• expired

[VIC] Electricity Supply for Low Energy Users (6-21 kWh/day): $0.49225/day + $0.23551/kWh (GST-inclusive) @ QEnergy

1220

Hi!

I went looking around for good energy deals which I do at least every 2 months and this one popped up on the Victorian government comparison site. I'm in Victoria (Jemena) and if you can find a plan under $1 daily charge you are doing pretty well.

GST inclusive rates

  • 49.225¢ per day
  • 23.551¢ per kWh

The per kWh rates aren't the best but if you are a low energy user like me it's gonna be competitive.

I haven't found any sign-up credits or cashback offers to combine as yet but I'll update if I do.

Jemena MiniMe Resi product fact sheet

https://page.mojopower.com.au/qenergyminimepage

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closed Comments

  • Wow. Both are better than SA rates

    • +35

      Everywhere on the planet is better than SA rates

        • Wow, this place seems much better than my current SA plan with simplyenergy (47c/kwh!). Is there a catch I'm missing? Last bill we used 15kwh/day and paid $565, by my calculations it would be $405 at this place.

        • Thanks for link. I'll have to have a closer look.

        • Crunched their numbers with my latest bill which was delivered this week.
          Currently with AGL and have 3kw solar and am $30 better off staying where I am. Obviously solar is the difference as getting 16.3c with AGL but in the winter it may be different. If I didn't have solar I'd be switching.

      • Agreed. Only good thing is i still have a 20c FIT atm. So i make credits 3/4 qtrs.
        Im screwed when my plan ends

    • if I were in SA I'd probably gone grid free with the powerwall 2 (at give away price) already

      • Yeh had one about four to five months now with the energy locals tesla plan last four or so bills all been in credit. Battery cost $5.8k tho.

      • +1

        You are massively overestimating how long a Powerwall lasts for. But it was nice having it installed for 4.5k.

        • +1

          Pretty much. Crunched the numbers and it seems you'd be better just investing in the asx than buying a powerwall and using the earnings on power. Hopefully this will change over the years but right now even looking at best case scenario it's not worth it.

          Mind you, SA power prices are truly horrific, especially when you compare with Victoria which also has a fully privatised system. Major bill shock when I came to SA from Vic.

          • @Ezuku: Thats why I said you've got to take it right when SA hit that 50c/kwh and government threw in half of the battery. Instead many people just brushed off and start talking about asx bullshit then a year or two later things became unfavourable, and they're still talking about asx crap.
            I'm not saying power wall will last forever but given the lifestage of battery industry you'll definitely making some money out of the remaining taxpayers that prefer asx over free money.

            • +2

              @lgacb08: Ozbargain loves hating on batteries, even when the math makes no sense. Houses use 4-5Kw idle a day, more if got kids whom may leave there Xbox on all day and such. Simple to times that by 365 then 5 years. Currently a 5Kw growatt battery is $2.5K… not hard to ask your solar installed to use a growatt inverter and add the battery on.

              • +5

                @nephilim: Still doesn't seem to make sense financially. Please correct me if my calculations are wrong.

                Assume we use your growatt battery (5k capacity, 2.5k cost). Assume we already have solar. Assume we fill it up with solar which we would otherwise have exported for the standard fit and discharge it down to 20 percent overnight instead of buying electricity. I chose 20 percent because i assume that discharging completely isn't something that's done due to battery degradation. Of course, this is a best case scenario where we somehow manage to fill it with solar everyday, even in winter, and consistently discharge it.

                I'm using the fit and cost of electricity from agl, I'm sure others can do better.

                So:
                Gain per kwh = peak cost - fit = .295 - .124 = .171
                Total gain per day = .8 x 5 x .171 = .684

                So working out payback period we get 2500 / .684 / 365 = 10 years

                Which is basically the life expectancy of the battery. Given the battery has a warranty of 5, and this is heavy optimum usage, I'd be pretty concerned this isn't going to work out in my favour.

                Solarchoice's assumptions s aren't quite so forgiving as mine. They. say a 20y+ payback.

                https://www.solarchoice.net.au/is-home-battery-storage-worth…

              • @nephilim: Not sure I understand when you say "Houses use 4-5Kw idle a day". Did you mean 0.4kWh to 0.5kWh a day? Mine idles at around 0.22kWh and could do better but have some PC's running 24/7.

                • @Borg: which means you are consuming 5.28kW a day (.22kWh x 24)

                  • @fedxing: No. I consume 220watts idle a day which is 0.22 of a kW a day". I see what you mean though. My mistake by incl th "h" in kWh. A habit.
                    Actually. I stand corrected as Idle means "ongoing" like fridge which alone uses 2.2kw a day. So my idle would be close to 5kW.

                    • +1

                      @Borg: So your PCs are consuming <10 watts? hmm

                      • @fedxing: I corrected above probably as you replied. Sorry.

