We dug into the data flowing past our Energy Specialists screens to figure out what a dollar's worth of electricity buys you

The results are out, and we’ll admit, we’re surprised too!

Starting with the thing most of us carry around the house that’s not the cat. For just $1 you can charge your smartphone for seven months!

In the kitchen $1 will wash three loads of dishes (so make sure you fill it up), power your fridge for 3 days, boil your kettle enough times to make 140 cups of tea, or toast 120 slices of bread.

21 hours of TV viewing costs $1 and so does 63 recharges of a laptop or 16 hours on a desktop computer.

$1 spent on LED lighting buys you 260 hours of illumination vs. 52 hours with incandescent bulbs, so if you haven’t switched up to eco bulbs, you know what to do.

Appliances with the biggest appetites for electricity keep you cooler, warmer and cook your meals. $1 buys 45 minutes of heating or cooling from your air conditioner and heat pump. And $1 will pay to cook 1 roast dinner, heat water for one bath or keep your shower running for 18 minutes. 

To keep track of your electricity usage, save power and money, check out Octopus Energy’s handy 

 so you can use those power hungry appliances when electricity costs less.

If you set a timer on your dishwasher, washing machine, heat pump, battery chargers or dryer to go to work after midnight you can save by paying only half the normal rate with Octopus Energy.

¹ using an average price of 32c per kWh including generation, lines and distribution charges

Take the shock out of your electricity usage

, as she discusses the opportunities for demand response solutions with Bernard Hickey on When the Facts Change.

Aotearoa’s future of low battery anxiety

more than 34,000 New Zealand households went without power

 on one of the coldest nights of the year. There was speculation about who was to blame, various investigations, and more recently, renewed threats of electricity outages with inevitable references to August 9, 2021.

Electricity Authority (EA) ruled Transpower’s coordination and communication failures

 meant consumers were disconnected unnecessarily that night. For its part, the national grid operator has stressed the unusual circumstances that led to the miscalculation that caused thousands of Kiwis to shiver in the dark.

Unusual or not, it’s crucial we don’t allow lessons from that crisis to go to waste. While the EA and Transpower have reassured us they have been learnt, our electricity industry cannot afford to be complacent. The investigation into the incident found that there’s a massive opportunity to utilise untapped demand side participation to achieve our goal of 100% renewables. It’s time to get on with it.

Consumers big and small have a part to play in stabilising the grid. This is not only critical for energy security, it’s critical for energy affordability. Some retailers are already supporting this shift with “time-of-use” tariffs that financially incentivise customers to use power-hungry appliances at times of day when electricity costs less. But expecting consumers to change their behaviour is a big ask. Most of us don’t have time, or incentive, to keep an eye on market signals and switch the dryer on or off as power prices fluctuate.

The answer, then, lies in automated demand response, facilitated and rewarded by electricity retailers. The investigation report points to New Zealand’s ripple control, which has been turning off our electric hot water systems in times of peak demand since the 1950s, as an example of what such a response could involve.

However, demand management technology has become significantly smarter in the past 70 years. Software like Intelligent Octopus lets consumers tell an app what time they need their EV charged by, and ensures the battery is juiced when wholesale prices are lower. Consumers save money, and the grid stays stable. It’s a win-win.

The same tech can be applied to heat pumps and hot water cylinders, injecting much-needed flexibility into the electricity system. With added breathing room, retailers would be able to pass on cost savings to their customers. Hot water currently comprises about a third of the average power bill; switching it off for 30 minutes during the highest-priced periods would provide a meaningful boost to Kiwi bank balances.

Automation is the only way we’ll ever see widespread uptake of demand-side solutions. And, widespread uptake is becoming a matter of urgency. In the last month, we’ve seen governments across the Northern Hemisphere scramble to stabilise their grids amidst intense heat waves that show us what we’re in for if the planet keeps warming. Responses have ranged from subsidies for cooperating with government-issued notices to conserve electricity, to compensating bitcoin miners for powering down their rigs. These moves highlight the crucial role demand side response plays in keeping electricity flowing, but they’re a patch for countries caught on the hoof. They’re not a long-term fix.

The UK is slightly more future-thinking, putting £65 million (NZ$126.8m) behind trials that support consumer flexibility in the market. Facing a winter with tenuous energy security due to the war in Ukraine, the national grid operator is considering subsidising households to swap gas boilers with smart heat pumps. Meanwhile, the energy regulator has put forward a plan that would allow EV owners to turn their cars into “mobile power plants”, able to sell power back to the grid in peak times.

New Zealand has the opportunity to be even smarter, not to mention proactive, in its demand-side innovation. We should not wait for a crisis – of communication, conflict or climate – to start implementing solutions already under our noses.

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