Complaining about energy bills is now a national sport, but do we make the effort to check how much we’re actually spending? One study suggests that more than 20 per cent of energy bills sent to Australian businesses contain inaccuracies.
An analysis of bills submitted to energy management company Energy Action by customers over a three-month period found that 21 per cent of those bills were inaccurate in some way. While 13 per cent of customers were overcharged, 8 per cent were actually undercharged. The most common area for errors was in ‘line loss’ charges, which cover electricity disappearing from the system prior to delivery.
I wouldn’t automatically assume that the same error rate would occur in domestic energy bills (line loss isn’t charged in the same way for a start), but it hardly fills you with confidence. One key difference with business customers: given the higher spend, you have more negotiating power when it comes to asking for a better deal.
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