Powershop’s prices have gone up a lot from 1 January so after being a customer for two years I have moved to Pacific Hydro.
They also changed their pricing model from pre-paid powerpacks where you bought a set number of kWh to a model where you effectively pre-pay $$$$ to get the discount. Most other utility companies give you 14 days after your bill to get the discount. So that’s another negative.
This is sad as Powershop’s service was the best I have experienced from any utility, telco or government department.
I also liked that their power was carbon neutral.
I can’t understand how their costs went up so much when they don’t buy brown coal so the Hazelwood station closure should not have affected them. Perhaps, the solar and wind farms upped their prices to gouge the consumer when the cheap base load power from coal was removed. That’s the only explanation I can think of.
Just to say that I’ve learned more about how Powershop works through reading this thread than from any communication from Powershop themselves.
I switched from Origin at the prompting of several environmental organisations that I respect. It wasn’t to save money.
I have found the Powershop ‘packs’ completely baffling. I have no idea what I’m paying for my electricity or how to save money. I keep on getting messages saying I’ve consumed more than I paid for and yet when the bill comes, I’m in credit (which is nice). So far as I know, they offer good value and are more ethical / environmentally conscious than the big three, but they could certainly improve their communications (from the perspective of this 50-something, highly educated and highly numerate consumer).
Glad to see so many people rate them well. Gives me confidence that I’ve made a good choice!
You are not alone. I changed from Origin to Powershop as well and am completely bamboozled. In one month I’ve purchased electricity at twice the price of 6 months bills and they say I have 29 days worth of power left. If this is in fact the case, then it’s costing me a hell of a lot more at Powershop. I wrote and told them I was completely flummoxed and could they explain how it works. Instead of an explanation I got the notice telling me I had 29 days worth of power to use (this, a few days after purchasing the very expensive power pack.) It can’t possibly be right. I don’t think it’s for me and am now looking for another power provider. Anybody got any good suggestions? We have solar but not solar hot water.
I have been using Powershop for 18 months. They are quite good, but I also found that the power purchased/power used stuff quite confusing. I can’t see a total of what I have paid by month. I also get messages saying I am about to run out of power and to pay up but then I check on line and I’m way ahead? Duh???
Well, it is now February 2017 and I’m still waiting for my promised meter change. Instead of consuming the solar energy I product and saving myself 25c/kWh I’m selling it to the grid for 8.2c/kWh. I’ve been chasing up the Powershop side, but it seems the issue is with the installer Metropolis just not being any good at saying what is happening.
I’m in Sydney in an Endeavour Energy area and have been with Powershop since around June 2016. I recently compared pricing from Dodo, Poweshop, AGL and Click Energy. Dodo was the cheapest with Powershop coming in second best. Powershop buy certificates so my power is technically carbon neutral, so I’m sticking with them.
Hi Alison, I expect you noticed a change in your Powershop pricing towards the end of 2016.
As far as I can make out, Powershop abandoned their all-in pricing for units of power. The all-in pricing included an element for the daily supply charge plus an element per kw used.
At the end of each month (in Victoria anyway) they would change the per-unit price every month depending on how much power you’d used the month before, so they could still expect to get their daily supply charge.
Advantage used to be that if you were away and used almost no power you didn’t have to pay the supply charge for those days.
Well, they don’t do that any more. Now they have separate charging rates for supply charge, peak power, and off peak power use.
Their daily supply charge is still cheaper than Origin’s. If you pay in advance the amount you actually have to pay for supply and power use is much less as well. You also get a pay in advance discount on the supply charge which I don’t think you can get from other providers.
I liked the old system, you seemed to be able to game it better, but the new system is still very competitive. I love that you can use your phone app to look at yesterday’s usage in half hour blocks.
I was disappointed when they changed their charging system but I’m sticking with them. Good that they are committed to being carbon neutral and encouraging their clients to use less electricity.
A big plus for Powershop here. Its a lot cheaper that my old suppliers and I love knowing how much power I am using from day to day and hour to hour ( with a smart meter). I have also found them very responsive to queries and grumbles.
