REDUCE BILLING IMPACT ON CUSTOMERS

[ECHL02]

Hi,

Peak usage for cooling/heating in Australia is from MAY-AUG (heating) to NOV-FEB (cooling).

Your current billing periods are as follows;

NOV-FEB

FEB-MAY
MAY-JUL
AUG-OCT

What you current billing schedule means to the customer is a whopping huge bill during summer (NOV-FEB) and winter (MAY-JUL). If you were to change the billing period as follows you would distribute the summer and winter peak periods over two bills reducing the financial impact on the customer.

JAN-MAR
APR-JUN
JUL-SEP
OCT-DEC

If you are concerned about changing the billing periods I suggest you survey your customers explaining how changing the billing period will affect them and how it benefits them by distributing peak usage periods across bills.

In addition to this I would suggest you make a pro-active effort in constantly notifying customers they can make payments towards their electricity/gas bills in ADVANCE. Most Australians pay their bill when they receive it and panic. If you let your customers know they can pay an amount weekly or monthly towards their next bill I am sure you will help to reduce the financial pressure for many Australians as I believe most are not aware of this option. 

Let the customers know (every quarter) they can pay an amount per week/month in advance to reduce their final bill.

Electricity prices will rise, we know that. 

But you (AGL) can help reduce the financial impact on the customer with the suggestions I have provided.
Be a player and help us Australians by being pro-active in taking up these initiatives.

[Michael57]

Good idea but I think customers already have the option of bill smoothing and also monthly bills. 

[David_AGL]

Hi @ECHL02 , thanks for the feedback.  As @Michael57 pointed out, bill smoothing and monthly billing are both options that can help spread the cost more evenly and predictably, but I love that you're thinking of ways to help alleviate this pressure. It seems like you're someone who knows how to stay on top of these things - is there anything else we could do to make things easier for customers like you? Or any other tips you'd like to share?

[NeilC]

@ECHL02 

I have been a customer of AGL since 28 April 2019 and have been on your JAN-MAR, APR-JUN, JUL-SEP, OCT-DEC suggested cycle (or close to) since then.

It would appear the cycle starts on your start date!

Now I can tell you that since I joined AGL, I have only had three bills where I have actually had a bill that was not in credit.

At this time we are paying $22.50 each fortnight towards our bill, but current analysis shows that this amount should be around $16.00.

AGL can assist by suggesting bill smoothing etc, but they cannot control when and how you choice to use your electricity. The app shows you A ROUGH ESTIMATE of your usage, but does not include the cost of the supply charge etc.

YOU the user are responsible for payment of your bill and if you choose to wait for a bill then pay it, that is your choice.

We pay amounts every fortnight off Water ($40), Electricity($22.50), Council Rates ($90), ESL (SA Levy $4.58), we both pay Rego and Insurances monthly.

My AGL Account Shows:

Electricity Bought From Grid   $145.10   283.76 kWh

Solar Electricity Sold to Grid   $169.59 1140.84 kW

---

So this indicates that I have $24.49 credit.

However it does not indicate the $103.50 Supply charge that is due.

Now I also know that the Usage / Export figure is only for 73 days (7/723 to 17/9/23).

Divide the usage by 73 to get $2.00 a day divide the export by 73 to get $2.30

Get a rough idea of my expected bill for 90 days

Usage $190, Export $207 and $105 for supply

So its $190+$105 = $295

Subtract my export value and I get $88 owing.

Now that's roughly correct, so there are 6 fortnights in a 90 day billing cycle, $88 divided by six is about $15 a fortnight.

Well that's close to my statement above, that my fortnightly payment should be $16.

In doing the above calculation you need to know the NUMBER OF DAYS that your AGL Account is showing data for NOT THE NUMBER OF DAYS since your last BILL. If I used the number of days since last bill I would have a figure of 80 days.

Now there is NOTHING TO STOP AGL from using this accounting method to supply on the APP / WEB page either a fortnightly or daily rate to assist people in reducing BILL SHOCK.

My actual bill prediction for this current cycle is 

Total Payable+GST

$          102.89

You can see however that my figure $103 is greater than the $88 because unlike the AGL quote, mine is calculated on my actual usage (Peak,Shoulder and Off Peak) rather than the general $0.51 they have based my usage amount on.

Anyway its just my approach to a solution that many people are having an issue with.