We asked a Consumer staff member to trial online electricity supplier Powershop for six months to see if it really did save money. Here's his report:
Savings for 6 months compared to Empower (our previous supplier) – $217! Although I no longer get a “cheaper” rate for night-use hot-water heating, the savings overall easily make up any difference.
I find the site easy to use and updating the meter readings is a minor chore. It takes me less than 5 minutes to do this – and to check the Powershop site for any deals. I often used to read the meter when I got huge estimated bills. To challenge those estimates took far more time and effort.
The “My Details” section of the website lets me track monthly and daily use, and download a history of use and purchases. I used the downloads to calculate my savings for this report, using Powerswitch to get the tariffs for Empower and the cheapest other alternative (Mercury). But switching to Mercury would have been only $99 cheaper than Empower.
Other bits I like:
- simple tariffs with the line charges and Electricity Commission levies built in
- no more wildly inaccurate estimated accounts – I’m in control of the meter readings.
| Powershop comparison | |
| All day units used | 3711 |
| Night (hot water) units used | 1622 |
| Total units used | 5333 |
| Empower cost | |
|
Line charge $1.24, all day units 21.44c, hot water 11.42c, EC (Electricity Commission) levy 0.21c/unit. Prompt payment discount is included in the total. |
$1100.41 |
| Mercury cost | |
|
Line charge $1.113, all day units 19.5c, hot water 11.97c. EC levy is included in unit rates, prompt payment discount and electronic payment discount are included in the total. |
$1001.09 |
| Powershop cost (calculated from account summary) | $883.28 |
| Savings over Empower | $217.12 |
| Savings over Mercury | $117.81 |
| Note: period covered April 24 to October 27 (186 days), for a Wellington household. |
Members who use Powershop
In our survey of our online members on the service they received from their electricity supplier, Powershop didn’t receive a single poor rating from any of its customers. Some comments:
- “I like the way Powershop has given me control over what price I pay for my power.”
- “I can easily access up-to-date information that allows me to consider my energy-use practices.”
- “Very responsive people, easy to understand the website.”
- “The person I dealt with was a very good communicator with prompt email replies.”
Powershop is a newcomer to the electricity market. Next year’s survey will see whether it can maintain this standard.
More information
- Powerswitch - our free electricity and gas price comparison site
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from just $28
Yes there appears to be a saving over the last 5mths.
The saving on standing charge was immediate, ie there is none.
But if you aren't no the email weekly at least you can get behind
Cannot see any point in the 'brand' of power they offer , power is power $ are $. he Summer dicount packs will hopefully prove a bonus. But need to check with the the competition. Overall so far I have a choice of when to pay and how much for what rate, power to the pepole, some what.
I'm a PowerShop customer and very happy with them, but this simply does not add up.
$883.28 for 5333 units is 16.56 c/unit. Over winter? I'm also in Wellington and my average power prices each month so far from PowerShop were:
May: 20.27
Jun: 20.35
Jul: 20.31
Aug: 19.97
Sep: 19.81
Oct: 19.05
Nov: 18.77
Dec: 18.39 (est)
The average overall to date has been 19.62.
The 5333 units used by your tester at my average price of 19.62 is $1046.33. This is $78.54 cheaper than your Mercury cost, and $176.34 cheaper than your Empower cost, so PowerShop is still the best, but by quite a bit less than you state.
Traditional companies sell power at the same price year round, while PowerShop prices reflect seasonal variations. I'm currently buying power at 18.23 which is well below the winter cost. So the PowerShop savings are going to accelerate over summer.
My estimate is that I'm going to save $350 - $400 a year compared to my previous supplier, Genesis.