                      • @fedxing: My NUC uses 7, my QNAP uses 12, my Raspberry PI uses 4. I could give him this one.

                    • +1

                      @Borg: Sorry, your posting doesn't make sense. kW is the RATE of power consumption at a point in time. Like travelling at 60 km/h. kWh is the QUANTITY of power used over a period of time. Like travelling 720 km in a day. You can't use "220 watts a day". Do you mean you use an average of 220W? That would be 5.28 kWh/day.

                      I used a 2.44 kWh/day over my last billing quarter. Which is an average consumption 24/7 of 102W. My total power consumption - fridge, TV, computers and networking, lights, miscellanous - is about equal to what you say your fridge uses. My fridge uses 82W when its running. Which is rarely in winter, and not very often in summer.

                      • @GordonD: I already corrected that at the time of posting i.e. I wrote: "Actually. I stand corrected as Idle means "ongoing" like fridge which alone uses 2.2kw a day. So my idle would be close to 5kW."

        • How did you get it installed that cheap?

          • +1

            @B-Man02: Before the subsidy dropped a bit and with agl giving another 1k off for joining their vpp for 5 years.

            So far the vpp has had a 1 cent impact on my bill. So seems like a good deal.

            Then again even without the 1k of agl was heaps cheaper than anyone else. All of the local companies were just pricing the subsidy in.

  • Just be careful that a lot of business quote in gst excluded prices to seem cheaper.

    • +12

      As per new regulations in VIC, retailers can not quote pricing excluding GST anymore. Needs to be inclusive GST.

  • are these including GST ?

  • Yes including gst.
    I updated the post :) tx for reminding me

  • My plan with ovo energy (Jemena) costs me:

    22.61c/kWh

    82.37c/day

    I'll have to compare with usage numbers, might end up switching.

    • If you use to much for the daily discount to help you have a look at glowbird energy & Powershop (they have a plan called secure) it's 96c p/d but only 20.8c p/kWh) you have to call them to get that one but you can combine with referral bonus

      • I think I was rejected by globird because of no credit history

        • Globird rejected me even though I have perfect credit, and it was only for $500. Stupidity.

          • @fattymattyd: What was $500?

            • @serpserpserp: I assume it's the amount of credit they're willing to risk on a customer if they don't pay their bills.

              Screenshot from my credit score page : https://ibb.co/D92GW9v

              • @fattymattyd: Weird. Maybe that figure is based off of you free cashflow, i dunno what other info you'd have to provide them.

              • +1

                @fattymattyd: GloBird has gone downhill significantly. About 2 years ago, they had the best rates for both electricity and gas.

                Were you able to sign up with them at the end?

                • @DoctorCalculon: Nope. Even after calling them and them confirming it didn't seem right, the answer I got was "even though we would love to have your business, we can't override the computer (credit check)."

                  Ending up taking my Electricity to Elysian and my Gas to Amaysim (which then ended up leading to two free mobile plans per this deal), so it all ended up for the best in the end.

                  • +3

                    @fattymattyd: I had the same issue with the globird credit check and "computer says no"… My referer had two properties with them and threatened to cancel if they didn't approve me. Suddenly an approval email came through..

        • I have the same problem usually because I've never had a loan, credit card ECT ECT
          I have trouble signing up to mobile phone contacts but glowbird wasn't an issue for me last year. Seems to be very random

      • +1

        Powershop used to be cheap in the past but they are no longer cheap now so you should look for other retailer.

      • Yep GloBird are known to reject a lot of applications without any good reason. Computer says NO then no!

    • Very similar to my plan with Globird which I only moved to a month or so ago.

      20.68 C/kWh
      82.50 C/day

      I did a comparison for my use and the QEnergy plan worked out to be about $6 cheaper a month. I won't bother changing given this has been a comparison to a low usage bill.

      • Yes Glowbird is the best for me as well on just rates without any sign up/bonus credit factored in. I'm with PowerShop for electricity atm but will probably go back once I've run out of sign up offers to take advantage of. Definitely recommend everyone check their rates before moving else where. Also I've had 5 ppl ask for referrals since I switched (I think I've finally deleted my name btw) would've been better off staying with those referral bonuses. Oh well, live and learn.

  • +1

    I have not long joined Qenergy (yet to receive first bill) but be warned the process of signing up took over a month and their portal is not functioning - I was told this would be fixed within a couple of weeks but it still hasnt been and its been over a month. Ultimately, customer service is poor but great rates so Ive stuck with them.

    • Camo to day the same. I can't even see how much electricity I'm using or get an idea of how much my bill is going to be for this month. They said they are in the process of completing their portal, but didn't give an ETA

      • Do you guys have Smart meters? If you do you'll be able to pull up your usage independently of your provider, still annoying but at least you'll have an idea of what you are using.

