To fix or not to fix electricity price

M

MichaelR

Registered User
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34
Hello,

I have two EVs, a busy family, an electric stove and oven, work from home, and even have an electric sauna in the house. This makes me quite exposed to electricity prices. And there were some publications that electricity prices were going up soon because of the gas market situation related to the Russia-Ukraine war.

I am currently on an Energia Day/Night tariff. My D/N meter was replaced with a Smart Meter but did not switch it to a Smart tariff as that change is unidirectional. I don't go onto an "EV" tariff because a 3 hour "EV window" is very insufficient for me and the only provider with a 4 hour window is Energia - and their uniot price for the rest of the day is way too high.

Because of the possible climb of the prices, I signed up for the SSE Airtricity Day/Night fixed plan. It keeps my spending pretty much where it is now (night 1c more expensive, day 4c cheaper, I ran the numbers with the standing charge too - the result was an insignificant saving), but fixes the price for a year. This involve breaking off the Energia contract and paying the 50 Euro fee.

I am still very much in the 14 day period and Energia, of course, called me with a counteroffer, which is going to their Smart Data plan on a new contract. That would give me a 100 Euro bonus and, apart from the bonus, at current prices I would save about 20 Euro over an average month. But it would also involve the irreversible step of changing to a smart meter plan. And, of course, it exposes me to any price rises, while the SSE option is fixed. So it's a 150 Euro saving compared to switching and a 20/mo saving after that UNTIL prices rise; and no nice MCC02 D/N tariffs for me anymore.

Also, it turned out that SSE's breakage free on a fixed contract is all of 100 Euro, not the regular 50. It was hidden smewhere deep in their T&Cs and it were Energia who told me about it, and SSE eventually confirmed. This makes the SSE option less attractive in a case where the prices don't actually rise and eventually fall.

I need to decide early next week whether to take Energia's offer (and cancel SSE) or to proceed with SSE. So I'd appreciate opinions on the matter.
 
I think it's ok to change meter if the numbers work, in the end we will all be forced onto one anyway, if you can move onto it without getting screwed in year one that seems a good a time as any.

There was comment on another forum that another price plan was coming next Monday or Tuesday for energia or one of the big ones, maybe worth a good search Wednesday before finalising decision.

In the end 12 months goes fast, I spend too much time counting pennies on this, just by simply shopping around for something annually your likely to be in a good place. You can spend hours nailing the best deal today and in one month someone else has dropped their price and you are locked in for 11 more months anyway.
 
MichaelR said:
Also, it turned out that SSE's breakage free on a fixed contract is all of 100 Euro, not the regular 50. It was hidden smewhere deep in their T&Cs and it were Energia who told me about it, and SSE eventually confirmed. This makes the SSE option less attractive in a case where the prices don't actually rise and eventually fall.
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Have you checked this out with CRU as the standard breakage fee is €50 per service so it seems strange?
 
MichaelR said:
I am still very much in the 14 day period and Energia, of course, called me with a counteroffer, which is going to their Smart Data plan on a new contract. That would give me a 100 Euro bonus and, apart from the bonus, at current prices I would save about 20 Euro over an average month. But it would also involve the irreversible step of changing to a smart meter plan. And, of course, it exposes me to any price rises, while the SSE option is fixed. So it's a 150 Euro saving compared to switching and a 20/mo saving after that UNTIL prices rise; and no nice MCC02 D/N tariffs for me anymore.
Click to expand...
Are you comparing Energia's Smart Plan to Airtricity's Fixed Smart Plan or the non smart meter plan??

For me I fixed last November for both Gas and Electricity as I felt it was worth the gamble with all the is going on in the world
and even if the rates do drop it will depend on how much they drop and when they drop but I'll only know if I made the right choice at next years renewal
 
I'd always be wary of reading too much into journalists reports of price rises. They tend not to have an iota of a clue about it and usually jump on some bandwagon to create a story purely to get eyeballs without any relevancy to the market as a whole.

Gas prices DID rise to €50 per MWH when the official cut-off of the Ukraine transit pipeline happened on 31st Dec. But the average price per MWH over the last 6 months was €45 and within a few days it had dropped back to €45 where it is now. The previous 6 months it averaged €35, so it did jump in the most recent 6 months. - Ideal for a screaming headline of "30% jump in gas prices". But put it in perspective - the average was over €160 during 2022 and hit a high of €340 - not a chance of seeing headline saying current average prices 70% below 2022 average. (Positive news doesn't sell ad space)

So don't expect a jump in prices as they buy forward contracts on a 2 year rolling basis (1st hand info) whereas the UK doesn't permit forward purchasing of gas by more than 6 months - hence the increase & decrease quicker and more steeply than here. If anything, there may be a drop as the final tranche of high price gas contracts from late 2022 will be out of the equation.

If the various suppliers were forced to reduce their offers, everyone would probably see 15% off their rates. But as it stands, those who are proactive and pay their bills get decent rates whereas those who may not understand how easy it is to switch or those with payment issues are being heavily penalised.

For the OP. I think the energia rate is best (I've recently been looking for myself and whilst no EV, its heavyish daytime use but can push some high energy item to after 11pm and before 8am) hence their Smart Data plan seems to be the best at the minute
 
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Cervelo said:
Are you comparing Energia's Smart Plan to Airtricity's Fixed Smart Plan or the non smart meter plan??

