A favour to ask... gas and elec bills

[GNEP]

Folks,

Would really appreciate some help if you can spare me 10 minutes of your time and a little effort.

I'm doing some research into "confusion pricing" and bad billing practices of the gas and electric companies in the UK. What I need is examples from beyond the UK of how gas and electric bills are laid out and what information is presented. (Being the anally retentive sort, I've already got 5 years' worth of my own bills that have been fed in, plus some from other friends around and about)

It would be great if some of you could scan in your most recent electricity (or gas, or both ideally) bill and after photoshopping out any info you would rather keep private, either PM me the image or attach it to this thread. Playing to the strengths of MURC, it'd be great to get this as international as possible, but other examples from the UK are of course welcome too!

I'm making no judgements on tariffs and usage, so don't worry about that side of things - feel free to delete that info too if you'd rather I didn't know you were running a hydroponics operation in the loft! (Besides, I can get tariff info from websites generally)

Energy Watch did some work a while back, but I'm taking a slightly different angle to them, and would also like more examples:

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/uploads/Billing_Super_Complaint.pdf

Of course in return I'll give any conclusions to MURC before anyone else gets it; in the end the aim is to bring pressure on UK suppliers to clean up their act if deemed necessary. We'll see.

TIA,

George

[Brian Ellis]

No gas in this country. Electricity bill attached. Note that the Cyprus pound is worth about 1¼ of your pounds. Explanations:
1. the main tariff is progressive: the more you consume, the more you pay per kWh (negative discount)
2. The tariff includes a surcharge for the cost of oil
3. I work on 2 tariffs: the second, low-cost, one is for off-peak storage heating.
4. The renewables surcharge is a government scam.

Hope this helps

[gt40]

Keep in mind, these are for a commercial unit:

[GNEP]

Cheers guys - all a great help!

Brian - am I correct in assuming that the Electricity Authority of Cyprus is a monopoly supplier?

gt40 - commercial bills are v. useful as a comparator - has prompted me in fact to compare the bills from the parents' farm where we have domestic and commerical in the same place - I would assume that businesses tend to put up with a lot less nonsense from utilities as there is often a bit more of a check done on invoices before they're paid

[Brian Ellis]

Brian - am I correct in assuming that the Electricity Authority of Cyprus is a monopoly supplier?

Yes, government controlled.

[KRSESQ]

Here are my combined gas & electric bills from January 2006 and January 2007. The average daytime temp for Jan '06 was @ 25-30 degrees F. The average for Jan '07 was @ 10-15 degrees F.

The provider is Montana-Dakota Utilities, a public corporation. The rates are fixed by the North Dakota Public Service Commission, an elected body. The electricity is generated by coal-fired plants.

Kevin

[rylan]

Here are links to example bills for NSTAR which provides electric and gas to a lot of people in the northeast.

http://www.nstaronline.com/residential/account_services/understanding_bill/electric_bill/

http://www.nstaronline.com/residential/account_services/understanding_bill/gas_bill/

[spadnos]

How many years worth do you want?

I have gas and electric bills from January, and also going back at least 5-7 years, maybe longer. The electric bills would encompass several places I've lived (all in the same area), and cover two electric utility companies (each a monopoly in its service area). There have been several changes to the format of the bills, and possibly to the fee structure (I'd have to look at that).

- Steve

[schmosef]

I'd be happy to help but alas I live in a condo and the utility bills are paid for by the corporation (through my maintenance fees).

Sorry, GNEP.

[Sasq]

well considering the language barrier, easier if I show you my power company's home page.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/service/custom/guide/guide02-e.html

my gas company sadly doesn't have anything available online

[GNEP]

Thanks again chaps - all v. useful. Spadnos - if you fancy having a quick flick through, examples of what you think are the most and the least readable and informative bills would be grand.

I might (with the co-operation of Energy Watch, some academics in the field, and possibly uSwitch if they're interested, and of course some cunning use of parliamentary folk to get the publicity) try to do a mock-up of an "ideal" standard format for energy bills, both in terms of clarity of tariffs and calculations and of informing users of their energy usage and how they might reduce it. After all, I've developed a certain expertise in designing management information reports in the past, and this is just applying what is good practice inside business to what the consumers get.

If anything, this would be a relatively cheap an easy interim step before smart meters start coming in (another debate that is happening). It's just a matter of applying pressure in the right places and building some momentum.

So any ideas on that front welcome as well - I have some and will post them when they are a little more refined...