Can't understand your energy bill? To compare electricity or gas suppliers on ShopAround you don't need to! Start comparing here.
Whether you're in Melbourne, Mildura, Geelong or Goulburn you don't need your bill to compare electricity suppliers in Victoria or NSW or compare gas companies using ShopAround.com.au. But if you do have your bill in front of you sometimes they can be a bit difficult to understand! So here's our helpful guide to energy bills.
Your electricity and gas supplier has a number of obligations under the Retail Energy code for what they have to show you on your electricity or gas bill. While they can be quite daunting at first glance, take a little time and you should be able to see the following items. (See the Jargon Buster at the bottom of the page for a definition some of the industry terms.)
- The name of the person or company in which the account is held and account number, as well the relevant supply address and relevant mailing address.
- The assigned meter identifier or NMI (National Meter Identifier) for electricity accounts and MIRN (Meter Installation Reference Number) for gas accounts.
- The period covered by the bill, the relevant tariff or tariffs applicable to your account and whether the bill is based on a meter reading or is wholly an estimated bill.
- They must show the total amount of electricity (in kWh) or of gas (in MJ) or of both consumed in each period or class of period in respect of which a relevant tariff applies to your account and if the meter measures and records consumption data only on an accumulation basis, the dates and total amounts of the immediately previous and current meter readings, estimates or substitutes.
- If the retailer directly passes through a network charge to your account, the separate amount of the network charge must be shown on the bill. If the account is for both electricity and gas, they must show separately the amounts payable for electricity and gas.
- They must show the pay by date, the amount of arrears or credit and the amount of any refundable advance provided by you. A summary of payment methods and payment arrangement options must be supplied and if you are a domestic customer, details of the availability of concessions and in relevant languages, details of interpreter services as well.
- If the bill is a reminder notice, contact details for the retailer’s complaint handling processes must be shown.
- They must display a telephone number for billing and payment enquiries and a 24 hour contact telephone number for faults and emergencies;
- Your retailer must include on your bill a graph showing the consumption of energy for the period covered by the bill and, to the extent that data is available, the consumption for each billing period over the past 12 months; and a comparison of the customer’s consumption for the period covered by the bill with the customer’s consumption for the same period of the previous year.
Jargon Buster
National Meter Identifier (NMI)
Is the number which identifies your electricity installation separately to all other households. This is used when transferring from one retailer to another.
Meter Installation Reference Number (MIRN)
Is the number which identifies the gas metering point at your address. It’s important when you’re transferring retailers.
Distribution Charges (or Network Charges or SAC)
This is the charge you incur for the delivery of electricity and maintenance of the poles and wires. This amount is charged by the Distributor.
Kilowatt hour (kWh)
1,000 watts used for one hour. Ten 100-watt light bulbs, burning for one hour would consume one kilowatt hour of electricity. This is the basic unit the retailer uses to charge you for your consumption of electricity.
Megajoules (MJ)
One million joules. This is the basic unit of energy used in the natural gas industry. Simple comparisons between megajoules and other forms of energy are: 3.6 MJ = 1 kilowatt hour; 16 MJ = about 1 kg of wood.
Tariff
A tariff (sometimes referred to as a rate) is a pricing structure that you the consumer have to pay for each unit of energy you consume. There are retail tariffs as well as network tariffs. Some retail tariffs have a peak rate; some have a peak and an off-peak rate. Some tariffs are also 'stepped' which means there is a different rate for the first consumption bracket compared to next brackets.
Off-peak electricity
Electricity that is consumed at either a time of the day or a day of the week when system demand is low. The price for off-peak electricity is generally lower than at other times of use. This will depend on your tariff.
Peak demand
The greatest demand for electricity in a stated period of time such as the greatest demand during a month or a year.