Was with lumo and never had a problem. Went through it about a year ago and found power direct to be cheaper. You get no discount but the power gets cheaper the more you use not more expensive as you move through the tiers like the others. If you are a high consumer of power then power direct is best, low to middle user then you would be better with lumo or origin from my spread sheet (12 months ago).
If you don't like it, change it. If you don't want to change it, it can't be that bad!
I ran a comparison several months ago (using a recent quarterly bill from Origin as my guide) with several other suppliers based on their published supply charges and rates. I calculated what the same bill would have cost me with each supplier.
There wasn't much in it as those with low rates used a higher fixed supply charge, or placed the rate steps differently. Several who advertise low rates or discounts actually worked out more expensive and the cheapest was less than $10 saving over a quarter.
However, my rate with Origin is lower than their published rate, as they gave me a better deal when I thought about leaving a couple of years ago.
dedja wrote:I think I've already mentioned this earlier but look at the rates themselves, not the 'discounts'.
15% off doesn't mean jack if it's on inflated rates.
Yes, some retailers do this.
Yeh, it's a good point Dedja. As far as I'm concerned, it's the most important thing to consider. The discount in this case was good enough to get me over the line.
The only way to get the discount is for the amount to be paid by a certain date, usually a week or so before the due date. Be careful otherwise you pay full tote odds and any discount is gone.
My solution over the last couple of winters has been to take a contract job somewhere warm - last year Lismore, this year Townsville. In the hills I don't need cooling much in summer, but in the winter the heating bills can be huge. (I hit on the going elsewhere to work strategy after getting a $1500.00 bill one winter quarter.)
The rise of solar means utilities "have to price [their] products differently," said David Owens, executive vice president of business operations and regulatory policy at Edison Electric Institute, the association of publicly-traded electric companies. "Rooftop solar panels are recognition that technology, public policy and customer preferences are requiring the utilities to look at this differently," Owens said in an interview.
However, he argued that net-metering was creating a classic "free-rider" economic conundrum, where non-rooftop clients are ultimately paying more for electricity than net-metering clients. Certain costs, such as infrastructure and grid usage, are not being captured in what net-metering customers are charged, Owens said.
For that reason, he thinks power companies-as well as other parties-are justified in challenging some of the presumptions behind solar panel use. Consumers "want choice, but we want to make sure customers at the upper-income bracket are not being subsidized by non-rooftop customers," Owens said. "Utilities are not afraid of competition, but if you're using the grid, you need to pay for it."
