5
Tools to support household decision-making and flexibility
There is a variety of tools to support household decision-making with respect to taking up a tariff and/or responding to tariffs or other market signals. These can be subdivided into four categories: 1. Retailer comparison 2. Technology assessment 3. Monitoring 4. Control technology The accompanying spreadsheet ‘Tools to support customer decision-making’ provides a detailed breakdown of the different characteristics of the tools currently available for retailer comparison, technology assessment and monitoring. As discussed in Section 5.4, smart meters are being progressively rolled out to households. This has the potential to add a layer of complexity for households, making the other tools discussed here all the more important (Australian Energy Regulator, 2020). The following summarises the current state of play for these four types of tool.
5.1
Retailer comparison
Such tools are readily available to compare different retailers and types of tariffs (assuming the user has internet access and speaks English). They include Energy Made Easy, Victoria’s Energy Compare and Northern Territory’s ‘Choosing a Power Retailer’ 28. They are relatively easy to use to identify tariff offers, although the sheer number of retailers, with 40 active across the NEM (AEMC, 2020a), and tariffs presented is confusing for some users. However, they do not present other characteristics of retailers (e.g., corporate responsibility issues such as ownership of fossil fuel assets or community benefits) that could affect household decisions. Additionally, unless the customer uploads interval data, the tool cannot accurately identify the most advantageous tariff for them, particularly when including demand tariffs or more complex TOU structures. There is also a range of sites, such as Canstar, Compare the Market, iSelect and Accurassi (which operates as a white-label service for multiple sites). Although some consumer advocates see commercial sites as more likely to offer innovative services such as integrating DER data with usage data to offer advice on DER purchases (Energy Consumers Australia, 2020a), most select from a limited panel of retailers and some receive a commission or referral fee for directing new customers to retailers (Kollmorgen, 2021). These tools may also provide information on how to understand energy bills and how to reduce them, and Vic Energy Compare provides information on government rebates that may be available. None really allow the comparison of specific tariffs (where the user selects different tariffs to see the impact on their bill), and none help with working out the benefits of electricity flexibility. Because demand charges may not be included in the bill calculation unless users upload interval data, identification of the cheapest tariff may be misleading. Energy Made Easy does not give clear information about innovative tariffs such as wholesale pricing (Section 3.1.2.1) and users could easily mistake them for flat rate tariffs. According to the AER, awareness of Energy Made Easy and Victorian Energy Compare remains low. Enhancements were made to Energy Made Easy in early 2020 to simplify the user experience and increase the site’s capability to compare innovative offers.
5.2
Technology assessment
Some tools are available (again assuming the user has internet access and speaks English) to assess the size of solar PV and battery systems, including financial outcomes and technical characteristics. In increasing order of complexity, these include the Solar Choice Solar and Battery Calculator, the APVI 28
https://www.powerwater.com.au/customers/power/choosing-a-power-retailer
Opportunity Assessment – H4: Rewarding flexible demand: Customer friendly cost reflective tariffs and incentives
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