Best Electricity Plan for new EV Owners

No, nothing to beat that if you need to fully charge a big battery EV overnight s few times a week.

i’l export about approx 5,500 units this year, BG export rate is 18.50 cent, Energia is 24 cent, thats a €300 euro difference annually, so while BG smart EV rates with 33% discount are not bad, they are not great overall, for higher PV exporters, with batteries, allthough they may suit some setups.

Energia EV smart plan is also cheaper for standing charge by almost €90 inc vat. so thats a total of a €390 difference annuall.

even using 6500 night units on BG versus Energia, is only circa 1.60 cent difference or €104 difference annually. Even if Energia were to reduce their export rate by 4 cent to 20 cent, its still a better plan for me and has a more flexible 4 hours cheap rate window, versus 3 hours.

Will also check Pinergy Cooline which is 5.45 cent inc vat at night for 3 hours, has a 25 cent export rate, €283 annual standing charge inc vat, , and has €100 credit on signup.

I did my own spreadsheet as we've only had solar since March and just got the EV, so energypal's estimates would have been based on past patterns that were completely different.

Even allowing for that my spreadsheet suggested Energia would be slightly cheaper due the lower standing charge and higher FIT, but that doesn't account for any load shifting or change of usage patterns to take advantage of BGE's cheap night and EV rates and the difference was less than €70 over a year. As I'm an existing BGE customer and in contract, I'd have to pay €50 to break it so I went with BGE and will try to maximise usage of the cheap rates.

Unfortunately I couldn't see any way to get the 33% rate as I'm a) an existing customer and b) dual-fuel and that rate is electric only. Existing customer rate is 24% which is the same discount I was already on.

Since I went full EV last year I had it scheduled to charge at 11pm which helped keep energypal more accurate. There's very little to be saved moving a dishwasher or washing machine into the 2-5 slot, they can be quite annoying running at that time, compared to an EV they use very little. Keeping out of the peak and charging the car between 2-5 has made a big difference already to my usage. When I pay the final bill with Flogas and get fully settled with BG I think I'll save around 30- 40 every 2 months.

I was the same looking at my energy pal. I'm on a 24 hour rate so I plug the car in at any time. But with the BG EV rate I'll move those KWs to that late slot. Once solar is in I'll also try top up the battery then too and use that through the early morning.

i am fully aware, we are a 4 person household, all working, so €1600 annual exemption per annum with 4 names on the bill, so its not a concern for me, and the context is export rates will definitely fall, so budgeting for around 20 cent per unit exported, in the medium term, going forward.

I would also expect the exemption to continue beyond 2025, due to the fact it is government and EU policy to encourage PV generation, and the amounts involved are also relatively small.

20 cents incl. Vat

sorry if been asked before but is there a site that you can just upload historical smart meter usuage and it will determine best plans based on your actual elctrictity needs?

wow - this is very cool and very useful thank you!

For me the fixed rate worked out well, while prices went down they didn't go down so much that I lost anything by going onto fixed rates

Having said that, in the example you gave they're close enough to be in the noise. You'll probably have to work it out with your expected generation to get a better idea

One option is to work out a worst case on the variable rate that raises the price by €50 per year. Once it goes above that you're better off paying the break contract fee and switching provider to a fixed rate