Plan options
Different customers have different needs. We help you meet your energy needs in the most cost-effective way with our choices for buying electricity.
EasiPlan
EasiPlan gives your business fixed rates for your “half hour” electricity use.
It’s a set-and-forget option that provides protection from fluctuations in electricity spot market prices, giving you the confidence of knowing which unit rates you will pay for your electricity each month.
Who's it for?
Easiplan best suits customers who want some price certainty.
How it benefits you
- if weather events, demand, transmission constraints or other factors affect spot market energy prices, your business is insulated from possible increases
- you always know the energy rate you will pay. If you increase consumption, for example, by scheduling extra shifts or installing new equipment, your extra consumption can be budgeted for at fixed rates
- if you reduce consumption your unit rates are maintained, meaning energy efficiency savings can be accurately calculated
- it is simple to administer – once your rates are agreed, you focus on your business operations.
How it works
Easiplan is a fixed price variable volume product. There’s no minimum or maximum volume requirement. You just use the electricity and we charge you the agreed rate for when it was used.
Things to consider
The fixed portion of the Easiplan applies to the electricity (Meridian) charges of the invoice only. These include the price of electricity you consume and the [business/ retail] services we provide to you. Network charges, metering costs, local losses, GST and the Electricity Authority Levy are set separately and these charges may vary from time to time.
Proportional pricing plan
The Proportional Pricing Plan specifies the percentage of your electricity use in any half hour that is charged at a fixed rate. The balance is charged at electricity spot market rates plus an administration charge.
Who's it for?
It best suits customers who are interested in having a proportion of their electricity supply exposed to spot market movement, while mitigating risk by having a set percentage of their supply provided at fixed rates.
How it benefits you
- proportional pricing lets you select the level of risk that suits your business
- you have some price certainty for the agreed proportion of load purchased at fixed rates
- your exposure to fluctuations in the spot market is limited to an agreed proportion of load.
How it works
The Proportional Pricing Plan is a fixed price, fixed percentage product. The percentage of your future electricity consumption to be charged at fixed rates is set in advance. The remaining consumption is purchased at the applicable spot market rates plus an administration charge.
There are no minimum or maximum volumes, and you pay only for what you actually use.
When spot prices are high, the business pays more for this proportion of its usage. The proportion or percentage of electricity bought at fixed and spot market prices remains constant for the term of the contract.
Things to consider
Meridian’s Proportional Pricing Plan applies to the electricity component of the invoice only. Network charges, metering costs, local losses, GST and the Electricity Authority Levy are set separately and these charges may vary from time to time.
Spot market plan
The Spot Market Plan works for businesses that actively manage and respond to price signals. Being on Spot Market means your business having a power supply contract linked to spot prices in the wholesale electricity market. Your consumption is charged at electricity spot market rates plus an administration charge.
Who's it for?
For those businesses that actively manage and respond to price signals, a power supply contract linked to spot prices in the wholesale electricity market can be an attractive option. Your business could potentially save money relative to fixed price alternatives, and/or gain a financial reward during low prices.
Being on the Spot Market can however be very volatile and therefore carry significant financial risk. Prices will sometimes ‘spike’ to very high levels with little or no warning, or rise to high levels for a sustained period such as during a drought. But there can be very low prices and savings for those who can respond to the price signals and avoid the high spikes.
Being on the Spot Market will require active management of your energy usage.
How it works*
The wholesale Spot Market works as an auction where generators make offers to produce electricity for half-hour time blocks (called trading periods).
The system operator (Transpower) ranks these offers and computes the lowest cost mix of generation from different sources that will satisfy overall demand for each half-hour.
The highest-priced generator actually required for each half-hour is the key determinant of prices for a trading period (referred to as marginal pricing).
Spot prices vary for a number of reasons including:
- underlying demand and supply conditions change over time – spot prices are generally higher in winter when demand increases, and lower in summer, or lower at night time and lower at night and higher during the day when power usage increases
- unexpected movements in demand or supply – spot prices can be much higher during droughts, or relatively low during wet periods when the hydro lakes are full
- locational differences that reflect the effect of electrical transmission losses and constraints on the grid.
Spot prices can, on occasion, be many times higher than the offer price for the highest cost generator that was required to run in a trading period. This can arise for a variety of reasons, but generally reflects a situation where part or all of the supply system is getting close to its physical limit
* This information has been reprised from Electricity Price Management – a high level guide for consumers published by the Electricity Authority
Enquire about joining
Simply fill out a quick form and one of our Business Specialists will contact you soon with a free, no-obligation quote and plan comparison.