Smart meter ‘Estimates’

[Samstain]

What’s the story with smart meters and ‘Estimated’ usage? I though there are supposed to avoid that - the first day of my first two bills have been ‘estimated’ at about 7 times my actual consumption from what I can work out, same with the last half hour (likely due to being in SA) which was estimated at 25 times actual. Between the two of them it added about 10% to my bill. 

[Lester]

Sam, it usually takes a day or two sometimes at the start of a new billing period during the rollover.

Sometimes it shows last months period for 2 days, then updates, giving me the first 2 (or 3) days in the first reading.

The readings also do this daily, an estimate until end of the following day, then gets corrected.

That said, smart meters are not infallible.

I had a 2 new smart meters put in when we went solar last Nov, and for a time I had nothing but estimates for large blocks.

It started with the previous days always being estimated, which is normal, usually reconciled end of the next day.

The thread is here https://neighbourhood.agl.com.au/t5/AGL-App/App-shows-a-recent-estimated-usage/td-p/34741 

Page 2 I got to the bottom of it, and how the tech fixed it on site, it needed a software rollback to send correctly !

I'm with SAPN too.

Yours does correct itself after a day or two ?

[Samstain]

Mine does not fully correct itself. It seems the meter reports at midnight NEM time - which then means the app does not have the last 30 minutes of data for each day. This will correct itself 24 hours later though when the meter reports again and fills in the blanks. 

If I download my meter interval data, leading up to the the first day of the first bill all the 30 minute readings have a quality flag of 'A' - for actual I assume, so everthing was online and working correctly. The first day *was* all zero's and 'M' when I download it a few days later, but is now 'U' (for user I assume) and about 20 times my actual usage - as I monitor it independently. It looks like the bill is based on these made up figures - which are heavily in AGL's benefit.

Readings for the rest of the month are all 'A' and presumably correct. But it looks like the bill was generated within 24 hours of the month ending, so they still used and estimate for my last 30 minutes, before the real data came through the next night - again about 20 times in AGL's favour.

Day 1 of this month is currently all 'M' and zero readings, and the app show an estimate which is about 5 times my actual usage, I assume that will get changed to U and locked in when the next bill rolls around.

[Lester]

A is for actual, M is missing, U is unknown, S is substituted, and of course E is estimated.

Usually the last day of the data download is shown as M, updated end next day file to A normally.

I haven't had a U reading for a long time, back when some info on the files was in between solar install and commissioning day of installation.

[Samstain]

So where do I go from here?

My Bill was $87.07

If I add up all the daily Import and Export values (in $'s) on the App for the billing period, plus $1.0803 per day connection fee, I get $87.15, the 8c difference I assume is just a rounding error. So I assume they have used the made up data to calculate my bill.

Day 1 they have estimated as 77c export, and $10.65 import, but I know from my own logging it would be very much like days 2, 3 and 4 (likely slightly cheaper actually) which were 21c/14c/13c  export and $1.58, $1.54, $1.42 import. So the 'usage' charge for day 1 should be ~$1.35, not $9.88.

If it it was a one-off, I as going to let it slide (it's only $10 after all), but if it going to continue to happen at the start of each bill, it's something they really should sort out - along with not assuming my usage in the last half hour of the bill, but wait for the real number to come through before issuing it... 1c, not 25c.

One would assume they are only allowed to bill on real numbers? not estimates long term? or are they allowed a fudge factor one day a month which can be heavily in AGL's favour?

[Lester]

I would ask AGL to check that $10.65 usage amount for day one for sure.

If other days are reliably ~ $1.50 or so, and there is no explanation for a 7x increase that day, plus if showing as unknown (U) data, they should be able to explain or adjust.

They might just choose to make a one of adjustment for you and hope that future meter data comes through as actual correctly.

My data concerns were taken up for me by David_AGL, one of the mods here until a month or two ago.

That was put through the AGL tech dept to resolve, and while it took a while it was finally sorted out.

His predecessor is @Basil_AGL   but not sure if Basil is liaising the same as David did, worth asking, I've tagged him here so he should get a heads up on that.

Hopefully it's just a one of, and not something you will see too often.

Ps. you shouldn't have to worry about that though 😕

[Basil_AGL]

Thanks @Lester! 

Hey @Samstain, just trying to catch-up on all this information and so I know who to work with, is this a meter or app usage problem? 

Cheers, 

Basil

[Samstain]

Hi @Basil_AGL ,

It seems to be a meter data storage problem of some description - or how your billing system brings in the meter data.

I am not too fussed if the app occasionally gives false data, but it appears that false data is being used to calculate my bill.

The first day of my last billing period was all recorded as 'missing', zero usage, which was later estimated to be a lot more than I actually use - this added about $8 to my bill. I thought this may have been a one-off as it was a relatively new meter, and I had just changed to the night saver plan, but then the same things has happened with this month. Day 1 is currently zero and 'missing', the app has again estimated it to be about $6 more than my actual use, which I expect is what I will get billed again, as that is what happened last month. I have my own independent power logging, and while it no doubt isn't as accurate as your meters (when they are working properly), it does show my usage on those day was very similar to the following days, which were in the $1-2 range, not the $10 estimate. I can supply my NMI/Account number privately  (and my logged data) if you can look in to it further and work out what is going on. 

I suspect the same thing is happening with the last 30 minutes of the bill, when-ever I look at the app data, the most current data is always a couple days old, and the last 30 minutes is estimated at 25 times my actual use (I use very little power at night). adding up the most recent bill, it seems this estimate is used to calculate the bill, not the actual number which appears to come through 24 hours later. 

On a side note, how often should the meter/App update? I always seem to be a couple days behind, where as others I know with AGL and the same meter are pretty much 'live' - though they are part of the VPP, so maybe they get faster updates?