Flick yeah!
We’ve been Flick customers since Feb 2015, when we switched from our previous provider once we got a smart meter.
Flick is a cool little power company based in Wellington, who aren’t afraid of using kerning to make the L and I join together:
The unique feature of Flick is that they charge according to the spot price on the electricity market, which means that power prices change every 30 minutes according to the vagaries of supply and demand.
This is in direct contrast to the incumbent providers, who build fat into their pricing so that they can keep the same unit price for electricity 24x7x365, and overcharge customers who use power in off-peak periods to offset the price hikes during the expensive times of day or year.
This pricing model really appeals to me, because I have full information about who is receiving my money, and I have the ability to control my spending.
Who is taking my money?
To control your spending on electricity, you only really have two choices:
- Choose what appliances to turn off (reduce consumption)
- Choose when to use appliances (optimise price)
With previous electricity providers, saving money on electricity meant focusing on the first approach. Over the years I have had various gadgets that measured consumption for individual appliances or housewide, and have kept an eye on how much power different activities consumed.
Flick lets me think about when to consume electricity, and for those movable-but-not-optional activities like washing or drying clothes or dishwasher, I am able to shift them to late at night when the price drops:
The price of electricity fluctuates pretty wildly during the day according to demand — so before and after work are the most expensive, and the middle of the night is usually the cheapest.
But as well as focusing on price, Flick gets me thinking about the impact on the environment of the power we consume.
It turns out that NZ has multiple sources of power generation, and some of them cause far less pollution than others.
The Think Big projects of the Muldoon government built large dams and hydroelectric power generation. This provides a stable supply of electricity with no carbon emissions.
As load across New Zealand increases, more and more power generators need to be switched on, which means that at the times of highest usage there will be power plants burning gas and coal to keep up with the demand. These plants have a higher impact on the environment and produce more CO2 gases.
With the Flick Choice mobile app, I am able to see if now is a good time to turn on those appliances, or if I will cause nasty carbon emissions by doing so:
There’s also alerts to your phone, so you know when the emissions are low, or price rises are likely, so you can adjust your usage.
All up, I think Flick is a really cool example of a disruptive company challenging the “way we do things” in the electricity sector. Consumers have choice, and they can have a conscience too. Awesome!
