A number of new energy retailers have recently entered the Australian market offering access to "wholesale energy prices" - Amber Electric and Power Club are two examples.
At Powerpal we are very supportive of the vision these companies have of helping households to optimise their consumption to align with when renewable energy is plentiful and prices are cheap.
However, unfortunately at the present time there are fundamental issues which prevent us offering a real time pricing service in the Powerpal app. The reasons are quite complex, but briefly the way the wholesale energy market currently works is that prices are bid in 5 minute blocks and then averaged over the preceding half hour period for settlement.
So the actual cost of wholesale energy is only known AFTER each half hour period has ended.
As the Powerpal app needs to know the "right now" price to report costs correctly it is impossible for us to accurately report wholesale prices in the app at this time.
The good news is that next year the National Energy Market will move to 5 minute settlement, where the price will be set in advance of each 5 minute dispatch period. Once this happens it should make it possible for us to display accurate wholesale prices in real time.
More details on these market changes are available here:
https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/five-minute-settlement
Of course you are still welcome to use Powerpal with a retailer who offers wholesale prices today, you will just need to enter an average wholesale price when setting up your energy rates in the app (in the same way that prices are presented on the bill you receive from your retailer).