        • +1

          Or, if you have PowerPal installed you could track your electricity usage almost instantaneously.

          • @DoctorCalculon: not if you have solar, it will show net usage so most of the day will show 0 usage when you have solar power.

            • +2

              @samehada: The folks at PowerPal labs are working on a separate solution for homes with PV systems.

              • @DoctorCalculon: Looking forward to the day that that occurs.

                • @Borg: Me too. That was the answer I was given when I asked about it.

              • @DoctorCalculon: It is technically not possible, your meter only show net usage so Powerpal of course can only display what your meter show.

          • @DoctorCalculon: PowerPal useless with 3 phase and solar feed back on 1 phase.

      • Can you check the smart meter portal and find your accurate usage?

      • Signed up in Nov and same experience. No bill yet (though they insisted I could only be billed monthly) and the portal shows underbuild, in spite of the fact my smart meter stats are readily accessible through the Powercor site.

        Pretty underwhelmed so far and anticipating a clusterfck in the near future to cap it all off.

        • What kind of clusterfck, you reckon?

          • @muwu: No idea, but it's got all the feels.

        • If they don't bill you then you get the electricity for free. What's not to be happy about?

          • @CoronavirusVaccine: Aint nothing for free, Comrade (except mebbe the coronavirus vaccine).

  • +5

    Any rebate for solar?

    • Feed In Tariff isn’t mentioned on the fact sheet so assume there is no payment, or cannot use plan if you have solar.

    • So I contacted them it is the 10.2 cents KWh for Victoria (the standard rate).

  • +3

    Looks good, but there's no info on feed in tariff in fact sheet. What do they offer in that respect?

    • I contacted them, they offer the standard 10.2 c in vic, there’s no info on their site though. Which is weird.

  • Signed us up to this when I moved into a Jemena area recently. Echo the sentiments that the customer service is a bit absent - their live chat is pretty responsive but I only got confirmation they were providing our power a week after we moved in, and there's no customer portal ready yet. I got the free Powerpal installed by the State Government that functions pretty well as a cost/usage estimator in its absence.

  • +4

    I hate the daily charge.

    • +1

      In general, or this one in particular?

      • +1

        In general, it doesn’t make sense to have a daily charge for a utility connection.

        • Yep.. Just another bs charge.. It's already connected FFS, what am I paying for??
          Same with water bills and all their bloody levies..

          • +3

            @Maz78: I don't know. Makes sense to me. Who pays for all the maintenance, storm repairs, upgrades on the poles and wires? The charge per kWh is for generation not distribution, the daily charge is to cover the infrastructure.

            • @Name: Wrong, the charge per kWh from the distributor is NOT for generation, it is completely different charge. The per kWh charge is for the infrastructure to DELIVER the power to your house.

              For Anytime tariff, you get charged the same cost doesn't matter how stress your usage put on the network so you are pretty much subsidy for those high demand users. That's why government has pushed for Demand tariff, you get charged for the load you put on the network during peak hour.

              In Victoria, Citipower will have cheaper distributor cost because of their network is more densely populated, they pretty much spend less money to build pole and cable and have more user to wear the cost. Compared to like Ausnet, their area is much bigger which cost more money for the pole and infrastructure while having less user (less densely populated) to distribute the cost so the distributor cost will be more expensive.

            • +1

              @Name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ro8HJosh8

              Demand charge during Peak demand, have a read on the internet to understand.

              A user use 1kW per hour, i.e 24kwH per day is cheaper to service than someone using 24kWh per day but using 10kW per hour for 2 hour during peak hour and use less for the rest of the day, since you need to build more substation to cope with such load.

              Remember during a very hot summer a few years ago that has caused blackout in Victoria United Energy because ppl are all running their AC. This is also the whole reason why wholesale rate is changing based on supply and demand.

  • -4

    F

  • Thanks for this - I've just signed up.

  • Too bad in Ausnet area :(

    • same. :(

  • -1

    Is this good for crypto mining?

    • A couple of $5 extension cords from the neighbors back shed is cheaper.

  • I use Globird (NSW Ausgrid) but Time of Use billing. Works out cheaper (for our use)
    Per Day (sac) = 0.94c
    Peak rates (2pm-8pm Mon-Fri) = 0.39c per kWh. ALL other days hours (Shoulder & Off Peak) = 0.13c per kWh less additional 8% discount on total bill. Not bad especially for those that are not heavy handed during peak periods.

  • +2

    Amber electric is good. Wholesale energy and there’s a bit of a wait to join though. There is a referral system to get a $25 voucher as well. I wonder if this is cheaper or not.

