by chris | Sep 1, 2014 | Energy
Electricity price rises are coming from the regulated parts of the industry, writes Chris Hargreaves in the Sunday Star Times 31 August 2014.
Rod Oram’s recent comments in the Sunday Star Times and on National Radio were critical of the current market prices for retail energy and the way in which increased profits were distributed to shareholders by generators and retailers – rather than being used to bring retail pricing down.
While Rod’s comments bear thinking about, his analysis failed to take into account market changes over the past few years – and the considerable impact of key pricing factors such as transmission and distribution charges (both of which are regulated and out of the control of retail providers).
Rod Oram also appears unaware of the significant reductions in energy prices that have benefitted commercial users of electricity in the past. Total Utilities Management Group has seen reductions averaging 20% on recent contracts since the last quarter of 2012 as both generators and retailers have rebalanced their regional and commercial portfolios in response to changes in generation capacity, lower demand and increased regional competition.
Electricity pricing in New Zealand is far from transparent. This leads to uncertainty around how invoiced prices are derived and means that changes to the various cost elements can be difficult to police. This uncertainty can muddy the water when talking about the historical cost of contestable energy prices.
The Electricity Authority recently released a Statistics New Zealand survey covering historical retail residential pricing with figures backed up by the MBIE. (more…)
by RichardGardiner | Aug 4, 2014 | Energy, ICT
An automated utilities monitoring service has been developed by Total Utilities to assist High Schools and Colleges spending more than $100,000/year on electricity, gas or computing and telecoms.
The new monitoring service will simplify financial management of utilities by generating and displaying usage reports to help identify trends. This will allow School Business Managers to quickly pinpoint any issues and will make investment and strategy decision-making more accurate, according to Mike Ette of Total Utilities.
“Many High Schools and Colleges struggle with the financial management of their utilities,” said Mike. “It’s difficult to know if you are getting value from these services if they are not monitored and measured. Once Business Managers can identify trends, it becomes easy to ask key questions like – is the usage increase in line with changes in the school? Or – nothing has changed so why is usage going up?” (more…)
by RichardGardiner | Aug 4, 2014 | Energy
Schools pay less for power by going to the market in bulk tenders which attract contract offers from multiple power suppliers. In the first six months of this year, Total Utilities has helped a group of seventeen schools save more than $350,000 on their renegotiated power contracts. This represents an average saving of almost $14,500 or 18% per school.
The bulk tender process was managed by procurement specialists, Total Utilities. All the school business managers had to do was supply details of their previous contract and weigh up the offers when they came in.
New Plymouth Girls High School was one of the participating schools and business manager Tony Pugh is delighted with the result. “This is our third contract negotiation with Total Utilities and we’ve saved money every time,” Tony explained. “This year we cut our power costs by 24% by getting more suppliers interested in quoting for our business and making the most of favourable contract terms.”
In the past Tony has had difficulties attracting such a wide range of offers. “It’s important to present the information to suppliers using the right language in order to get the best result – it can be very time-consuming to manage the process. Total Utilities was able to present us with eight offers from different suppliers, lay them out on a single page and recommend the best contract to us – based on dollars and contract terms.” (more…)
by chris | Apr 9, 2014 | Energy
Vector and United Networks are shifting away from a volume-based pricing methodology in favour of a peak demand weighted tariff structure.
From April 1st, large customers in Central and South Auckland will see little advantage in seasonal Summer Day prices as these are aligned to a reduced Winter Day rate/kWh while the demand tariff will increase by 12.8%. North and West Auckland customers on non-demand time of use metered load groups will be transitioned over to a new pricing plan that includes a peak demand charge.
Added to this is the continuation of the stepped increase to the Power Factor tariff. Customers with reactive load problems will be in for even bigger charges as the rate per reactive unit increases from $2.00/unit to $8.00/unit. Based on discussions with the energy retailers, this charge will again be increased to $17.50/unit from April 1 next year.
What does this mean?
For Central and South Auckland customers with non-seasonal based peak demands with small Power Factor issues could see overall network cost increases of greater than 9.5%. For a similar North or West Auckland customer being transitioned onto the time of use metered load group with demand charges this increase could be greater than 15%. (more…)
by RichardGardiner | Nov 25, 2013 | Energy
Total Utilities Management Group, New Zealand’s leading independent utilities procurement and energy management company has entered into an alliance with Australian company EnergyAdvice to deliver Trans-Tasman energy management, procurement and energy efficiency solutions for large energy users in New Zealand and Australia.
“Large organisations wanting to take a ‘whole of company’ perspective on energy and carbon management and reporting are looking for companies with a combination of global reach and local expertise to assist them,” said Total Utilities Managing Director Richard Gardiner.
“It is this need for country-specific expertise that has driven our Trans-Tasman alliance with EnergyAdvice. The relationship allows us to bring highly specific knowledge of local regulations and markets to our clients in the highly complex energy market.” (more…)
by Jonathan Gardiner | Nov 13, 2013 | Energy
By now you should have received your October natural gas accounts. If you are in the Vector or Powerco networks you should have seen a reduction in your overall cost of gas. The ‘gas year’ runs from October to September and a raft of industry costs are reviewed annually ahead of October 1st. Typically an inflation adjustment is passed through with metering, network and transmission charge changes applying.
The good news this year for most natural gas customers, especially those based in Auckland, is that the annual review should result in lower costs. The Commerce Commission has enforced two sets of reductions – in transmission and distribution. The change to transmission costs affects all customers. As such, the charging methodology and overall level of the charge has changed. (more…)
