Electricity prices going up can feel inevitable but there’s a glimmer of hope for business who take a closer look at how they use electricity, and install a more modern smart meter.
Theres a lot of downside to basic metering for businesses with legacy metering. Basic meters require manual reading, which are not generally scheduled sooner than quarterly.
Bright Spark Power recommends modern smart meters
If they don’t make it to the meter in a scheduled quarter, estimated reads can sometimes mean hundreds and in worst cases – thousands of kWh of usage above or below the actual usage and an incredible ‘shock’ when the bill shows a correction.
There’s a few key benefits for business who welcome modern smart meter technology onto their premises. The first being the cost of electricity.
Time of Use electricity plans are the best fit for businesses who mostly use electricity during the daytime – which makes up the large part of general non-peak electricity periods.
This means high street premises, office based businesses, cafes that close in the afternoon – could all potentially benefit from time of use electricity plans.
Whether or not you close up shop at 5pm, really its about examining how you use electricity and acting on that. Reptile World is a small business located on the Mid North Coast of NSW.
“As my business depends on maintaining stable conditions to keep our reptiles healthy, our electricity usage incurs a lot of irregular movements compared to other small businesses.”
“With Smart Metering, we shifted our electricity usage for heat and light necessities to other time periods, keeping our electricity cost to a bare minimum while keeping the requirements and needs of our reptiles as a main priority,” said Steve McEwan, a business owner.
It’s possible some business are already on a time of use electricity plan – but with basic metering. These older time of use meters are sometimes mistaken for a smart meter because of the digital display however are simply an interval capable, manually read interval meter.
Basic Time of Use meters have traditionally had high daily supply charges that commonly range from $6 to $8 per day, a hefty addition to overheads over the course of a year.
Bright Spark Power installs modern smart meters
Energy start up Bright Spark Power wants to make life easier for SMBs affected by these high daily usage charges or looking to investigating moving to a time of use electricity plan.
Bright Spark Power Founder and CEO Arran Coughlan says he often talks to business owners who complain about inaccurate estimated usage reads, and the challenge to cost certainty to cashflow when receiving an unexpectedly high adjustment usage bill.
“We are attempting to solve all these issues through providing business smart meters to replace an inefficient and outdated traditonal methods of electricity metering.”
“Bright Spark Power arranges the meter replacement, with work to get the area ready, or sometimes sending our metering partners for an easy, no replacement cost meter exchange.”
Bright Spark Power say they are currently charging no more than $1.99 per day on their Smart Meter enabled Aussie Business Time of Use electricity plans across the state. They were able to identify changes Reptile World could make to their metering over the phone.
Beyond any immediate cost savings – there’s more technology in the future.
“Adding a smart meter offers more granular usage measurements of your electricity usage, which helps investigate other solutions such as solar energy, battery storage, and electric car charging, all of which could help move a business towards a lower carbon footprint”.
If you have a basic meter, look at options with your existing or a new electricity provider, to install a smart meter and look for a tariff with a lower supply charge and analyse the time of use periods working across your expected electricity usage, and the price per kWh.
“It can feel like a bit of work, but its quite a simple business cost analysis, and fix. Whether or not you’re thinking to switch electricity providers right now, the best thing to do is call us.”
“We are on the phone daily helping people solve this problem without doing any paperwork. We quickly identify whether a smart meter help reduce electricity costs at your premises.”
