Amber Electric
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Ineffective hedging offer
I really wanted to make this work with Amber. Their business model concept of Time of Use ( TOU) and exposure to wholesale rates, providing a good user interface platform to stay and be notified of pricing and consumption is attractive to me. I am happy in principle to moderate my consumption as best I can according to the signals provided not only benefiting the network system operation but also saving me money. It should be noted the team are responsive and helpful when enquiries are made albeit all by written correspondence only. In my case all this worked fine as I had comfort in knowing that after all, I had a hedge built into the deal that I could rely on when price spikes occurred which naturally will happen. However, comfort turned to dismay when I did encounter a spike after 2 days and saw the cost hit the roof for two adjacent 30-minute slots, prompting me to double-check the hedging methodology. I say dismay, because I discovered the price cap built into the hedge (circa 41c in Qld and seemingly set by the DNSP) is manageable but the kicker is that Amber calculates this over three-month period of consumption to see if a credit is due and, if so, is paid the following month (3-4 month lag on recompense). The point of this is that one spike event can effectively consign you to an electricity bill for 3-month consumption at quite a high price per Kwh for a 3-month period, albeit a capped one and thus a very high electricity bill. I accept price spikes are part of the deal and business model, but the all-important hedge is practically ineffective the way Amber offers it and for me renders the whole model unattractive. The method of hedging is explained on their website but should be made clearer up front. Fortunately, I spotted this early and got out quickly. So, does it have to be this way? I believe I would happily pay a higher price for the hedging cost and a higher cap price per Kwh if it were applied to the 30-minute time slot and not to a 3-month consumption figure. It would be much easier for us consumers to get our heads around this methodology as we observe the pricing and consumption of our electricity in the Amber model. Alas! not to be .. until maybe a new market entrant offers it!