Hi, I’ve used them since they first serviced NSW. You can do best if you actively manage your buying of power as they have occasional specials that you can’t set up as the default auto pay option. Our old house had solar panels and I accumulated quite a credit using the now defunct and generous 60c a KWH gross scheme. We moved house and I’m still running that credit down. Our new house, despite being built in 2016 does not have a smart meter nor solar electricity and I input meter readings to the Powershop web site usually once a week. If you don’t input anything for over 14 days they send you a reminder by email. The more often you input readings the more granular the little bar chart showing usage is. Moving house was easy, within an hour of requesting the move from their web page I got a phone call from Powershop in New Zealand and once I provided the NMI and Meter number the transfer was completed. Haven’t had any other issues. The carbon offset was one of the things that interested me in them as a supplier. Trying to work out the cheapest supplier is difficult as the offers and rates seem to vary day by day.
We are currently trialling a new power switching service at CHOICE called POWERUP. Today we launched the site here: https://powerup.community
We are calling for expressions of interest in the trial and next week will send out our first round of invites to the service, we’re particularly keen to get people from QLD, SA and VIC to participate. We have access to every deal on offer across the country and indications show we can save most people between $100 and $300 per year - we have seen savings on some bills of up to $750 per year.
Our data shows that, although they started out very competitive on pricing, Powershop is no longer one of the cheapest options in the market. On a small trial previously run in NSW we recommended most people move away from Powershop to significantly cheaper deals.
I’d have been interested in this but I’ve now signed up with Click Energy, leaving Powershop. Fingers crossed. But I wish you well because this is a service people need. It’s incredibly confusing.
great, thanks for getting back to me. Keep an eye on our service as the intention is that once signed up we keep looking for the best deals for you then automatically sign you up.
Peter
Yes it depends on your power usage profile and also when you sign up with a retailer. Power deals change fairly regularly and from research we know that the longer you stay with one energy retailer they tend to ramp up costs. The idea of Powerup is that we keep checking for the best deal every 3 months and, if we find a better one, we switch the customer to it.
I changed from AGL after my discounts disappeared without notification.
I love Powershop for lots of reasons. You can send a question and get a real person response within hours. Haven’t tried phoning as yet - no need to. It does take a little while to get into the process but once there, it’s fun ! Never thought I’d say THAT about an electricity supplier. They keep you very well informed. The APP is great. I now know how much money I am spending on electricity each day and aware of saving what I can. They give about 18% off rates with the usual power packs and sometime more on specials so it pays to check out the “shop” on the app. I usually buy power when the specials are on and save that way. Buying power takes about 10 seconds to select, buy and done ! There are April Packs for sale now. Graphs show clearly the dates, what you have used, how much purchased etc Try it. There are no contracts so if you don’t like it , you can change back to the boring ones !
I have been using Powershop for about 15 months and was satisfied with their service, until late last year they changed their billing format and the unit price was no longer displayed in the purchase, you now pay x amount of dollars and get an estimate of how many days it will buy you.
This was changed with the argument that people prefer it that way.
However the backlash they faced told them this was not the case at all.
I wrote to them as well, stating my concerns and the reply was that the previous format meant the estimates were incorrect and sometimes they did not cover their costs. Pity they weren’t honest about it in the first place and chose to make it sound as if there was an advantage for customers.
Anyway, I was very confused by this change and decided to run another price compare and found a retailer that offers me a rate of $150 less p/a. Not to be sneezed at, so I switched over.
I loved the app and the format of pay-as-you-go of Powershop but this change and the way they handled it did not sit well with me at all.
I’ve been with Powershop for close to two years and really like them. Because my house if all electric I do get good savings with them. Other people I know who are largely gas or gas and solar have not gotten the same saving that I get. So Powershop can save you quite a bit depending on your circumstance. But Powershop do not lock you into a contract like AGL etc do. So if you give them a go, and you don’t make the savings you can walk away.
I do love the way I can track my usage online or via the phone app. I can see when I am using too much power and adjust accordingly. This is particularly good in winter when my big bills happen. I tend to buy in advance by buying power packs for upcoming months and also take advantage of their “spot sales” where they message your phone and you can purchase a small amount of power (usually around a day’s worth) very cheaply.
I’m waiting to see what happens with power prices after July 1st 2017, then I’ll shop around again. Dodo has been the cheapest in my area with 20% discount. I’m going to stick with Powershop until then and then make a decision. I’ve done bill by bill comparisons and Dodo always comes out a little cheaper than Powershop.
Others have said it before me but I just want to confirm: Great power supplier and yes always buy ahead to get the great deals. Be aware that they calculate the daily connection fee into your kW/hr price so it looks sometimes that the price goes up per kW when your usage goes down. That is because the daily connection fee (which is charged by the hardware company) part stays the same.
