Pinergy launches new lifestyle plans with smart meters

Pinergy, the smart energy supplier delivering clean electricity, has today announced the launch of its range of ‘Pinergy Lifestyle’ plans. The new offering has been launched to meet the needs of families that are set to have their houses installed with smart meters as part of the national smart metering programme. The programme, which is being rolled out by ESB Networks, is committed to having 2.25 million meters installed in Irish households by 2024. To date, 240,000 households have had smart meters installed and these homes will have their Smart Meter Services switched on at the end of this month.

With significant experience in both residential and commercial smart metering, Pinergy has used it expertise and insights to develop the first set of new plans based on how families have adapted their lifestyles in the last year. A first for Ireland, the new Lifestyle plans include a “Work from Home” plan, a “Family Time” plan and a “Drive Time” plan for those families looking to charge their electric vehicles (EVs) overnight. Pinergy is planning to roll out even more plans over 2021 to meet the ever-changing needs of Irish families.

The initial choice of three Time of Use tariffs, a key feature of the new Pinergy offering, consists of the ‘Work from Home’ plan operating a 30% discount Mon-Fri from 9am to 5pm; a ‘Family Time’ plan operating daily between 6pm to 10pm, providing customers with a 40% discount off standard tariffs and a ‘Drive Time’ EV charging plan operating from 2am to 5am with an attractive 5c unit rate.

Designed around a newly enhanced Pinergy App with clear insights on daily usage, the Lifestyle plans will compete in the bill pay market, giving customers the ability to pay an agreed Level-pay amount every month. A key benefit of having a smart meter installed for domestic users, is the ability to avoid the hassle of taking and submitting manual meter readings or working off estimated readings. Pinergy Lifestyle will be fully integrated with the installed smart meter presenting all the relevant energy data via the Pinergy App on a customer’s mobile phone. Customers can request a Smart Meter from either ESB Networks or from Pinergy if they do not already have one.

Commenting on the launch of Pinergy Lifestyle, Enda Gunnell, chief executive at Pinergy said: “We have timed the launch of our new lifestyle plan & app and offering to be first to market and ready to coincide and support the rollout of the national smart metering programme. We have significant experience in Smart Metering over the last number of years, and we want to bring these insights and experiences to the under-served residential bill pay market. Pinergy is committed to supporting consumers through our smart technology, particularly at a time when they are becoming increasingly aware of the energy they use.

“Families and those working from home are the type of consumers that we have been building this product around. With children home more often and parents having to deal with higher energy consumption, we wanted to be able to offer families a way of making habitual changes so that they can adapt to a more sustainable energy future in the home and allow them to see the true impact of their energy behaviours, and adjust them accordingly.”

Gunnell added: “Pinergy Lifestyle provides an engaging and interactive mobile app that delivers energy insights to families and other households around their particular consumption usage and patterns. The tracking monitor and artificial intelligence based advisory content built into the mobile based tool, empowers everybody using energy to be more informed to make better decisions and behavioural change when it comes to their energy management.”

During 2020 Pinergy saw energy consumption in family homes rise between 4% and 14% year on year and the company expects that with rolling lockdowns over the coming months, this trend is likely to continue.

Developed from consumer insights and in collaboration with a behavioural scientist, the new Pinergy App for Lifestyle customers has a number of key features including a breakdown of your home electricity used every 30 minutes, your daily energy costs and clear, visual graphs related to the household’s energy consumption that are easy to understand. Energy tips and coaching from Pinergy Energy Advisors will also be introduced via the Lifestyle app to help customers continue to learn to be more efficient.

For further information on Pinergy Lifestyle, visit https://pinergy.ie/home-electricity/fixed-price-plans