Alternative Energy Suppliers

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I'm actually amazed they are accepting Meter Readings from customers as you could understate the reading to pay a smaller Closing Account to ESB and get more units at the cheaper BGE rate.

Fnergg

Colby Stale Creek wrote: »

I'm actually amazed they are accepting Meter Readings from customers as you could understate the reading to pay a smaller Closing Account to ESB and get more units at the cheaper BGE rate.

I'm sure that is happening in some cases - a poster to one of the discussion boards admitted he did it - but the vast majority of customers are honest and provide the current meter reading.

Bord Gais (and Airtricity) have a window of about 60 days to set up a customer at the reading provided. It looks as if a great many customers will not be set up on time due to BGE's backlog so they will have to use the next ESB Networks scheduled reading instead. If so, a lot of customers will lose out big time as they will be charged by ESB for the usage in the meantine.

The next ESB reading could be an estimate. If BGE/Airtricty are going to use that they have to inform the customer that he/she is being transferred on an estimate. If they fail to do so they would be in breach of industry rules.

My advice to customers who have switched is to closely examine the start reading on your first BGE/Airtricity bill. If it isn't the reading you provided phone them and demand compensation.

Regards,

Fnergg

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I enquired about this and I'm told the changeover will only be from the next scheduled meter reading (hence BGE saying it can take from 15 to 60 days). That all makes sense as you couldn't operate on Customer readings only.
I don't agree that customers will lose out " big time" as it only on the balance of a single bill.

Fnergg

Colby Stale Creek wrote: »

I enquired about this and I'm told the changeover will only be from the next scheduled meter reading (hence BGE saying it can take from 15 to 60 days). That all makes sense as you couldn't operate on Customer readings only.
I don't agree that customers will lose out " big time" as it only on the balance of a single bill.

Industry rules allow for changeover from customer reads and many customers have been changed on that basis already.

A supplier has a window of about 60 days (I'm not certain of the exact number) to effect the change. It's clear that neither BGE nor Airtricity will be able to meet that deadline in all cases and so are increasingly opting for the next scheduled read instead. The problem with that is that the next scheduled read could be a planned estimate by ESB Networks or an estimate might have to be used if access is not available. If that is the case industry rules state that the customer must agree to the estimate used when being switched.

It will all come as a disappointment to many customers who assumed that their usage as from early February would be at the lower new supplier rates. They will now be faced with another couple of months of the dearer ESB prices for their high winter usage. Yes, I suppose saying customers will lose out "big time" is overstating it but it is annoying nevertheless and need never have happened had sufficient resources been put in place to manage the demand.

This failure by BGE and Airtricity to meet their responsibilities in switching customers as from the dates and readings supplied by them is in marked contrast to their slick marketing campaigns (especially BGE's) which promised a brand new dawn for domestic customers. It is clear that they have over-promised and under-delivered.

Another area in which they are trying to avoid their responsibilites is when a person opts to sign up with them when moving into a new address. Industry rules allow for a new owner/tenant to register with any supplier. If nobody registers with any supplier supply will be disconnected after about 6 weeks as clearly it is not tenable to continue supplying electricity if nobody is liable to a supplier for it.

Several people who approached both BGE and Airtricity in such situations have been told to register with ESB first and then re-apply to them after a few weeks. This is a blatant avoidance of responsibility by BGE/Airtricity and is contrary to the rules laid down by the Commission for Energy Regulation. Clearly, because of their backlog, there would be a real danger of many such customers being disconnected because they would not be registered in time and BGE/Airtricity want to avoid the PR embarrassment that might then ensue. They would also have to pay the costs of reconnection in every case.

Either they are wilfully ignoring the rules laid down by the Regulator or they are ignorant of them. It certainly doesn't augur well for their customer service.

Regards,

Fnergg

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I see a lot of Customers are having problems because they have Token Meters and don't want to have to end the facility of paying forward on their accounts and they can't do it with Bord Gais. Some people are never happy.:)

Kotek Besar

benifa wrote: »

Cheers Mike. Job's a good 'un. I've switched.

Bord Gáis still haven't switched me, after 6 weeks. Still, I was having second thoughts anyway, since Airtricity are almost the same price while being a hell of a lot greener.

So called BG to cancel my switch, and applied for Airtricity instead. Save the planet.

hellboy99

broadsheet wrote: »

Why all the cloak and dagger about a possible new entrant?

Spit it out....

It's old news but here you go:

Businessman Sean Quinn (Quinn Group) is to build a €300m 450 megawatt combined cycle gas turbine power station in Co.Louth.

