Has anyone in NSW, in the last 12 months, had any luck moving from time of use to single tariff? I WFH and it would be substantially cheaper for me. My provider made a request to Ausgrid, who denied it. I spoke with Ausgrid and they said the single tariff was closed in my area. Which seems appalling - how can there be no customer choice? A one way ramp onto a more expensive product seems like a very poor design.
Power - Ausgrid - Moving from Time of Use to Single Tariff
LDG787 on 22/09/2023 - 14:02
Comments
It's ridiculous that TOU is the more expensive product.
The whole selling point of TOU is that it should encourage users to time-shift their demand into lower demand (and therefore cheaper) time periods.
And these days, that's more likely to be during the day (when the sun is shining and household solar is exporting to the grid for peanuts) than overnight.So glad I did the sums to reject the offer to "upgrade" last year.
As you say, you need to do the sums in your own circumstances. I have solar so self-consume mostly during the peak (weekday 1pm-8pm). my yearly average is 20% peak, 20% shoulder and 60% off peak so I save heaps by being on TOU.
In my case even shoulder TOU had a higher rate than my anytime rate..
It was essentially impossible to save money on the "upgrade".
I could be wrong but I think that once you go TimeOfUse you don't go back.
time to buy a big battery to run your laptop/desk off - and of course, tax deduct it !
Can you do that? Serious question. ATO has disallowed running electricity/gas cost as it is merged with the new WFH rate.
Equipment such as modem/laptop can still be deductible but not sure about battery lol.
You are welcome to tax deduct actual-expenses such as electricity and internet, etc, if you keep record - under the Actual Cost method - NOT the 67c/hr
But a big battery would be an assert that needs to be depreciated.
You could depreciate a big battery, and still use the 67c method and not count your power usage.For example, my monitor and laptop and .. another laptop use about 500-800 w per work day. Plus of course the router and networks witch.
lets put the 800w into 12v to find out our Ah. 66Ah x 12v = 800wA 100Ah 12v lithium battery costs ~400 on amazon
And an inverter ~ $300 on amazonplus a charger.
let's call it all up … $1000 up-front to power your work station.
Given each item is less than $1000, put them all into your low value pool and depreciate over 3 years.The real question is though, /what/ is using your elec during the day? is it your computer? or is it your A/C ? if a/c ..well … i can't help you there.
I know how to measure my exact appliance usage thanks to smart plug but I got a Tesla Powerwall :-)
It would be lovely to deduct depreciation out of that battery
Although not Ausgrid - Im in the Endevour network, I successfully changed back to single tariff after a year with Powershop, needed to be single tariff to join with OVO - they advised it was only possible once per year
My provider made a request to Ausgrid, who denied it.
Guessing you mean 'retailer'. Name and shame, because it sounds like you've been given the run around.
out of curiosity, is time of use worse or single tariff with a demand charge ?
Ausgrid changed this years ago for new developments so all new houses/apartments went on TOU (time of use) tariffs. They also started changing existing customers who made any changes to their meters I.e adding solar etc. it’s dodgy as and almost always cost more. As NSW rolls out more smart meters more people will be moved to TOU.
If you think TOU is bad, wait until they start bringing in the demand component to your billl. In VIC they have started it and are slowly rolling it out - adds no benefit to the user, but energy companies make an extra $100 per bill and there is absolutely zero benefit.. it’s disgusting and will only get worst from here as they find new ways to charge consumers more.
But I hear that in 10 years when renewable projects are all completed we should have almost free power! Let’s see how that goesAs a VIC user who has made been made to move to ToU, Ausnet made it compulsory for any solar user to use ToU along with compulsory smart metering.
At the time, it was a very bad thing to do resulting in higher energy cost. Now that people have become smart and aced the power company (especially for those with batteries), they have now closed ToU 5 days (Mon-Fri 7am-11pm Peak, 11pm-7am Offpeak) to newcomers. The newcomers will have to contend with SHOULDER ToU tarriff and soon they are slowly rolling out Demand Charges.
It really is that bad and VIC has no hope in hell of opposing this with the public has developed stockholm syndrome with its premier. So the best thing for people can do is to change to Single Rate tariff if you can imho.
This 100%!! Other networks are doing this to. In my area which is Jemena they are trying the same thing. My peak rate is almost 44 cents peak and off peak is 31 cents off peak. A year ago I was paying single rate of 29 cents. I’m worst off so bad after getting solar..
But I hear that in 10 years when renewable projects are all completed we should have almost free power!
Perhaps from someone building a strawman…
Aint going to happen.
Awesome news… Enjoy….