Cut my power bill

Reduce your operating expenses - with no capex 

This model presents a real opportunity to reduce your electricity expenses, without the need for any extra capital expenditure up front. 

Savings will come from three factors:

• avoiding the price increases we've seen from traditional power suppliers.
• access the lower cost of rooftop solar.   
• adopt new technology that reduces your consumption of electricity. 
  
  

1. Avoid price increases

The ACCC found in their 2017 enquiry into retail electricity pricing, that retail customers in the National Electricity Market pay 44% more in real terms for electricity than they did ten years ago.

"One thing is clear from this consultation and information gathering: there is a severe electricity affordability problem across the NEM and the price increases over the past ten years are putting Australian businesses and consumers under unacceptable pressure."

This chart from page 13 of the report tells the story: 

Our model aims to minimise or remove the need for power from the grid. 

If your organisation consumes power mostly during the day, then you'll be able to produce electricity at the time you need it, with power taken from the grid during early mornings, evenings, and days the sun doesn't fully shine. Conversely, with rooftop solar, you'll sometimes produce more than you need during the day, and that can be exported to the grid to offset your costs.  

The other option is to stop using grid power completely. This is where batteries come in. Cost is the main consideration here. 

If you're already off the grid, and you're relying on diesel generators or similar, then batteries will almost certainly be the best option right now. We can add them to your installation and again avoid the need for upfront capital expenditure. 

For many of our customers, the cost of batteries is not yet economical. We're seeing huge investment in research and development in energy storage technology - using everything from compressed air to spinning balls, to pumping water uphill and catching it on the way down. We expect storage pricing to come come down very soon.

Right now though, we're seeing exciting growth with organisations who turn the lights off at night and go home. If that's you, read on.  

2. Access the lower cost of rooftop solar

No more network charges

As you've probably noticed on your monthly power bill, network charges are typically 40% to 50% of your cost of electricity. And this is not surprising - the cost of getting your electricity to you is huge. Power companies have to pump up the voltage to very high levels to push the electricity along the long power lines, and they have to help cover the cost of the grid itself. Ausgrid tell us each power pole costs between $5000 and $8000 to replace, and there are over 5 million of them in Australia! 

With our model, you don't pay these network charges. 

Even if other sources of power drop in price over time, the cost of getting the power to you will still be there, so having your power generation on your roof is an advantage. 

No more environmental charges

Organisations with power bills from coal powered providers will often see environmental charges of around 10%. Obviously, with solar, these go away.

Also - if there are any clean energy rebates available from the government now or in the future, your savings could grow. 

So, by removing both network and environmental charges, you're removing around 50% of your power bill. And there more cost reducing factors...

Solar electricity costs less to produce

In December 2018, Australia's leading research group, the CSIRO released a study called GenCost 2018 which looked at the cost to generate electricity from new power plants in Australia. 

"...we found new-build renewable generation to be least cost, including when we add the cost of two or six hours of energy storage to wind and solar."

This is not an apples to apples comparison because rooftop solar is not the same as new-build solar power plants. But the evidence that solar costs less (even with batteries) is compelling. 

Solar apparently costs less than wind now too - as RenewEconomy reported  back in Jan 2017. 

3. New tech can reduce your consumption

There are a number of ways you can use less electricity. Again, these can be bundled into a package with no capex and no installation risk. 

LED lights

LED lights use about 15% of the energy of traditional halogen or incandescent lights. That's an 85% reduction available now. Upstream can bundle the cost of lighting refits into deals so you can avoid upfront cost - and pay them off as part of your monthly bill. 

LED lights also last longer. An average LED has a lifespan of 25k - 50k hours. While Halogen lights have a lifespan of 1k - 5K hours, and incandescent just 1k hours. 

Intelligent HVAC controls

Maximise efficiency by installing intelligent systems to control your heating, ventilation and air conditioning – which can be responsible for up to 70% of electricity usage.

Power Factor Correction

Maximise efficiency in electrical loads by improving voltage to equipment, maximising current and reducing power losses. Particularly useful for industrial energy users with heavy mechanical loads.

Building Management Systems

Real-time remote monitoring and control of your consumption patterns, by intelligent algorithms to reduce wastage and inefficiencies.

Are you interested in knowing more?