Frequently Asked Questions

Energy Intelligence can provide monthly reports, showing your usage for the last month before you get a bill from the retailer. We also provide notification services if your usage exceeds an expected figure, or if the demand on site reaches a new peak.

Energy Intelligence reconciles your accounts against the usage information received directly from the meter provider.  Any billing anomalies are identified ensuring you are only billed for what you actually use.

Send a copy of your bill to Energy Intelligence and we can evaluate the most optimal network tariff for your site.

Areas of savings include: energy rates, network tariffs, service charges and metering charges. All of these are negotiable with your retailer.

NMI stands for National Metering Identifier – a unique 10 digit value for every grid connection point to your electrical supply. The NMI is used to match properties with the right energy account, so you are not billed for someone else’s usage.

In general, NMI's contain both the state and the distribution patch the connection point belongs to.  For example, Citipower (VIC) NMI blocks generally are from 6102000000 to 6103999999 or VAAA000000 to VAAAZZZZZZ and Energy Australia (NSW) NMI blocks generally are from 4102000000 to 4104999999 or NCCC000000 to NCCCZZZZZZ.

‘Smart’ meters are meters that record data every 15 to 30 minutes (also known as interval data) and send the data back daily to the meter owner/data provider.

Smart meters are classified as Type 1 to 4, whereas meters that store interval data (but are not remotely read) are classified as Type 5. Meters that do not store any memory are classified as Type 6 meters.  These older meters are currently being replaced by the smart meter roll out program. 

Sub-meters are installed downstream from the main point-of-entry meter(s). Sub-Metering lets a building owner break down utility use by individual unit consumption. Sub-meters can be remotely read, allowing for effective monitoring and data capture.

A Gate Meter, also known as a parent meter, is a market meter that records the entire consumption of electricity consumed in the Embedded Network.  Dependent on the site, some Embedded Networks may have multiple Gate Meters.

A Gate Meter can be designed into your building electrical schematics for a new development or can be retro-fitted to an existing site such as shopping centres or office buildings.

Contact us today and we can review your infrastructure to determine how a Embedded Network can work for your site.

All electricity produced from electricity generators (coal or renewable energy) is pumped into our electricity grid. It is the grid operators that ensure reliability to customers, coordinating supply with demand. They gauge when certain generators are operating or idle. Therefore, electricity from specific renewable energy generators does not directly go to individual houses and has no impact on reliability. As demand for accredited Green Power increases from customers, energy suppliers will buy more renewable energy from new renewable energy generators. An investment in accredited Green Power will feed more energy from clean renewable energy sources into the grid that services your home.

Green Power is renewable energy sourced from the sun, the wind, water and waste that is purchased by your energy company on your behalf.

The higher the Green Power component of your electricity use, the more you are doing to promote the use of renewable energy and reduce the impact of climate change. As such, offsetting your power with renewable energy can help position your company as a responsible corporate citizen. Offsetting 10 per cent or more of your electricity allows the use of the Green Power logo for businesses to promote an environmentally conscious image to your clients and customers. An offset of 50 to 100 per cent allows you to gain exposure by being listed on the Green Power website.

Setting up an embedded network allows you to aggregate network and energy charges and on-sell electricity directly to your tenants making a profit from doing so. Embedded networks are suitable for large multi-tenanted properties, such as office buildings and shopping centres.

Please contact us to discuss whether an embedded network is suitable for your site.

Embedded Networks work for most multi-tenanted buildings.  This includes shopping centres, residential high rise, office buildings and industrial complexes.

The ideal time to set-up an Embedded Network is while the building is in design phase however the Embedded Network can be catered for at a later phase of the construction.

The benefit of establishing an Embedded Network early includes:

• Assisting in organising permanent power including dealing with the local distributors.
• On-charging the builders for power they consume on the developer's behalf for cheaper rates then what the builders would normally pay. This will also alleviate any messy electricity account transfers.    
• Deal with us directly for the meters for tenants - saves the hassle of dealing with the local distributors for a bulk-meter installation appointment.
• Meter savings - instead of paying the local distributors to install the meters and not owning them, with an Embedded Network, you own the infrastructure.

