Electricity is a utility and the way we think about it is often “out of sight out of mind” - we care little and buy on price. However, some new actors are disrupting the traditional big retailers who are heavily invested in fossil fuels, and switching your provider is a very impactful action.
In Australia, a large majority (76% in 2020) of the electricity consumed still comes from fossil fuels. (Source: Australian Energy Statistics) and electricity represents 33% of Australia’s greenhouse gases emissions. (Source: Industry.gov.au)
Thanks to our favourable climate, Australia has the highest uptake of solar globally, with around 29% of homes with rooftop solar PV. (Source: Energy.gov.au. It is on my personal “action list” to investigate installing solar panels on the rooftop of our building, but we’re not there yet.
A few years ago, we switched our electricity provider to Powershop and more recently we went with Amber.
There is little information out there on what makes an electricity provider sustainable, and there’s a lot of greenwashing going on, so it can be quite confusing. Greenpeace used to produce a Green Electricity Guide but they stopped updating it.
One point to keep in mind is that the electricity that arrives in your home is the same as everyone else’s, regardless of how “green” your provider is. This is because we’re all connected to the same grid.
I chose to stay away from the Big 3 providers in Australia - AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin - because of their significant investments and support of fossil fuels and despite their claims for being “green”. AGL recently lost its court case against Greenpeace who described them as Australia’s “biggest climate polluter”.
Below are the rationale for going with the 2 providers we tested.
More about what makes Powershop a good electricity provider choice here.
Why I left: I was getting super confused by their powerpacks and wanted to test Amber’s model.
Amber is a disruptive energy retailer that has been operating in Australia since 2017. The innovative aspect is that they pass real-time wholesale electricity prices and charge you a monthly $15 flat fee.
Basically, with Amber, we started paying a lot more attention to our electricity consumption and how we can optimise it to reduce both our bill and our environmental impact.
For example, we implemented a pretty simple change in our daily routines. We stopped operating our washing machine and dishwasher during peak evening hours, when electricity is more expensive and there’s little renewables on the grid. We use the scheduling button on the machines to start them during the day, when electricity is cheaper and there are more renewables in the grid.
Knowing that we’re in control and paying the wholesale price makes a great incentive to be conscious about our electricity usage.