For me I fixed last November for both Gas and Electricity as I felt it was worth the gamble with all the is going on in the world
and even if the rates do drop it will depend on how much they drop and when they drop but I'll only know if I made the right choice at next years renewal
Click to expand...
I am comparing to Airtricity's NON smart day/night plan, which I can get because I did not switch to a smart plan yet. Their smart plan is clearly not what I want, fixed or not.
 
presidenttttt said:
I managed to hit the 2000kw between EV and heat pump , so went into higher price KW, which is not ideal
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fair point, I nearly hit that this winter, but both options I am looking at (SSE fixed non-smart and Energia smart) remove the limit.

A third option i found is non-smart Electric Ireland D/N which is just outright cheapest for me right now. No move to the smart meter, but it's not fixed and I still lose out on the transfer itself, though not as much as on the SSE option.
 
I didn't think that the CRU regulated or controlled contract early termination penalties?
 
ClubMan said:
I didn't think that the CRU regulated or controlled contract early termination penalties?
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I would have thought that as the Regulator they would have control over these charges and that's why I mentioned them. Still think its worthwhile to give them a call and sound them out.

Came across this on Bonkers and it mentions €50 for SSE but perhaps it is out of date as it is back in 2022. Energia are obviously aware that SSE have upped the fee and are using it as a tactic in their push to retain customers.
 
Sue Ellen said:
I would have thought that as the Regulator they would have control over these charges
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I'm pretty sure that they don't.

For what it's worth, this third party site lists early termination charges for various providers and circumstances.
powertoswitch.ie

Exit Fees - and when do they apply? | Power to Switch IE

Exit fees are essentially cancellation fees. If you leave a fixed term tariff before the end of the contract period (e.g. 12 or 24 months), many suppliers will charge an exit fee. This does not mean you are prevented from switching. But if you are on a tariff which has an exit fee if you … Exit...
powertoswitch.ie powertoswitch.ie
 
Sue Ellen said:
Like Bonkers that site shows €50 for SSE Airtricity whereas the contract as shown in MichaelR's post No 8 above refers to €100 per utility cancellation fee so hefty enough:
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Airtricity still have the €50 early termination charge but it only applies to variable rate contracts
The €100 early termination fee applies to only the fixed rate contract, which seems perfectly acceptable to me
MichaelR said:
Also, it turned out that SSE's breakage free on a fixed contract is all of 100 Euro, not the regular 50. It was hidden smewhere deep in their T&Cs and it were Energia who told me about it, and SSE eventually confirmed.
Click to expand...
And despite MichaelR's claim that it's "hidden deep" in the T&C's and was only made "aware" of it by Energia and "eventually" confirmed by SSE
It's clearly displayed on the plans page in the "Good to Know" section under "Contract"
 
peemac said:
So don't expect a jump in prices as they buy forward contracts on a 2 year rolling basis (1st hand info) whereas the UK doesn't permit forward purchasing of gas by more than 6 months - hence the increase & decrease quicker and more steeply than here. If anything, there may be a drop as the final tranche of high price gas contracts from late 2022 will be out of the equation.
Click to expand...
Agree with everything you've said in your post #6, peemac

When I signed up for the fixed rate contract last November it was the cheapest rate available on SSE
And from what I could see and Energypal it was the cheapest rate of all the suppliers for me

I'm not expecting the prices to rise, I'm more thinking along the lines that SSE is not going to lower their standard rate to one lower then what I'm paying now, that would be a drop (IIRC) of at least10% for me to be paying more then their standard rate charged to variable customers
And then as I've said earlier it will all depend on when and how much SSE reduce their rates by as to whether I end up paying more for my energy on this fixed plan compared to a variable rate plan at the end of the year

The other thing is it's only a year contract with a breakage fee of €100, if prices do drop by 15 or 20% I'll do the sums and if it's worth it I'll just change to another plan and I'm wondering now if SSE like other providers don't enforce this breakage fee if your only changing plan and not provider??
 
Well if prices aren't actually going to rise I'm definitely better off staying on Energia, whether or not I change to Smart Data.

I found the gas spot price at https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas and the Jan 1 spike, which caused the press comments, is actually gone, the price is back where it was at Christmas. I guess if it falls any further it's time to roll back the transition.
 
Update: I got an ad for a new SSE feature https://www.sseairtricity.com/ie/home/energihub and if I can use it, I'm staying on SSE and switching to their smart day/night/peak tariff (fixed but otherwise nothing interesting). However, this is a very big "if" as I am not sure how some things work there and nobody at their Customer Support seem to know anything. I sent an email to the separate EnergiHub address, let's see if they respond.
 
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MichaelR said:
I am comparing to Airtricity's NON smart day/night plan, which I can get because I did not switch to a smart plan yet. Their smart plan is clearly not what I want, fixed or not.
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So we're back to Airtricity then but on their smart plan ;)

I have to say that this whole area of renewing energy contracts really is becoming like health insurance renewals, a head wrecker

Just had a quick scan of the T&C's and noticed these in section 4 and 12

By agreeing to take part in the EnergiHub EV Product Trial and availing of the Services, you hereby confirm that you understand and accept that the Services may not always work or be capable of being fixed in respect of the EnergiHub EV Product.

The EnergiHub EV Product Rate will be valid until 31 May 2025 or until SSE Airtricity ceases this EnergiHub Trial in accordance with these terms and conditions or this Agreement.

I'd also be wary that it's a trial at the moment but when it goes live will there be a charge for this service or an increase in the standing charge
 
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