By NOEL MURPHY
ELECTRICITY retailers are ripping off local customers by refusing to detail consumer use or charge proper tariff rates, according to a former Surf Coast councillor.
Ron Humphrey said more than 3600 regional complaints to the Energy Ombudsman – from 70,000 across the state – had failed to prompt improved behaviour among power companies, including detailed Smart Meter bills.
“A large number of the complaints relate to the back-dating of bills to consumers due to the non-readiness of the retail electricity industry to be able to read the data provided to them by infrastructure companies that own and monitor the Smart Meters,” Mr Humphrey said.
“This is due to the inadequacies of their software. Many retailer electricity providers’ software could not read the ancillary (hot water) meters of their customers, which led to back-dated bills of up to a year.”
Mr Humphrey claimed his retailer, Power Direct, had altered his “time of use” data, overstating his peak power use by more than 40 per cent and over-charging him more than $600 over three quarterly bills.
Power Direct’s overcharging could affect another 4000 customers in the region, he said.
“I’m just a two-person house. How much are families being overcharged a year?”
Mr Humphrey called on State Government to “step in and act on the protections the public was promised when Smart Meters were rolled out”.
“Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to read your time-of-use data because Smart Meters don’t allow it but energy retailers are obliged by law to provide that data.”
Mr Humphrey urged power customers on time-of-use plans to ask for the power-usage spreadsheet, which shows time and energy consumed in half-hour increments.
A Powercor spokesman said the company collected power-use data, which it forwarded to power retailers.
The Energy and Water Ombudsman’s office suggested the Essential Services Commission might be better placed to comment on the matter.
But the Essential Services Commission suggested enquires should go to the Energy and Water Ombudsman’s office.
A spokesperson for AGL, mother company of power direct, said Smart Meter details were available, on request, in 30-minute increments.
“Power Direct advised the customer that they, as the energy retailer, are not responsible for the installation of smart meters and that customer accounts are sometimes backdated and rebilled as revised meter data is provided.”
“In this particular instance, it was not a case of bills being backdated but rather a hot water issue that was identified.
“Power Direct notified the distributor to attend the site to assist and, in doing so, they identified that this customer had a second meter that records ancillary (hot water) usage.
“The distributor provided this meter data to Power Direct and the customer’s account was recalculated to include this new data.”
