ESB eCars

I don't agree with Red that it's a conspiracy, but I do think there's a significant lack of competition in the energy market at the moment, we've something like half as many suppliers as there were in 2020

This is probably leading to a reluctance to drop prices or offer discounts

The hedging wand gets waved a lot but I think the reasons are much deeper than that

First off, the wholesale price of electricity is back to 2021 levels, which is still pretty high. So I don't think 4c/kWh night rates are coming back

Second, the consumer price of electricity went up by something like 100% last year between all the price hikes, but the wholesale prices went up by 1000% in some instances

The means anyone selling energy into the market at a hedged price lost a load of money. So guess what, they want to make that money back now and aren't really in a hurry to offer competitive contracts

Third, a bunch of energy suppliers lost money last year. EI said they were forgoing any profits, and I think SSE did as well. Energia and Bord Gais both lost money

So again, they want to make that money back and aren't in a hurry to offer any deals because they don't want to get burned again

In summary, I don't think it's a conspiracy, but I do think this is the result of low competition and high input costs

Once the accountants have factored in the different rates for all of the different supply types from all the different hedging contracts, you then have to consider all the different rates (and their associated discounts) that your customers are on, both domestic, industry and wholesale.

I'd expect not, national interests should take priority and it's all controlled by Eirgrid anyway so unlikely that a generator could unilaterally choose to do that.

Again I don't think you're allowed to do that, pretty sure there's a condition of being a generator that you do all your energy trading through SEM-O

I used a new-ish 100kW charger in Claremorris yesterday and the app prompted me to enroll for Auto something. I tried twice and it failed both times so I gave up. Has it worked for anyone else? Is it based on Plug & Charge or something else?

@markpb I live in the area and have used this twice, most recently yesterday evening with no issues. Present the ESB card as normal and it initiates. Only went live last weekend.

I thought that was a fancy looking new design for the charger before I realised it was a cover 🤦‍♂️

It’s a big unit and a small unit so I’m guessing the big one is 2x CCS and the smaller unit is the 50kW with CCS & AC.. and ‘maybe’ CHAdeMO?

that carpark is a sh1tshow though so expect serious ICE’ing issues at this site..

New chargers in Cahersiveen using that layout with 3 parking spaces. Often means only 2 cars can fast charge at a time depending on which side of the car the port is on. Such a waste.

I also used the 200kw chargers in Killarney on the way down too, and because the cables were so short and the available chargers were on the wrong side to suit the side my charging port is on, we had to wait for about ten minutes. Two available chargers and I'm sitting in the car waiting. 🤷

Kinnegad Plaza

The one competent Ecars designer has been at it again 🤣

Are the existing Easygo chargers staying at Kinnegad?

Yep, ESB have been booted out of there, as well as Castlebellingham…

I think the 4 added to kinnegad more than makes up for it. One in Enfield was temperamental anyways.

I agree but it would have been nice to have the second AG unit in at least before the Ecars lease ended

Even two units is starting to look pretty inadequate these days, hopefully they reuse the existing space for the Ecars chargers as well. They had ducting and pedestals installed for two units at every site, so if they can connect back to the new transformer for the AG chargers then you can have up to 8 cars charging