Understanding your electricity bill

• Uses of gas and electricity in Australia

• Tariffs and energy use

• The electricity network

• Where the money goes

• Who are the retailers?

• A single rate electricity bill

• A dual rate electricity bill

• Comparing prices

Uses of gas and electricity

Tariffs reflect your energy mix

• Single rate meter (Residential GD/GR) uses electricity for power points and lights only

• Two rate meter has permanently wired water storage heater , sometimes ‘slab heating’. Can also include a dedicated meter for A/Cond (‘Climate saver’)

• Time of Use meter (‘Smart Meter’ GH/GL) rates are determined by the time of day…

• And … Flexi-rates are coming!

Flexible pricing

• Being offered from mid-2013

• Need an interval meter to access- it is a variation on Time of Use

• Assumes you can reduce your usage between 3 pm and 9 pm weekdays

• Don’t know rates yet but peak could be more expensive than current peak

• Do your homework – buyer beware

The Electricity Network

One bill pays for all services

• The consumer pays for all network services via their retailer

• There are 13+ retailers to choose from

• There is one monopoly distributer in this area – Powercor -

• Powercor is responsible for reading your meter and the Interval Meter rollout

• Meter reading data is passed to the retailer

Where the money goes…

A single rate electricity bill

• All electricity is purchased at roughly the same amount

• Water is heated by gas (usually)

• Usually quarterly (about 91 days)

• Some monthly billing operates with direct debit

Features of the first page

• Usually the only one you used to look at!

• Account number

• Amount due

• Due date

• Sometimes: bar graphs of avg. daily use

• Should be: invoice number

Features of the second page

• Account period and billing days

• Meter readings – previous and current

• Usage in kWh and rate charged (c/kWh)

• Service charges

• GST

• All the above can be repeated for a different period –like a new calendar year!

TRUenergy single rate

• Has the same features, different layout

• TRUenergy is now known as Energy Australia

A dual rate electricity bill

• The first page is basically the same –except for the bar graph (if on the first page)

Comparing electricity prices

Using the comparator

What the comparator shows

What the comparator shows

Remember, buyer beware

• Do your home work!

Thank you for your time.

• Questions?