How to use PowerBill™
A is: 1. Get your Usage Data. 2. Format that Data.
B is: 3. Enter your Rates. 4. Select the Rate Types.
C is: 5. Show Price. 6. Get your Bill Price breakdown data.
Things You Need to Know
National Energy Retail Amendment Rule 2014 No. 2
Concerned with customer access to information about their energy consumption, and in part says:
(2) Historical billing data provided to the small customer for the previous 2 years must be provided without charge, but may be provided subject to a reasonable charge where the data requested is for an earlier period or has been requested more than:
(a) four times in any 12 month period, in the case of the supply of electricity; or
(b) once in any 12 month period, in the case of the supply of gas.
*From Smart Meters (Type 4 and 5) that produce the nem12 & nem13 file format specification (which is a csv file of 51 Columns).
*This data holds importance for many reasons, chiefly as it is a “Gold standard” and core ingredient to calculating the correct bill charges.
Meaning you have the rights to that data now.
Due to its importance to consumer rights and obligations, enforcing consumer Real-Time Access to meter data is currently under consideration by the Regulator (AER).
Access to Real Time Data
https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/real-time-data-consumers
Vitally important to accurate billing, is the ‘actual’ meter read data, where the meter reads are performed on a quarterly basis and the data provided by some retailers as a downloadable csv file through their customer portals.
Billing
Estimate bill cycles (Estimate-Estimate-Actual) – where ‘actualisation events’ should occur on every 3rd month and the account is evened out/balanced to zero, so any over-payments or under-payments are redressed and the consumer only pays for what they have used. (‘Actual’ usage equals actual payments made).
Actual bill cycles – where ‘actualisation events’ should occur as a matter of fact every 2 or 3 months, (whenever the actual read is done).
*Consumers are advised to check their bill accurately records their breakdown of usage no matter the billing cycle, so the charges applied are accurate (particularly those on Time-of-Use plans which can be notably troublesome).
My Bill is Wrong, Now What?
2. Complete this Retailer Refund/Rebate Demand Letter.
Send the Data and the Letter to your Retailer and Ombudsman.
(You will need to submit a case with your Ombudsman too).
Useful Resources
Consumer Advocates
– Energy Consumers Australia
– Electricity Bill Help – Australia
Government Authorities
– Australian Energy Regulator – AER
– Australian Energy Market Commission – AEMC
User Stories
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