ESB eCars

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120686778#Comment_120686778

Auto top up works great for me. On easygo they have no auto top up, just a warning and it's a right pain with charging stopping, wondering why, topping up, restarting a charge, and easygo seem to stop at 79c positive credit for some reason so it confused me more.

It's a bit cheeky from ESB but I expect they saw lots of support calls from people who needed to top up.

Black_Knight

Ecars just ensuring they've another €15 per customer in they books. That's a decent chunk of change.

the_amazing_raisin

I shall not be using the auto top up and when I eventually burn through my remaining credit (probably around 2025) I'll be using the We Charge card instead

It costs more per kWh but no requirement to top up and they bill at the end of the month (or just entirely forget to, as I've seen before)

joe1303l

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120687306#Comment_120687306

Why would you pay more per kWh just to avoid paying until the end of the month ?

pad199207

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120687306#Comment_120687306

Does we charge work on the ESB?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120688823#Comment_120688823

Spite mostly 😂

If I want €4 worth of electricity with Ecars I have to top up by €20 or spend €5 with We Charge

For the two times a year I need to use Ecars it doesn't really seem to matter

MojoMaker

Yeah it does have a bad taste alright.

if your balance was less than €5 before it simply asked you to top up before continuing with the charge, and if a charge stopped because funds ran out you were notified to top up, which could be done remotely. Potentially bank charges on the ecars side with all the 'small' top ups?

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120686794#Comment_120686794

There's an easy solution to that... ESB could drop their prices like their competitors at Tesla and dino-fuel have done

Personally I think with interest rates rising they're holding our money in order to turn easy money

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120689363#Comment_120689363

As long as you have a credit card on file they can let you go negative as you have a contract in place and it is backed by a bank. Then on the monthly I don't see the logic. Is the amount not taken from your bank at the end of billing period? Like any other utility bill? Do you have to prepay now? I used to have monthly with ESB but gave up on it. Last time I charged with them was 6 months ago. I have elli since November last and when it expires I'll find something else just in spite as @the_amazing_raisin said.

Red Silurian

What we really need in this country is a publicly owned electricity supplier that can control prices better, not like ESB, like a real one

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120689660#Comment_120689660

No, they’ve no money in holding your money for interest rates.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120694189#Comment_120694189

3.25% is the ECB savings rate at the moment

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120694220#Comment_120694220

Irrelevant, as they are not doing it for the interest. ESB deals with billions each year , they paid out over €300Million in dividends alone to the state . Increasing the minimum balance so to earn Interest is not even on their radar and to think it is is purely comical

the cost of charging has gone up. And they are ensuring that charging sessions are not cut off because of insufficient credit.

ELM327

I have to laugh at those protesting this change tbh. And its pretty simple. Dont like it? Use a competitor. Ecars have a LOT of problems but this isnt one imo

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120694183#Comment_120694183

ESB as a energy supplier don't get to dictate the wholesale market rate, all wholesale electricity is priced at the cost of the last kWh. eCars operating as part of ESB have to buy electricity from the market on the exact same terms as any other customer they aren't allowed to be given preferential treatment. If you did set up another publicly owned supplier (ESB is 96.9% owned by the state already) they'd be in the exact same situation.

This has lead to the problematic situations where suppliers are forced to pass on high costs to consumers whilst lower cost producers are collecting large profits based on the high cost producers forcing high wholesale rates. ESB for instance is returning the extra profits from it's generation arm to the state via an increased dividend. This is all regulated at the EU level, their are moves to fix this but it will take a few years.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120695043#Comment_120695043

As I've said before, they could reduce their prices and that would solve a lot of problems

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120695122#Comment_120695122

Wholesale electricity is a fraction of what it was 12 months ago, yet we get zero in savings. Unit kWh rate in France is currently running at about 25c and that's predominantly down to the suppliers being controlled by the state

This craic of paying every supplier the most expensive price as well is complete madness, I thought it had been stopped but obviously not

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120695302#Comment_120695302

Its due to forward purchase contracts, a company buys a set amount in advance. Without visibility in to eCars unit rate you have no idea whst kind of margin they are making.

