Hi all,
A quick question about Electricity Usage and how the rates are determined. Moved in to a new place, had a short bill initially (23 days) with an estimated read that was incredibly low (I assume because the previous owners weren’t living in the property in between settlements). I then had a normal billing cycle (92 days) with an actual read.
Initial Reading (when we signed up to electricity, so our baseline): 0 kWh
Estimated Reading (23 days length): 20kWh (<1kWh/day)
Actual Reading (92 days length): 1100 kWh (~12kWh/day) (total usage of 1120kWh )
Now, my intuition would be that you take the total 1120kWh and base it over the entire billing cycle (105 days) and the charge should be based on that (~10.5kWh/day). However, the latest bill (92 day cycle) has assumed all the 1100kWh of recorded usage has occurred in the 92 day read cycle (~12kWh/day). This would not be an issue if electricity usage was charged at a consistent rate. Given the stepped pricing model, the price for usage increases ~5% above 3 kWh/day, and ~10% above 11kWh/day. The above scenario has a significant amount of usage is charged at a higher rate.
I’m going to call my provider (Alinta) to confirm the situation, and will update this thread.
I don’t know if what I’ve written makes much sense, but has anyone been in a similar situation?
Isn't the 92 day a normal billing cycle? And the 23 day bill was from the date you've moved in up until the end of the previous billing cycle? Unless the 92 day bill includes the days from the 23day bill - in that case, you'll have to contact Alinta to have it sorted out