The “Same Power, Different Attitude” campaign takes a bunch of rotten demagogues, famous the world over for their abuse of power, and recasts them as people who do decent things in their community. It’s satire for sure, but you could say we’ve got a bit of nerve to feature people in our ads who’ve regularly violated human rights. In truth, we think that dressing them up as humble, caring people is just about the best way possible to humiliate them.

Sometimes the most empowering thing you can do is actually to surrender your power to someone else. For too long, too many of the big companies have treated their customers like a minor adjunct to the business of making money. They might sponsor a few worthy causes here and there, but it’s no compensation for a lack of service and value.

People might find us a bit cheeky, maybe even a bit weird, but we believe fervently in treating our customers like, well, customers. We hope you agree.

We’d love to hear what you all think of the campaign. Please check out our campaign site - http://SamePowerDifferentAttitude.co.nz/ - and leave us a comment.

Most of you will have noticed your power consumption increasing over the past few weeks as winter has approached. At first it starts increasing gradually as the days get shorter and the lights are on longer, and as you spend more time at home watching TV or on the computer. Then the first cold southerly blast comes through and the heaters get cranked up, and the “leckie blankets” get pulled out from the back of the linen cupboard. You know then that your power (and/or gas) bills are going to really start biting – I spotted this on twitter this morning “so begins the mortgage payment sized powerbills”. You want to keep warm, so to some extent these bills are unavoidable. But with Powershop there are a few things you can do to try and make a difference.

Avoid bill shock
You know you’re going to be using more power, but do you know exactly how much more, or how much this is likely to cost you? Now is the time of year you can really benefit from entering your meter readings once a week to see how your usage is tracking and how much you’re spending.
Also, you may find it valuable or comforting to buy some power in advance so that you know that at least some of your winter power costs have already been covered.

Here’s a few tips:
- Check your meter once a week and enter your reading. Do it when you put out the rubbish.

- Relate your consumption to your power behaviour.  Were you doing more clothes drying or were cold temperatures making the heat pump work overtime?

- Try shutting off some of your power vampires - appliances that sit on standby when they’re not in use.

iPhone App
For those of you with iPhones, entering a meter reading couldn’t be easier. Download either the Powershop demonstration app or the Powerkiwi Flower Power app (details of both of these are available on our iPhone page), link the application to your account and you can check your balance, enter meter readings and top up your account, all from your phone.

We are also aware that there is at least one developer out there using our API to develop an application for Android phones to provide similar functionality.

Monitor your usage
If you are entering your meter readings each week you will quickly see when you start using more power and this may help you identify what is causing the increase and things you might need to change to help reduce your consumption and how much you are spending.

Set a savings target
Whether or not you are a Powershop customer you can set yourself a power savings target and use our Powersaver application to track progress towards this target. Remember, you will use more power at this time of year, so be realistic when you set your target. Try a little bit first and see how you go, then gradually increase your savings target. Why not run a savings competition with a group of friends? Powersaver lets you share your usage with your friends. If you are a Powershop customer you can automatically link your account, if you are not you can enter meter readings straight into PowerSaver.

There are plenty of websites out there with tips on how you can save power (such as Smarter Homes) You can enter your own power saving tips into PowerSaver for others to see too.

Google PowerMeter
Some of you may have heard of Google PowerMeter. This is a project being run by the philanthropic arm of Google. They are working with device manufacturers worldwide to measure appliance and household power consumption, and like our PowerSaver application present this information back to electricity consumers and their friends.

Earlier this year Google made their API (Application Programming Interface) public. This means that anyone can collect electricity consumption information and feed it into Google PowerMeter. It is early days yet, but we have been experimenting with Google PowerMeter to assess the value of linking Powershop accounts into Google PowerMeter. Connecting into PowerMeter now will allow our customers to treat current and future innovations by Google as an extension of their power account.

Anyway folks, rug up, keep warm, keep an eye on your power usage, and watch those pennies.

New Zealand businesses could potentially save millions of dollars a year by switching to a better value electricity supplier, according to Powershop.