State ownership has nothing to do with the rates ESB have set.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120695681#Comment_120695681

When I talk about proper state ownership I would emphasize the word "proper"

France would be a good example of this where public charging is in the region of 20-30c/kWh because EDF is a proper state owned provider

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120697844#Comment_120697844

While I'm generally a fan of state owned utilities, there are trade offs to be considered

Taking the example of France, their energy costs are typically very low because they subsidise their nuclear power plants. Macron even complained about this in an interview once, saying that nuclear power seems to have a lot of hidden costs

Their grid has also suffered from a lack of investment, it's pretty notoriously unable to balance demand very well and depends heavily on interconnectors to Germany to offload excess power. It's a relationship that generally works well, but it's not unknown for the Germans to fleece the French for extra power when their power plants go offline

The other issue with cheap energy is that nobody is efficient with it. French houses often have much poorer insulation than others (even ours) and use electric heating, so when they have a cold snap there's a lot of extra demand on the grid

Again, state owned utilities have their advantages but they also have disadvantages

Going back to Ireland, we used to have some of the cheapest electricity in Europe because ESB was run at a constant loss and just propped up by the government

But remember the grid was a heap of shite back then, I remember power cuts in Dublin were typical 3-4 times a year, probably much worse in rural areas. There was practically no investment in modernising the grid or moving to renewables, and I imagine that situation would be the same today

I think we need some serious reform of the energy market, generators shouldn't be able to bid up the price and instead should just receive a fixed amount of income, a bit like the renewables contracts that went out recently. But state ownership isn't necessarily the answer

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120698076#Comment_120698076

All makes sense but did we have to privatise the industry to get a reliable grid or could the state / ESB have provided that upgrade under public ownership?

It seems a very lazy argument to claim the company that built the network in the first place couldn't get their heads around upgrading it

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120698832#Comment_120698832

We don't have to privatise the grid to make it work, and to be clear the grid isn't fully privatised but it is operationally and financially independent of government

The problem with funding it from government is that ultimately the money come from taxes and are very vulnerable to interference from politicians

It's very easy for political parties to run on a campaign of lowering taxes, just look at the bunch of muppets from FG who were doing some electioneering by calling for a €1k tax cut per person

Without going and shaking the magic money tree, tax cuts will mean that some projects get cancelled and updating a power grid which seems to be working fine already is going to be pretty low on the list of priorities for any government

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120698832#Comment_120698832

EDF is also privatised following a very similar structure where the state retains almost total ownership.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120697844#Comment_120697844

No, it’s nothing to do with state ownership. It’s to do with their energy mix. And also that their the prices are capped and the balance paid by the government, who get this through taxation

instead of a cap we got €600 credit i mist see what that bought the average unit price down too

also remember that EDF needed a state bailout to prevent it going tits up. EDF were/are in a really bad state

Hinckley point is costing 32bn and it looks like they’ll have to begging to the Chinese government

obi604

I rarely use public charging points but today tried to use a 7kW esb charger.

I have 14 Euro in my account so all good.

went to charge and said I needed to top up my account first…….but I already have 14 Euro on it.

I just had to leave it in the end

any ideas??

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120728719#Comment_120728719

They increased the minimum to €20 in your account as of 15/6/23

obi604

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120728729#Comment_120728729

Ah ok right. Thank you.

some codology.

sh81722

God the network is poor: Visited Glen of Aherlow this weekend, no chargers anywhere near there. We called in Cashel yesterday and the only chargers in town are at the M7 service station, and that was in use surprisingly enough. Luckily it was only a short wait at the Ionity. Just topped up enough to reach the Ballacolla SuC where 7/8 stalls were free today. Bliss that.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120730483#Comment_120730483

I'm in Dungarvan today, the only fast charger seems to be in constant use with 2 cars queuing at all times... I've enough charge in the tesla for the return trip but I'd nearly be afraid to come here for a day trip in an old Leaf or Zoe

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120730756#Comment_120730756

Ecars, making a trip from Dublin to Trailer more hassle than Dublin to Zagreb 😏

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120687306#Comment_120687306

You can't do that. You have to have a minimum of 20 quid in the account for the charging session to start. And of course lots of people got burnt this weekend as the error message was quite ambiguous. "But I have 18.75 in the account and auto top up enabled" someone was telling me. "If they add another 5 the balance is over 20". I guess "computer says no". Bottom line your account will not function with a balance less than 20 and if you have auto topup enabled your account balance will always be in between 40 and 20.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120730756#Comment_120730756

In Kilkee Co Clare over the weekend and the "network" for the area is made up of one AC unit installed sometimes in 2014.