The 14-acre site at Toomes between Carrickmacross, Co.Monaghan and Dundalk, Co.Louth is close to both a 220 kv connection to the national grid and to the N-S interconnector gas pipeline. It will be one of the biggest-ever power stations built in Ireland. The power station will supply enough electricity for 230,000 homes, equivalent to 8pc of national peak demand, according to the group.

Quinn must complete the construction of a new link road in the townlands of Cornagarvoge, Co.Monaghan and Toomes, County Louth between the R178 Regional Route and the LP1143 public road (Stonetown Road) and junctions incorporating sight-lines agreed with the planning authorities, work has now started on this.

http://www.quinn-energy.com/conventional_energy.cfm

Davy

450MW is not big in the grand scheme off things. It wouldn't be feasible to build anything smaller

kippy

hellboy99 wrote: »

It's old news but here you go:

Businessman Sean Quinn (Quinn Group) is to build a €300m 450 megawatt combined cycle gas turbine power station in Co.Louth.

The 14-acre site at Toomes between Carrickmacross, Co.Monaghan and Dundalk, Co.Louth is close to both a 220 kv connection to the national grid and to the N-S interconnector gas pipeline. It will be one of the biggest-ever power stations built in Ireland. The power station will supply enough electricity for 230,000 homes, equivalent to 8pc of national peak demand, according to the group.

Quinn must complete the construction of a new link road in the townlands of Cornagarvoge, Co.Monaghan and Toomes, County Louth between the R178 Regional Route and the LP1143 public road (Stonetown Road) and junctions incorporating sight-lines agreed with the planning authorities, work has now started on this.

http://www.quinn-energy.com/conventional_energy.cfm

I didnt think he was going to get into selling leccy direct to the end consumer. I was under the impression it was just to sell it to the "grid" in general.
Kippy

Cabaal

Got my welcome to Bord Gais letter on Friday, fully transfered over took as long as I expected tbh, happy so far

mike65

It seems you can be lucky or unlucky regarding the time taken to make the switch.

Cabaal

mike65 wrote: »

It seems you can be lucky or unlucky regarding the time taken to make the switch.

Perhaps, found it handy that they could check your order status through the twitter ac they have

very proactive tbh

Fnergg

Cabaal wrote: »

Perhaps, found it handy that they could check your order status through the twitter ac they have

very proactive tbh

How does their Twitter account work - what kind of info do they give on it? I can find no mention of it on their website.

Regards,

Fnergg

dahamsta

Finally made the switch yesterday, to Airtricity. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference on the pricing front, and I'd prefer the greener power. Thanks to everyone in the thread that provided useful data and feedback.

adam

Kotek Besar

dahamsta wrote: »

Finally made the switch yesterday, to Airtricity. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference on the pricing front, and I'd prefer the greener power. Thanks to everyone in the thread that provided useful data and feedback.

adam

I agree.

In my recent bill from ESB, I used 847 units @ €0.1861/unit, = €157.63. If those units were charged by Bord Gáis, it'd be 847 units @ €0.1601/unit, = €135.60. If the units were charged by Airtricity, it'd be 847 units @ €0.1620/unit, = €137.21.

So, in the example above, I'd only save €1.61 by going with Bord Gáis over Airtricity. And that's for a 2 month bill.

So, speaking monthly, call it an 80c premium for going with Airtricity over Bord Gáis. As small price to pay for much greener leccy, imo.

lecheile

benifa wrote: »

I agree.

In my recent bill from ESB, I used 847 units @ €0.1861/unit, = €157.63. If those units were charged by Bord Gáis, it'd be 847 units @ €0.1601/unit, = €135.60. If the units were charged by Airtricity, it'd be 847 units @ €0.1620/unit, = €137.21.

So, in the example above, I'd only save €1.61 by going with Bord Gáis over Airtricity. And that's for a 2 month bill.

So, speaking monthly, call it an 80c premium for going with Airtricity over Bord Gáis. As small price to pay for much greener leccy, imo.

I'd agree benifa - its also worth bearing in mind that you more protected in the long run to price increases from a supplier with a greater percentage produced by renewable means.

kippy

lecheile wrote: »

I'd agree benifa - its also worth bearing in mind that you more protected in the long run to price increases from a supplier with a greater percentage produced by renewable means.

Yeah BUT,
1. Board Gais have contractually agreed to price levels which are a certain percentage minimum below that of the ESB for 3 years and
2. You can change providers again whenever you want should things look better elsewhere.

dahamsta

kippy wrote: »

Yeah BUT,
1. Board Gais have contractually agreed to price levels which are a certain percentage minimum below that of the ESB for 3 years and
2. You can change providers again whenever you want should things look better elsewhere.

Don't those points apply to Airtricity too?

The posters above are simply expressing a preference for greener power, why is that an issue that requires an all-caps BUT exactly?

kippy

dahamsta wrote: »

Don't those points apply to Airtricity too?

