Utilmate for Exempt Electricity Retailers

Once upon a time, selling electricity in Australia meant simply posting your tenants a monthly tax invoice from your accounting system, they then popped into your office and paid.  Simple.

Nowadays it’s a little bit different. It has become increasingly complex and with the recent Victorian Essential Service changes, Power of Choice legislation, and upcoming AEMC embedded network exemption changes.  But what has changed exactly?

Metering

Read the meter, multiply by the tariff, and you have the total right? Not anymore.

All new networks have advanced meters, so you will be getting a constant stream of interval data. This needs to be bundled up based on the time of year, week, day and even allow for public holidays to establish the correct tariff. There may be both import and export (solar) meters present, and one or more gate meters with common area's to measure.

And that is just electricity. Gas, hot and cold water meters all have their own complexity and nuances.

Billing

Now that we're made sense of this stream of metering information, it's simple right? Well not exactly.

If you’re selling electricity or gas in Australia, the National Energy Retail Law requires that you must either be an authorised retailer or hold a valid exemption.

Whether you are a current authorised retailer or would like to become one, you'll likely need to think about:

• Bundling or unbundling
  A lot of embedded network retailers model and pass through the network tariff from the gate meter. However unless this is unbundled, it is impossible for the customer to tell how much relates to the embedded network, how much to the distribution network, and how much is for the electricity they are using. It's increasingly important for customers to see so that they can make an informed decision about changing retailers.
  
  
• Demand
  Residential demand tariffs are now available in Australia and to embedded networks. Demand is derived from the kWh used and the exact calculation will vary by distributor. Typically, to determine how much the monthly demand charge will be, you'll need to find the peak kWh used during the month, during the designated peak hours defined by the distributor. You'll then find the 30 minute period with the highest average kWh. That amount is then applied to every day of that month regardless of usage on those days.
  
  
• Concessions
  Concession cards are widespread in Australia and each state has their own rules and provisions for dealing with them. As an authorised retailer, you'll need to calculate the concession amount and either show it or apply it to each electricity invoice.
  
  
• Owner vs Tenant
  Depending in which state you're based, owners of apartments can be responsible for paying cold water charges instead of tenants. Also, remember these don't attract GST!

Invoice Design

• average daily consumption for the billing period and comparison to the same period in the previous year
• a separate 24-hour telephone number of the distributor for fault enquiries and emergencies. Interpreter information
• applicable concession or rebate schemes and any amounts deducted or credited
• electricity consumption benchmarks comparing the customer to others in the embedded network
• complaint and ombudsman details
• best offer comparisons

You may also like to consider other features in your invoice including greenhouse gas savings and cumulative saving totals.

Collections

After all this effort getting an invoice out the door, it's time to relax. Not so fast. Customers have much higher expectations about how they receive their invoices and other correspondence as well as the payment options available to them.

Offering direct debit and prompt payment discounts are two key ways of increasing collection rates. Prompting customers with SMS messages and reminders to their inbox can avoid the need for harsher measures down the track.

All authorised retailers need to conform to hardship rules and have the ability to offer customer payment plans whereby they can pay in instalments over a period of time.

The Internet of Things (IoT)

As a modern energy retailer, you'll need to provide your customers the power to interact with you without picking up the phone.

Online self-service allows customers to view and pay their invoices, look at their usage, and conduct key interactions with you (move in / move out) online. This saves you time and makes your customers happier.

Utilmate

Interested to hear more about what the changes mean for you and how we can help?

Give us a call on 1800 952 578 to find out about Utilmate, the subscription service for exempt and authorised retailers.

It is specifically designed for embedded network operators that need a hassle-free, proven meter data management, billing and customer management service.

If you’re struggling with any of this and would like a compliant utility billing system for authorised and exempt retailers in Australia, give us a call on 1800 952 578 or email us at enquiries@utilmate.com.