An interesting comment from you considering Powershop was listed the top green electricity provider in this article from Choice (November, 2015).
I swapped to Diamond Energy as a result of this article (Powershop was not available in SA), and have been happy with the change. The fact that they are anti CSG is very important to me. In fact, as one of the PowerUp trial participants, I have just been offered a switch to Origin that would give me savings of $225 pa - which I am refusing because of Origin’s dirty power.
Is it time for another update on this article?
As you can see, there are many issues to consider and many of the big companies are now divesting their coal mining interests. All the companies are retailers only and the reality is that they all source energy from the same pool - whether is generated by renewables or not.
That is a big step in our world where obfuscation has been the norm, and Victoria? It will be interesting to see how we go here.
I am puzzled by the comments about pay on time discounts being confusing because of differing base rates - it is applied to the billed amount. Of all the discounts that have been contrived I have always thought that was the only one that was devoid of skullduggery, although the ‘billed amount’ itself might be quite devious in make up.
And then not a world about some companies discounting off use and supply, and some just use…
My cynical self thinks the pollies world has woken up to the reality the games are becoming well known and might affect some votes, so they have to be seen has having done something but want to do as little as possible over as long as possible.
My father in law just had in April a 28% discount on usage charges (not daily charges though) account set up by my brother in law with another company. Previously he had been on a 2% pay on time reduction from AGL. So I checked this 28% discount out.
AGL Peak usage charge $0.26/kwh, Controlled supply $0.22/kwh Daily service charge Peak $1.00/day Controlled $0.03/day This lead to a total bill of about $243 per quarter (out by a few cents) all before the 2% discount and after his pensioner discount.
The other company (in same order) $0.324, $0.28, $1.309, $0.03 which based on the figure from AGL usage and after 28% discount on usage charges and pensioner discount was $258 for the same quarter.
AGL in the meantime has responded with a 30% discount on usage charges which means his old $0.26 peak drops to about $0.189 and a correspondingly cheaper controlled supply charge. Using the same figures as before will put his bill at $179.
So not every discount can really save you money and may make you worse off. My father in law is now happily back with AGL and enjoying a much better deal.
