This is a bit of a saga, but I thought it might be instructive…
I have just been offered an opportunity to sign up/switch to Powershop in an email from GetUp! - to celebrate Powershop now being available in South Australia: email (lightly edited & italicised) is copied below.
It seemed to be a good offer, but as a Choice member, I decided to dig deeper, to make sure that it was a good deal: as a South Aussie, paying the highest electricity prices in the country, I am very interested in cutting costs on my bill.
On Fri, 8 Mar 2019 at 13:07, Darren - GetUp!
wrote:
Dear Patricia,
South Australia is breaking records for all the wrong reasons. Heatwaves and extreme weather are getting worse and more frequent. Meanwhile, we don’t have a national policy to cut climate pollution.
The Big Three electricity retailers are the first, second and fourth biggest carbon polluters in Australia. That means if you’re buying your electricity from AGL, EnergyAustralia or Origin, you’re a customer of a company that’s driving devastating climate change.1
But there is an alternative. Already, more than 20,000 GetUp members have made the switch to a greener power company, reducing demand for dirty power and sending a clear message that people want clean, green energy.
GetUp has partnered with Powershop since 2014 — ranked Australia’s greenest power company by Greenpeace three times running and is now available in South Australia. 2
Powershop are Australia’s first and only certified carbon-neutral retailer. They are backed by a renewable energy generator and actively support community renewables.
Together, we have switched around 20,000 members from Australia’s biggest polluters, taking an estimated $66 million off their bottom lines.3
We’ve offset an estimated 120,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, and raised around $2.4 million for GetUp’s climate and clean energy campaigning through the financial contribution Powershop provides for every person who makes the switch.
Patricia, will you join us? Switch away from the dirty energy companies to Powershop and as a special GetUp offer receive a $100 discount off your account every year for three years.*
Thanks for all you do for the environment,
Darren, for the GetUp team
*To be eligible for this offer, you must be one of the first 1,500 South Australian residents to sign up to Powershop by 31 March 2019.
Once you have been switched to Powershop (Switch Date), we will apply a $100 discount to your Powershop account. If you remain a Powershop customer for 1.5 years (550 days) from your Switch Date, we will apply a second $100 discount to your account and a final $100 discount will be applied three years (1095 days) from your Switch Date.
These discounts can only be used as a discount off your Powershop account and cannot be refunded or redeemed for cash. The discounts are not available in conjunction with any other promotional offers available through Powershop from time to time.
References
National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting — Clean Energy Regulator, February 2017.
The Green Electricity Guide, Greenpeace, 2018
AGL Energy: I can see clearly now, Credit Suisse Research and Analytics, 19 March 2015
So I started crunching figures, comparing Powershop with my current provider, Diamond Energy: I discovered that it was not such a good offer after all…
I sent the email below to GetUp! (& copied in Powershop, Diamond Energy & Choice Community) - to date, I have only had a response from Diamond Energy…
There was also no disclosure from GetUp! in their email to me, about the financial benefit they would receive from signing up customers to Powershop: I had to go to the FAQs on their website to discover
" Every time a GetUp supporter switches to Powershop through Better Power, GetUp receives a payment that helps fund the Better Power campaign to support renewable energy and campaign against dirty coal and coal seam gas.
A bit more digging around & I discovered that Powershop is owned by Meridian Energy - which is majority owned [(51.02%, 2016)] by the Government of New Zealand.
And that “ Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has been carried out in New Zealand for over 27 years, mostly in Taranaki and also in coal seams in Waikato and Southland.[1] Concerns have been raised about its negative effects and some local government jurisdictions have called for a moratorium on fracking but this has been rejected by the government.”
Which would seem to make a bit of a mockery of the Better Power campaign …
Hydraulic fracturing in New Zealand
Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has been carried out in New Zealand for over 27 years, mostly in Taranaki and also in coal seams in Waikato and Southland. Concerns have been raised about its negative effects and some local government jurisdictions have called for a moratorium on fracking but this has been rejected by the government. The environmental effects of fracking are regulated by the Resource Management Act (RMA) through the requirement for resource consents. Fracking has been carried o…
Here is my response to the GetUp! email (copied to Powershop, Diamond Energy & Choice Community)
- Subject: Re: Something Big is Coming
- I was interested in this offer, but now I am quite concerned, and in the interests of transparency from GetUp!, I believe you may be doing a financial disservice to some of your South Australian supporters.
- The offer may be very attractive to customers of AGL, Origin etc but I believe you should also include Diamond Energy as an option to make " the switch to a greener power company, reducing demand for dirty power and sending a clear message that people want clean, green energy."
- I have just compared the prices for Powershop (in South Australia) with my existing provider, Diamond Energy (second in the Green Electricity Guide to electricity providers in Australia, 2018. When I switched providers some years ago, P/shop was not available in SA).
- Financially I would be penalised with Powershop: despite the $100.00 bonus p.a. - for 3 years only & only available to 1500 people (see T&C) - the high daily supply charge would wipe this out - plus, I would be up for more : $1.19.12/day [P], compared with $0.86.95 [DE].
- The solar feed in credit is lower: $0.52.5 kWh [P], $0.56 [DE].
- The basic tariff for general usage is $0.38.43 kWh [P] compared with [DE] sliding scale tariff [$0.33.26- first 100 kWh/pm usage up to $0.39.87 for usage over 833 kWh/pm] - which encourages power conservation.
- Disclaimer: I am an existing (happy) customer of Diamond Energy but I have no financial or other interest in the company.
So I will not be switching providers!
P.S. I read with interest, the comments above, re Powershop’s bills being difficult to read…
Diamond Energy is an Australian owned company with very good customer service and easily read and understood bills – and solar credits are automatically deposited in my bank account. An example below (NOT mine! Someone in my family…)
I have also included a couple of links that may be of interest: the 2018 Green Electricity Guide (for a bit of light reading… ) and the link to the Choice Green Electricity review.
Check out the Green Electricity Guide
Is your 
electricity provider really as ? green? as they say they are? The truth exposed…
.