    • +2

      I did a close comparison with Amber with current use over last two years and Amber came out more expensive (based on my use) on all accounts (15% higher). On paper they initially looked good but I ended up not changing (had invite approved). Main reason other than being a little more expensive was that did not what to have to worry about those rare hours where power could in theory be $30 per kWh :-)
      The other reason was they they are a small group and still newish. A lot more work needs to be done to make things more transparent as to exact rates. I asked for a rate sheet of what they charged per min for a 180day period (based on my location). They could not provide this which I found is a bit of a worry That data should be on hand. I initially needed this to see what was charged and when. This would have allowed me to compare to existing bills as I have per min use data on hand.

      • +1

        Yes I was very similar, amber could be great if you are a fairly high electricity user and you can respond quickly (reduce or stop) on those rare times prices are crazy. You can still find other flat rate deals though that are pretty comparable. I just wish all plans were available on the Victorian comparison site and they had simple data points for comparison. But the energy companies have a vested interest in having 'special' plans and 'discounts' & 'offers'.
        By a much better world if the daily charge was a flat rate no matter what company you use and we just had to compare p/kWh rates but hey then marketing/sales departments would be much less useful.
        End of depressing rant ;p

      • Historical data is publicly available on AEMO website.
        https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-e…

        You surely has not calculated it correctly. People are scared of moving to Amber because they don't understand how it works. You need to understand the pricing tariff of your distributor as well then you can take full advantage of Amber

        If you are in United Energy you can switch to Demand tariff and there is not even fixed daily supply charge.

        The actual distributor fixed supply charge cost is only ~$90-$140/year. But the wholesale rate will become much cheaper combined with the right tariff.

        • How does one export by the minute for a 180day period from AERMO/?
          Amber = is not necessarily cheaper for everyone. It depends on ones use. In my case I asked Amber for an export of their historical data and yet they could not provide which I found strange.

          • @Borg: That data is from AEMO, you can download it from the link above. The data is per MWh exclude GST so you need to divide by 1000 to get the rate per kWh.

            You can download for the any month of the last year.

            • @samehada: But rates are fluid how do I get by the minute for last say 180 days. Would have to be a exported somehow?

              • @Borg: You can see the current spot rate live on AEMO link above. You need to understand the rate is per MWh exclude GST so divide it by 1000. At some point it is even in negative so you in fact get paid for using power…. well of course only if it is lower than the distributor cost. Electricity rate is only small factor in your total rate. Distributor charge is a significant cost to the rate and normal retailer of course will add their mark up on top.

                The wholesale rate maybe complicated at first but if you can fully understand how things work you won't be bother with normal retailer anymore.

              • @Borg: Wholesale rate is per 5' but the current smart meter currently only track usage per 30' interval so the wholesale rate used for calculating your usage will be average of the 5' rate for 30' interval.

                From the link I posted above scroll down and click on Download historical data then select your state and month you want to download.

                • @samehada: Thanks, for the link, will take a little peak (30min blocks is fine and the norm).

                  I do also understand how it works (for the most part). I have been looking/learning at this for last couple of years (as an ongoing interest). Have lots of analyzing spreadsheets that suck in the exported raw data reports and from there generate some nice comparisons.

                  My initial point was that Amber will NOT be cheaper for everyone. It depends on ones use.
                  I do appreciate your feedback and links . Thanks for that.

                • @samehada: @samehada not fully sure about that. [1] Wholesale rate itself is settled still on 30 minute intervals (not on 5 minutes). That is why this 30 minute rate is what gets charged to you, because it it is was they themselves pay, not because they don't receive 5 minute data. [2] Come 5 minute settlements in the electricity industry later this year, your smart meter will be sending out data every 5 minutes. In which case I would expect Amber to transition as well to likewise billing you on that 5 minute price.
                  (e.g. ref https://news.sap.com/australia/2019/05/15/five-minute-settle…)

                  Impacts for those on Amber/powershop would be two fold:
                  Downside: If there was originally a 5 minute interval of very high price there is currently a chance for it to go down/smooth over if next few periods very low (e.g. a circuit trip somewhere etc.). This won't happen under 5 minute settlements.
                  Upside: You won't be in the situation of 'the price is 1c lets consume a lot' only to find towards the end of the half hour period the price increases back up to like 15c.
                  TLDR: you will need to be even more vigilant with your consumption, which I guess is the point

                  • @Rialonda: you got it wrong. The wholesale rate is per 5' just your interval meter data is not. If you just use the power like how you used to the 5' won't make it different.

                    Even at the current 30' interval you can't just suddenly increase your usage too much anyway.

          • @Borg:

            Amber = is not necessarily cheaper for everyone.

            Spot on!

            I re-ran the calculations on a Numbers spreadsheet.

            After taking into account the monthly $15 membership fee, it is actually more expensive if you are a low energy user (daily average < 7kWh) compared to the likes of QEnergy or OVO Energy.

            My tariff = PEAK only (United Energy)
            Maybe my results will be completely different if I switch to the DEMAND tariff.

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