Agl overcharging demand tarrif

[Astraios]

Hi,

I think I have been overcharged my demand tarif for the jul-aug billing period. My bill states 2.12kw usage during demand times. My usage is sent half hourly, so for a 2.12 kw, I would have to have used 1.06kwh in a 30min period. I searched my usage history and I could only find 0.35kwh on 30th July and 0.45kwh on 13th July. As 0.45kwh is the highest this would give a 0.9kw demand value not 2.12kw. I have tried 8 times asking Agl to tell me where the 2.12 came from but without success, they don’t seem to want/have the ability to tell me. Has anyone else faced this issue? Could it be resolved?

[Lester]

..

I hope they can check and fix this if a mistake has been made.

But I am curious . . . .

Did you go onto a demand tariff plan by choice, working out you can smooth power use so much that it might be worthwhile for your usage ?

I'm not sure, but are rates lower than normal on a demand plan, or are rates the same and the EXTRA demand charge added ?

If the latter, I'm not sure why anyone would want to go onto demand charging, it's a real minefield trying to keep low for every interval for the entire billing period.

I imagine being on monthly billing is safer than quarterly, or is the only option quarterly billing ?

If you didn't go on demand by choice, were you forced onto it ?

I assume you are residential ?

If forced onto demand, what state are you in ?

I've heard of businesses being forced onto demand tariff, but not residential.

Just a bit concerned this could be the next way for retailers to get more $ when people cut use in the home, or go to solar / battery for their home use.

[Astraios]

It has become very common for residential to be charged demand tarrif. The only caveat is that you have to have a smart meter for them to be able to do it. We installed solar and a smart meter was installed as part of the alteration. It meant that energex could monitor the usage in 30minute intervals. I didn’t realise at the time but the usage rates when I had the traditional electricity meter were lower. It didn’t matter though because at the time the feed in tarrif for my solar was higher. So far I have talked to over eight different agents and all of them have given me stock replies after numerous mundane questions which seem to me, irrelevant to my query. Time to contact the ombudsman I guess. It is a shame, because there hasn’t really been an issue until now. 

[Lester]

Are you confusing Demand tariff with TOU (time of use) tariff ?

Both need a smart meter.

TOU is where you pay a normal TOU tariff on the different blocks of time, peak, off peak, shoulder, and if you have a HWS on CL (controlled load), those periods are charged a further block of time tariffs.

Here I'm on 2 blocks of peak time, shoulder between those, and off peak in the early morning hours.

From the AGL website . . .

"Demand - Demand charges are based on the load you place on the electricity network. They're measured over 30-minute intervals during your demand time period. The highest measure for the billing month is used to calculate your demand charge for the entire month."

Sorted out the Demand tariff, how it works, Bill Hero website hada good run down on that . . .

https://help.billhero.com.au/what-about-demand-tariffs 

Still not sure if you were put on Demand, or opted for it, or if forced onto it what state (Energex is QLD only ?).

I'm struggling to see the real advantage of Demand for most residential customers, maybe people that are / can be really frugal 100% of the billing cycle, and spread loads through the day.

I see you have solar too, even less incentive to go on Demand ??

[Astraios]

It is a demand tariff, it is the only option offered in my circumstances. Typically my solar feed in offsets the usage and demand, we also plan our usage so as not to get massive usage charges on demand. My issue this time is the dishonesty in charging and lack of transparency and support.

So I contacted Energex and asked them for my usage data for the last billing period. The same info they send agl to bill me. It clearly states that my demand usage was 1kw (they round this data on the summary report, so it is actaully 0.9kw). So agl has stuffed up and charged me over double (2.12kw).

It is a horrible way to bill people. It is confusing for many, especially since many people don’t understand kw or kwh and how they interchange. It is not transparent what your interval is (30mins for me), and tgey don’t note on your bill when you used the high usage so have no way to know, without considerable time wastage, when you used the high power use. They need to do better to support their customers. 

what is even more disappointing is that their agents say, with conviction that “you have a smart meter which monitors and reports your usage every X and therefor we can assure you that the usage on your bill is correct.” Well, that is just not true and my energex report clearly shows this. This is also not the first time I’ve identified a discrepancy. Last time I just gave up because their customer service is terrible. Now that I have proof of dishonesty and intentionally making it hard for customers to get a resolution, I’m off to the ombudsman to see if they can hold agl to account.

[Lester]

"It is a demand tariff, it is the only option offered in my circumstances."

That bothers me, as if it becomes widespread over time to residential, it will obviously play havoc with most users bills.

I know the bakery news article I read some months ago was an inland town, might have been Ravenshoe, they had electric ovens, and were forced onto a demand tariff.

As you can imagine it made their bills go through the roof, so much so, that they had to change out all the electric ovens to gas !

At least you were able to find the data that supports your claim, good luck with getting that sorted out.

I also saw your other post about 'normalisation', will be interesting to know what that turns out to be.

[Lester]

One of the news articles from earlier this year.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-04/business-rips-out-electric-installs-gas-blames-demand-tariffs... 

[Deepesh_AGL]

Hi Astraios, We're sorry to hear about your experience. I will send you a private message shortly to discuss further. Also, please feel free to visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aIppKhXeN8 to get useful information about our tariff structures. Cheers, Deepesh

[Astraios]

Updating,

send the detail requested immediately. Still no reply and there has also been no resolve to the 14 other conversations I’ve had with AGL about this. I was holding off to get a resolution through the customer service but is seems like it is completely useless or maybe overburdened. Time to request assistance from the Ombudsman.