Owners Corporation can benefit from an Embedded Network including:

• cheaper rates for Common Area; lower landlord outgoings
• savings can be re-invested back into the building maintenance
• better management of multi-apartment accounts such as service apartments, apartments waiting to be leased
• tenant's receive cheaper electricity however still have the freedom of choice

From 1 December 2017, all network exemption holders must appoint or become an Embedded Network Manager (ENM) when a customer within an embedded network enters into a market retail contract.   

If you are an Embedded Network Owner or Operator and need help to determine if you require an ENM or you simply need to appoint an ENM to your Embedded Network, Energy Intelligence can help. 

Entering into a large market electricity contract allows you to fix the energy costs of your invoice for the term of the contract.  This protects you from high default rates retailers may charge, and from high fluctuations in the spot market.  It also offers price certainty when forecasting your operational expenditure.  Please contact us so we can procure the best contract for your business.

Generally, the optimal time to contract would be when the electricity market is low.  Energy Intelligence will be able to offer you strategic advice on when to best procure an electricity contract.

Energy Intelligence will still be able to forward contract for when your current contract expires.  We would do this strategically to reflect the current state of the electricity market.  Please contact us on 1300 277 233 to discuss.

Large market contracts have strict termination guidelines and so we would not recommend exiting a large market contract before the end date.  However, Energy Intelligence can recontract your site 6-12 months before the expiry of the existing contract.  This would enable you to take advantage of market conditions if favourable.  Please contact us so we can discuss these options with you.

You should directly contract with a meter provider as this provides greater access to your meter data and historical retention of this data.

FRC commenced in Victoria and New South Wales in 2002 and continued with South Australia, Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania. In Western Australian you are a contestable customer and can choose your electricity retailer if:

• you use more than 50 MWh (about $15,300) of electricity per year; or
• your distributor is not Western Power (i.e. you do not live in the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) area).

We do not recommend staying on spot rates.  While the rates may appear low in winter, generally spot rates will increase dramatically over summer when your usage is likely to peak.  If you are currently on spot rates, please contact us so we can help assess your options.

Demand is a measurement of the amount of electricity needed within a small period of time, usually 30 minutes.   Demand is important as electricity infrastructure needs to be built to cater for demand.  Demand is thus charged by the networks as a price signal – reducing your demand reduces your costs as the need for networks to build new infrastructure is reduced.

FRC means that all electricity and gas customers are free to choose their retailers in a fully deregulated energy market.

Natural Gas supply has several classes for accounts:

• SME or Residential (Small Market): 0-5TJ pa
• Tariff V (Large Market Volume): 5-10TJ pa
• Tariff D (Large Market Demand): >10TJ pa

The Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) and the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) is a federal certificate scheme administered by the Clean Energy Regulator to encourage additional electricity generation from renewable sources.

The retailer sells energy to you and generates a bill for that energy. You have a choice of retailers. A retailer will pass-on costs relating to the supply of electricity to your property. These costs are linked to the distribution of network charges.

The distributor maintains the power grid between the generators and your site. As their assets are fixed, you do not have a choice of distributor.

VICTORIA
CitiPower - Melbourne CBD and inner suburbs
United Energy - Eastern and southern suburbs of Melbourne
SP AusNet - Eastern Victoria
Jemena - North-west suburbs of Melbourne
Powercor - Western Victoria

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

SA Power Networks - All

NEW SOUTH WALES
Integral Energy - Sydney’s greater west, southern highlands and Illawarra
Energy Australia - Sydney, central coast and Hunter regions
Evoenergy  - ACT

QUEENSLAND
Energex - South-east Queensland
Ergon - Rural and regional Queensland

However, Energy Intelligence can assist with optimising your network charges to ensure you are paying the lowest tariffs possible.

In the National Electricity Market (NEM) there are more than 30 licensed electricity retailers. Not all retailers can sell to both large and small market consumers and not all retailers operate in the electricity market.

If you have a signed a large market contract with an electricity retailer, it usually is cost prohibitive to exit the contract early.

Generally yes.  Electricity contracts have different rates for peak and off-peak.  Peak is usually between 7am and 11pm on weekdays, while off-peak covers all other periods.  Off-peak rates are usually a third the price of peak-rates, so costs can be reduced by shifting usage to off-peak times.