Powershop

I’ve been a happy customer of Powershop for several years. I’ve recruited dozens of customers for them, and even swapped my business over a year or so ago.

I’ve saved a lot of money with them as they have no fixed fees – you just pay for the power you use. I have also reduced my energy use as the pricing and usage has been more transparent.

But I am for the first time unhappy. The cost of power to my work premises has shot up around 30% to around 33c/unit. In May it was 25c/unit.

I know that prices go up in winter – that is part of the model. But never did I think it would hit 33c/unit which is outraegously high.

Interestingly the charge for my domestic power has not gone up – they are at 25c still. Normally the domestic and commercial rates have been very close to each other – within 1c/unit or so. I don’t see what has happened that would push commercial rates up 30% in two months except price gouging.

I did e-mail Powershop about this, and just got the standard reply:

Please be aware that our pricing fluctuates through the year and as such winter is the highest for the year and we drop to Summer which is our lowest pricing for the year.

I’ve been with Powershop for some time. The differences between summer and winter in past years has been a few cents only. For example July 2010 was 23c and Dec 2010 was 21c.

I still think I am getting a good deal with my residential account. But I don’t regard a 30% increase in my commercial account as justified. I also don’t see why there should be such a difference between their commercial and residential rates. The two buildings (for me) are located next door to each other.

If the prices remains so high for the commercial premises, I’ll be looking around.