A look into how Amber Electric’s spot exposed customers are faring during lockdown

This week, Amber Electic published an article which provides insight into their customer’s energy usage and costs since lockdown laws have come into effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amber Electric allow their customers direct access to the wholesale energy market. Through their business operations and accompanying app, their customers have the ability to monitor the wholesale price and potentially shift their energy usage when the price peaks – and by doing so they are generally rewarded with a lower overall electricity cost than fixed rates offered by traditional retailers. On this site, we’ve provided background on this category of demand response, known as “Real time pricing”.

In the update, they note that while energy usage of their customers has increased by 15%, the energy price they’ve paid has decreased by around 20%. As they note, the cost savings are due to lower wholesale prices across the NEM during this period which, for the most part, could be attributed to reduced business demand, lower gas prices and a large number of wind and solar farms being connected to the grid resulting in increased electricity supply, especially during daylight hours.

For those who want to understand more broadly how COVID is affecting aggregate electricity consumption, we have written some thoughts over on WattClarity.