Misleading peak energy rewards program

[dswinbanks]

Why is AGL advertising a peak energy rewards program on TV and it’s website with no caveat that not all customers can qualify. I am a long standing AGL customer and tried to register but was told with no explanation “sorry you are not qualified” . Shame on you AGL for deceptive misleading advertising with no caveats to say you exclude some of your long standing customers. This misleading advertising no doubt is intended to give the false impression you care about the extortionate prices of energy in Australia and  is enough to make me think of going of going elsewhere. But I suspect all energy companies in Australia are equally hypocritical

[NeilC]

@dswinbanks 

I looked at that myself, however I could see no point in even applying.

Now on the new look bill I get this usage graph

At worse, it looks like in January 2023 my average was (for the month) was around 6kWh.

So I went and actually did the calculation

And as you can see, it was 6.4338 for the month of January.

Of course it got the better of me. so I ran my report for the last two years (the maximum length that AGL supplies data for in your download file) and this is what I got.

As you can see the average daily usage is 4.5936.

You might be thinking about now that I might not be eligible to get $10 for a three hour event or even $5 for a one hour event.

So I ran another report for over the two years.

For this report I configured the output to show the hourly usage.

So below is the section in hours where AGL may declare an event.

So if an event was declared for three hours from 17:00 till 20:00, if I turned off every thing in the house, I would save on average .9315 kWh, now at current rates that would save me less than FIFTY CENTS.

Yep might sign up for this and hang around the house all day just because AGL will pay me $10.

I don't think so.....

On the old style bill you used to get this three house picture showing your usage.

We (two of us, cat, 10 fish) use 68%  of the 1 person house and 38% of the two person house.

Now if I did sign up I should get rejected anyway, if I did sign up and they accepted me do you really think they would bother sending me a message. Besides that you have to have a smart meter (do you) so they can measure your savings during that event.

As I have stated I HAVE NO INTENTION OF APPLYING, as I would not be eligible and could not even go close to saving $5 for a one hour event let alone $10 for a 3 hour event.

But let me try, yep let me join up, can't wait for next year to see how many messages I get to reduce my usage.

[David_AGL]

Actually @NeilC I believe as a solar customer you would receive export targets on the Peak Energy Rewards program, rather than usage reduction targets, so it may well still be worthwhile. 

Regarding eligibility, AGL Peak Energy Rewards is available to current AGL customers in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland with a digital ‘smart’ meter.

Participants must be a residential owner or tenant responsible for the electricity supply at your address and remain an AGL electricity account holder for the duration of the Program.

[dswinbanks]

So the reason my application was turned down is because I don’t have a smart meter? (don’t know if I do or don’t). AGL adverts on TV and website should have a clear message that this is only available to customers with smart meters and when AGL website rejects applications there should be an explanation of why.

[David_AGL]

@dswinbanks , you may be able to request a meter upgrade to a smart meter, and generally there is no installation cost to you for this upgrade.

For more information, check out our Digital Meters page, or send us a message via the AGL app or My Account and ask about a digital meter upgrade. 

[NeilC · Accepted solution]

@dswinbanks 

If you have the AGL APP or use your My Account page you should see daily information on the page. If you don't use either of those on your Bills (not the New Look Bill though) you will find something that states,

    Your next meter reading will be between ....

If it has a single date you have a smart meter, if it has two dates a week or so apart you don't have a smart meter.

[dswinbanks]

Thx Neil

[Imakestuffup]

Don't  be concerned with missing out on this program if you can't get it.  Rather than encouraging it users to minimise usage on the grid when consuption is high by giving realist targets for consumers to reach... they have started make it way way way unobtainable (eg.  "user less than .5 of a kwh in an hour after the sun has set").   I have now taken it as a challenge to go crazy and use MAX energy during this period, as I can only assume that AGL will get hit with massive wholesale price during this window that potentially there residential rates won't allow a profit... 

[Deepesh_AGL]

Hi Imakestuffup, We appreciate your feedback and will ensure this is passed to the relevant team for improvements. Peak events can vary and, because of weather or other circumstances, happen when there’s particularly high demand for energy on the grid. Peak events usually only last from one to three hours. Find out more: www.agl.com.au/campaigns/peak-energy-rewards. Cheers, Deepesh