My Electricity Bill - What should I do if my bill doesn't match Solar Analytics?
If there are some discrepancies in your electricity bill and the solar analytics dashboard, go through the checks in this article before calling your electricity provider.
You have used Solar Analytics to verify whether your electricity provider is charging you correctly and come across some discrepancies. There are some legitimate reasons why this might be the case, so be sure to go though the below checks before calling your electricity provider.
1. Don’t worry about small differences
Section titled “1. Don’t worry about small differences”If the values are within a small margin of error, no need to worry it is likely due to some measurement differences.
Section titled “If the values are within a small margin of error, no need to worry it is likely due to some measurement differences.”We are very unlikely to match your retailer figures exactly. Solar Analytics and your electricity provider use different devices to measure how much electricity you use so there is likely to be a small difference between the two.
Further, we update our data every 5 minutes, while your electricity provider may only update their data every 30 mins (or even daily). This means if you are comparing the current cost in your electricity provider app there will likely be a small difference.
However, if this difference is anything more than your average cost for one day, then there is likely an error.
2. Double check the date range
Section titled “2. Double check the date range”Do the dates at the top of My Electricity Bill match the billing period on your bill?
Section titled “Do the dates at the top of My Electricity Bill match the billing period on your bill?”If you have reloaded the My Electricity Bill page, the time period may change. Double and triple check that the dates in the corner match your bill. Use the calendar icon to change the dates.
3. Double check your current plan details
Section titled “3. Double check your current plan details”If you current plan is not correct, we can’t get an accurate My Electricity Bill value
Section titled “If you current plan is not correct, we can’t get an accurate My Electricity Bill value”Check the summary of your current plan at the bottom of the electricity bill page. If this doesn’t match your current bill then change them accordingly.
4. Do you have any extra costs, charges, discounts, or deals?
Section titled “4. Do you have any extra costs, charges, discounts, or deals?”Sometimes your electricity provider may have extra items that Solar Analytics is not yet able to track.
Section titled “Sometimes your electricity provider may have extra items that Solar Analytics is not yet able to track.”Some of the following may be apply in additional to the regular charges and credits, meaning that our expected total will be off when compared to your bill.
- Demand charges. An additional electricity cost charged per kW of peak demand
- Controlled load tariff. A tariff for a separate circuit that is controlled by your provider (often hot water or pool heating)
- If you have a controlled load and are located in QLD, NSW, VIC, ACT, TAS or SA, you may be able to add your controlled load and automatically update your plan info.
- Green power or carbon neutral cost. Additional cost charge to make your energy greener
- Government rebates. A credit to your account available for some customers.
- Membership, metering and other fees. Fees charged per month or per bill by your electricity retailer.
The best way to continue comparing your bill if you have these extras is to ignore the total cost and compare the breakdown costs and energy amounts. Alternatively, you can subtract all the extras from your bill total and compare that to the expected total instead.
5. You are on an electricity tariff type not covered by Solar Analytics
Section titled “5. You are on an electricity tariff type not covered by Solar Analytics”Currently, we are unable to calculate the total cost for some tariff types. For example, commercial tariffs are often very different to the standard residential tariffs we handle.
Section titled “Currently, we are unable to calculate the total cost for some tariff types. For example, commercial tariffs are often very different to the standard residential tariffs we handle.”If you have one of the following tariff types, we are unable to give an accurate bill comparison at this stage. However, we are working on expanding the tariff types we do have to include some of these in the future.
- Commercial tariffs with separate charges for energy, network fees and environmental compliance.
- Wholesale price-reflective tariffs. Some electricity providers (like Amber energy) have constantly changing energy prices which we are unable to calculate.
- Stepped tariffs. This is when a rate (or feed-in tariff) changes after a certain amount of electricity usage. We currently do not support this type of tariff.
- Time of use feed-in tariff. We currently only support a flat feed-in tariff, so if yours changes throughout the day we cannot calculate it accurately.
- Seasonal time of use. If the time of use time change between seasons, we cannot calculate the value with one electricity plan. A workaround is to add a new plan for each season of the year with different time of use times.
- If you have a seasonal tariff and are located in QLD, NSW, VIC, ACT, TAS or SA, you may be able to sign up for automatic plan updates which will take your seasonal tariff into account
Sometimes with these tariffs you can still check some of the breakdown costs are accurate. For example if you have a stepped feed-in tariff, you can still check the electricity costs and daily supply charge is accurate.
6. Call your electricity provider.
Section titled “6. Call your electricity provider.”If your bill is definitely wrong, make sure to call your provider to get it rectified!
Section titled “If your bill is definitely wrong, make sure to call your provider to get it rectified!”After checking the above do not apply to you, you can call your retailer to get your bill rectified.
As an alternative, please also check if your data holder is eligible for CDR so that you can add your plan automatically to enable Demand Tariff or Controlled Load if you have these tariffs in your plan.