Powershop, which sells electricity over the internet, discovered a pricing anomaly when they started doing bill estimates for companies interested in getting a better deal.

Based on more than 300 nationwide businesses Powershop prepared estimates for, they calculated Auckland businesses could save an average of eight percent, Wellington businesses nine percent, Christchurch businesses 17 percent and Dunedin businesses an average of 24 percent off their current annual power bill.

Powershop Chief Executive Ari Sargent says there is no good reason businesses are paying too much for their power.

“We’re shocked at how much some businesses are paying. The hundreds to thousands of dollars that many smaller businesses are overpaying should be profit, not filling the already well-padded pockets of big power retailers,” Mr Sargent said.

Mr Sargent believes the practice of charging the business sector overly high prices began decades ago.
“Historically, when the electricity market was managed by regional power boards, local councils would hike up power prices for businesses to subsidise residential customers. This practice ended in the nineties but the relative lack of competition means, in our opinion, power companies are getting away with charging businesses more than they should.

“Rather than working out the wholesale price of a unit of electricity and adding a reasonable margin, it appears that power companies are starting at a historically high figure and then only going lower if pushed by customers or competing power retailers,” Mr Sargent said.

Don Peebles of Peebles Owen Group, which runs four petrol stations in Christchurch and employs around 50 people, has recently switched to Powershop and expects to save around $15,000 over the next year, a quarter of their current annual power bill.

“We’ve always paid a lot for electricity but I was blown away by how much we were being overcharged. We’ve had enough of other power suppliers overpromising and underdelivering. It’s about time electricity prices became more competitive,” Mr Peebles said.

The Frenzi Group in Auckland, owner of several restaurants and bars including De Fontein, The Occidental, The Ponsonby, De Post and Malt, has recently switched to Powershop. Director Roy Thompson said they expect to save around $23,235 a year across the five venues, a 20 percent saving on their current annual power bill.

“We use a lot of power, running all our kitchen, refrigeration, lighting and audio-visual equipment. Each year many of our operating costs rise relentlessly yet we are unable to pass these savings on to our customers. Our margins are continually squeezed.

“If Powershop deliver on their savings estimates, then we will benefit from some very helpful savings,” Mr Thompson said.

Powershop has already proven it saves residential customers money. In the Government’s quarterly survey of domestic electricity prices, Powershop was shown to be the cheapest electricity supplier in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, New Plymouth and Palmerston North. (see http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentTOC____39087.aspx)

“We’ve used the Internet to fundamentally change the way people relate to electricity and to their power company. The internet allows us to keep costs low and lets businesses control how much power they use and keep an online record of all their bills” Mr Sargent said.

* Powershop has recently been achieved the highest customer satisfaction ratings in a survey by Consumer http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/energy-providers/introduction

For the avoidance of doubt, no animals were harmed in the creation of this game, and we do not condone cruelty to sheep or any other animals. Nor do we recommend playing in or around power lines - you should not approach or climb on pylons, nor kick or throw anything at overhead lines. This is just a bit of fun that appeals to our no. 8 sense of humour.

Play Powersheep (but please do not try this at home!).

- We had our ‘official launch’ with the airing of our first TV ad on Sunday 22 February. All of the Powershop crew travelled over to our Contact Centre in Masterton to share in our first public moment. The quality of the TV reception didn’t dampen the enthusiasm one little bit.

- We hit our first milestone of 1,000 customers on 30 April (which just happens to be my birthday).

- Getting through Winter was hard for us. After an initial burst of enthusiasm the world seemed to slow a bit. However, being confirmed as the cheapest provider by MED in most areas we operate gave us a lift.

- We introduced NZs first smart meter product in Christchurch, our 20% Cheaper Weekends offer. This was a turning point in our growth, and the rate at which customers have been joining up has increased markedly over Spring.

- We recently started serving the small business market and were surprised at the amount we could save some businesses on their power costs. We were also really excited when we signed up our first 1 million kWh pa customer.

