'shoulder' periods (7am-2pm and 8pm-10pm) and 13-16c for 'off peak' (10pm-7am) and 'dedicated circuit' supply (which I think is our hot water tank).

Switching plans half way through the year saved us around $250 last financial year, and we should reduce our annual electricity bill by about another $250 this financial year.

The comparisons don't take into account the price changes for electricity over the past two years - as prices have increased 9% during that period, our bills would have been even higher if we hadn't switched plans or reduced our 'peak' usage.

The next item on my 'to do' list relating to electricity costs is to get our solar panels/inverter checked and possibly repaired. We had solar panels installed on our garage roof about ten years ago, and because the cost was subsidised by a government rebate and there were initially very generous 'feed in' tarriffs applied, the system had paid for itself after only 2-3 years, and the solar power had been subsidizing our electricity bills (until the inverter stopped working a couple of years ago).

While our solar power system is out of warranty (and the supplier went out of business long ago), it might be worth getting a new inverter installed (if the panels are still OK). I made a few inquiries about getting a repair quote, but most solar panel suppliers only seem interested in selling new system.

Getting the solar panels working again would only reduce our total mains usage by about 10%, but it would mostly cut our 'peak' and  daytime 'shoulder' use, so it would have slightly more impact on our bills than on our mains electricity consumption. It would also help cut our contribution to carbon emissions a little bit (but probably not as much as the fact that I now get the bus and train to work each day, rather than driving).

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2019

Going Solar

Our solar power panels were finally installed by NuEnergy last week. The installation only took a couple of hours, and the panels on top of our garage roof aren't even visible from the street. We now have to get the feed-in meters installed by the EnergyAustralia contractor so we can get paid for the power being generated. There was some mucking about regarding one of the authorisation numbers - when DW phoned the meter installation contractor he said we would need to get a "CEC" before he could order the meter, but after a few more phone calls to EnergyAustralia they confirmed we had already made all the necessary arrangements when we placed the order last October. It's just as well, as otherwise we would be paid at the new (much lower) feed-in tariff for the next couple of years.

Hopefully now that the meter has been ordered the contractor will make an appointment to install it in the next couple of weeks, and we can start earning some money from "green energy" to pay for the (subsidised) cost of the PV system.

ps. I phoned our insurance company and increased our building insurance by the full value of the PV system (around $13,000). If we get hit by one of the massive hail storms Sydney sometimes experiences, we would have to pay full price to replace the PV system, not the $3,000 or so it cost this time around.

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2010

Going Green(ish)

Yesterday I signed a contract for NuEnergy to install a 1.5kW photovoltaic power system on our roof. The installation won't happen for 10-12 weeks (as all the application paperwork for the Federal government rebate has to be approved before installation can commence). So, hopefully, the system will be installed before Christmas.

I decided to sign-up immediately because the state government feed-in tariff of 66c per kWhr power generated by small PV systems is due to be reconsidered now that the review threshold of 50MW PV capacity has been reached. The review is due to be completed by the end of September, and soon afterwards new legislation will be passed by state parliament for a new (probably lower) Gross feed-in tariff, or possibly removing the option of Gross feed-in for new agreements. So, time was of the essence in getting signed up for the existing Gross feed-in tariff with Energy Australia.

The PV system should cost around $3,000 installed (due to the Federal governments rebate worth about $6,000!), and at a Gross feed-in tariff of 66 per kWhr the system should generate about $1,400 income per year until the end of the current tariff in 6.5 years time. So the PV system should pay itself off in the first two years, and earn us a net profit of around $5,000 by 2017. After that it should continue to provide about 15% of our energy needs at zero cost, saving around $500 off our annual electricity bill. Since the cost of electricity is rapidly rising the annual saving from 2017 is likely to be much greater, but we will still have a much bigger electricity bill than today. By 2017 there may be more efficient PV cells available, so it might be worth augmenting the capacity of our system at that time.

Once the system is installed and I have actual energy production data available from the 'smart' meter, I may experiment with boosting output by positioning some mirrors around the PV panels. As second-hand mirrors are available for minimal cost, it may be possible to reflect additional sunlight onto the panels relatively simply. A carefully positioned fixed mirror would direct additional sunlight onto the panels in the middle of the day, and only cast a shadow onto the PV array when the sun is at low altitude. The net effect should be a gain in total daily output from the PV system.

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2010