About a month ago I received my second bill after the demise of the NSW feed in tarrifs and was surprised to see that my bill now only shows the amount of solar power I fed into the grid and what I’d be paid (a pittance) for that power. As the account showed me neither the amount of solar I’d generated or the amount I’d used I made an enquiry to my supplier Origin Energy.
After a somewhat heated exchange I was told that ‘Origin did not have the technology to tell me the amount of power I’d generated and used.’ Feeling totally unsatisfied with this line, I contacted the Dept of Fair Trading who put me onto the Water and Energy ombudsman. A few days later they contacted me and I explained that although Origin had included all of the information I required on bills during the tariff period, they now no longer did following a change of meter to the new so called ‘smart meters.’
The ombudsman’s office put the heat on Origin and about a week later I had a call from them. This time I was given the total story and it’s quite interesting. It turns out that Ausgrid have control over my new ‘smart’ meter and Origin is fed information from them which they use to bill me. The lady I spoke to then surprised me by saying that ‘Origin does not have an agreement with Ausgrid to get the information you want even though it was supplied pre meter swap.’ She further went on to say that they were negotiating with Ausgrid to get that information and went on to say, ‘you are not the only Origin solar customer who has made a complaint about this matter.’
What I find so surprising is that Ausgrid is basically withholding information on the entire story and only giving retailers a figure which they say is what I should be paid. Whether in fact the figure they give retailers is in fact true and correct cannot be verified from the information customers get in their bills. I cannot see that this is in any way fair and proper conduct and we’re basically being treated as dumb mushrooms.