The posters above are simply expressing a preference for greener power, why is that an issue that requires an all-caps BUT exactly?

Of course they do.
Just wanted to point out that the fact that there are three providers in the market protects, all of which are easy to switch to, that consumers need not be too worried about the security of long term supplies or price increases.

threeleggedhors

My electricity meter is indoors, I take it that this shouldn't be a problem if I switch providers ?. I mainly get estimated bills and occasionally the ESB guy might call late in the evening to get a real reading. If everybody switched to Airtricity how would they meet the demand ?, buy from ESB to sell to us, wouldn't be too green then, eh ?

dahamsta

threeleggedhors wrote: »

My electricity meter is indoors, I take it that this shouldn't be a problem if I switch providers ?

No. Meters are read by ESB Networks, not your provider. Please read the rest of the thread.

manc

100,000 ESB customers switch to Bord Gáis

http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/eyauojkfeysn/

02/04/2009 - 12:11:51
Bord Gáis says 100,000 ESB customers have already switched over since the energy firm entered the electricity market in February.

The company made the announcement today while releasing its annual results for last year.

Bord Gáis says its turnover was up 14% in 2008, but profits were down 10% to €151m.

It says the drop in profits is a result of increased spending on business expansion and the higher cost of sales.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

threeleggedhors wrote: »

If everybody switched to Airtricity how would they meet the demand ?, buy from ESB to sell to us, wouldn't be too green then, eh ?

That's already happening!! Wait until the interconnector to North Wales and they'll be buying Nuclear generated electricity. It all runs through the same wires.

threeleggedhors

Colby Stale Creek wrote: »

That's already happening!! Wait until the interconnector to North Wales and they'll be buying Nuclear generated electricity. It all runs through the same wires.

That's what I thought was happening alright. Why are people saying that by switching to airtricity you're going for the greener option when in reality they're only producing a small amount of the power needed

Fnergg

threeleggedhors wrote: »

My electricity meter is indoors, I take it that this shouldn't be a problem if I switch providers ?. I mainly get estimated bills and occasionally the ESB guy might call late in the evening to get a real reading. If everybody switched to Airtricity how would they meet the demand ?, buy from ESB to sell to us, wouldn't be too green then, eh ?

You meter will still be read by ESB Networks meter readers who provide the service to all suppliers.

All electricity generated on the island of Ireland goes into one virtual "pool" from which the various suppliers purchase the quantity they need to sell to their customers. If needs be, they can purchase top up quantities.

An Airtricity customer is getting the exact same mix of green and brown electrons down the wires into his/her house as his/her next door neighbour who is with another supplier.

By the way, the share of the generating market held by ESB Power Generation is now only 38% whereas at one time, before the market opened, it was 100%. There are a lot of independent generators out there now.

Regards,

Fnergg

Fnergg

manc wrote: »

...Bord Gáis says 100,000 ESB customers have already switched over since the energy firm entered the electricity market in February...

This must be good and bad news for Bord Gais. Good in the sense that their marketing campaign has succeeded way beyond their expectations (they were targetting 100,000 customers for the whole of 2009 - they got them in two months) but bad in the sense that it is putting enormous strains on their resources.

Bord Gais are incorrect in saying 100,000 have been switched over - 100,000 have applied to them but there are huge numbers still awaiting processing. Switched means getting a final bill from ESB and being set up with a new account with Bord Gais. It is definitely not the case that all 100,000 have been fully processed. Only a relatively small percentage have been successfully switched over from ESB.

Conduit - their Dublin call centre outsource provider handling the switch applications - is struggling to meet the demand and many customers are getting incorrect information.

It also remains to be seen how Bord Gais' billing system will cope with this level of customers and how well their customer service staff will be able to manage the number of queries that will inevitably arise.

Regards,

Fnergg

Davy

threeleggedhors wrote: »

they're only producing a small amount of the power needed

They create about 300-400MW at anyone time. Normally the daily peak usage would be 4500MW. So that about 8% of the country's needs.

hellboy99

Looks like we might not be getting the full savings from Bord Gais now :rolleyes:

Bord Gáis calls for re-examination of tariffs:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0402/1news_av.html?2519190,null,230

Kotek Besar

Why does RTE insist on using bloody Realplayer? Who uses Realplayer?!

Meanwhile.. hellboy99 - could you give us the jist of what the report says?

Davy

benifa wrote: »

Why does RTE insist on using bloody Realplayer? Who uses Realplayer?!

They also use windows media player

http://www.rte.ie/live/

benifa wrote: »

Meanwhile.. hellboy99 - could you give us the jist of what the report says?

Basically nothing in stone but perhaps to try balance the reductions so that industry will get a good discount to try help save jobs