By far and away the most important achievement this year though was our ranking in the Consumer NZ energy provider satisfaction survey. We were overwhelmed by the response from our customers. This was really important to us, because it confirms we are on the right track. We launched our innovative retail service model into the marketplace with a strong hunch that our customers would see the real benefits it provides, and after they had used it for a while they would fall in love with this new way of buying power. So we genuinely want to say “Thanks”. Thank you for trusting us, thank you for your continued support, and thank you for loving us

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday break.

Ari and the Powershop Crew.

We’d love to hear how you guys are getting along?

If you’ve been following the road to Copenhagen and feel the need to do something why not try and do 10 in 10 – 10% less power in 10 days.

We’re going to start on Day One of Copenhagen on the 7th of December through to the 16th, two days before the summit ends. Become a fan of the 10 in 10 Challenge on Facebook.

It may not exactly be earth saving, but it’s a start. Anyone is free to join in. All you need to do is start to record your meter reading every day leading up to the 7th and then work out your average daily use. On the 16th work out your average daily use over the 10 days using the Savings Target Spreadsheet and compare to your previous average daily use.

We’ll compile all the results and see just how much of those greenhouse gasses we can clean up at home.

More and more consumers are becoming more aware of the link between electricity consumption, carbon emissions and climate change. However, the whole ‘climate change’ industry is dominated by complex jargon and confusing terminology. We are tying to cut through all of that confusion and offer our customers practical options to reduce their effect on climate change.

There are three broad actions that everyone can take in relation to consumption of resources generally, and also specifically with electricity:
1. Reduce consumption, where possible.
2. Consume renewable, non-polluting resources.
3. Offset carbon emissions.
Powershop offers the information, tools and products for customers to adopt any or all of these actions that suit their lifestyle and budget.

Reducing consumption
Powershop provides simple and understandable information that allows customers to understand exactly how much power they are using each day, and immediately see the benefit of changing the way in which they use power or investments they have made to reduce consumption (eg. insulation, heat pumps).

Your unit balance shows you how much power you have left, how much you are using each day and how long your balance will last you. You can enter your meter reading whenever you like to track your usage and make sure your balance is accurate. We also have other charts and information that allow you to monitor your consumption over time.

Power from Renewable sources
Meridian Energy generates electricity using only renewable resources and has two CarboNZero^certTM products available for purchase within Powershop.

The certification process requires that the emissions associated with the generation and retail of the amount of electricity sold are measured, subject to management plans and offset according to the carboNZero standard. This does not mean the emissions associated with your power consumption have been offset because it is not possible to track electricity flows through the grid, and because there is no linkage between who you buy your power from and where the power you use is actually produced.

You can buy these products to show your support for Meridian as a generator that generates using only renewable resources, rather than to offset emissions.

Meridian also run ’specials’ from time-to-time, notably when their lakes are full of water.

For more information on Meridian’s products see our Products & Pricing page.

Offsetting Carbon Emissions
If you really want to help fight climate change you can ‘offset’ the emissions associated with the production or consumption of your power using carbon offsets.

A ‘carbon offset’ is produced by projects that either absorb carbon from the atmosphere (eg. forests) or offset emissions from another source (eg. a windfarm that reduces the amount of production from a coal fired power station). There is a plethora of international standards for carbon offsets with a range of different criteria associated with them. A key feature of all offsets though, is that they must be ‘additional’ – that the project or initiative producing the offset would not have occurred anyway without the revenue from sale of the carbon credits.

Powershop currently has two suppliers who provide carbon offsets with their electricity products.

PowerKiwi Limited supplies power under the brand name ‘The Green Power Company’
All purchases of The Green Power Company product are accompanied by a offsets verified to the ‘Voluntary Carbon Standard‘.

Airshed supplies two different power products, one intended primarily for residential consumers, and another targeted at businesses who participate in a certification programme such as Landcare’s CarboNZero programme. Both Airshed products have offsets verified to ‘Gold Standard‘ that meet other sustainability criteria in addition to offsetting carbon. This Gold Standard is supported by environmental organisations such as Green Peace and WWF.

For more information on ‘The Green Power Company’ and Airshed products, see our Products and Pricing page.