Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Power and Water’s Executive General Manager of Core Operations Michael Besselink address concerns about the new power meters and increases to people’s bills

Transcript

Power and Water’s Executive General Manager of Core Operations Michael Besselink address concerns about the new power meters and increases to people’s bills · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You will recall yesterday on the show, we had some
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: concerns raised by residents in Karama about their power bills
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: going up following the installation of the new meters. Pensioners
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: also said that they'd been told they'd have to pay
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: three hundred dollars a three hundred dollar fee to have
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: someone come out and investigate if it's working properly. Now,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Power Waters Executive general manager of Core Operations, Michael Besolink
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: joins me on the line now to have a chat
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to us about these issues.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Michael.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Good morning Kady. Thanks for having on this show.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks so much for your time. Michael.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Why are people seeing an increase in their power bills
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: after having these new meters installed.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: I think there's a number of reasons why bills go
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: up and with I think I mentioned previously on your show,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Katy that the electricity meters that they have installed at
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: the moment are mechanical meters, and the mechanic meters over
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: time slow down and under record the amount of energy
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: that's used. But that's only to a figure, maybe up
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: to about five percent. So when the new meters are
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: put in, they're more accurate, so they will record the
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: amount of energy that is actually used, and that amount
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: of energy may then record higher by that amount of
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: sort of up to five percent. With that meta, there
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: are many other reasons why power bills go up, and
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: those power bills can go up because the weather at
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: the moment is fairly cloudy, and if we've got things
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: like solar panels on rooftops, they may not be producing
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: as much as other days when those things were there.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: There could be some sort of a faulty appliance, or
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: there could be an increase in consumption due to air
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: conditioners and things like that. So there's multiple reasons, but
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: the meter is generally a small part of that.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So we'd spoken to one listener in particular yesterday who
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: told us that that bill had gone from around one
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars I believe it was about one hundred dollars
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a quarter to now about one hundred dollars a month.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I mean that certainly seems like it's more than five percent.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and again, Katie, it's a matter of actually understanding
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: what consumption is within the premises, whether we've all of
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: the things that consume power have been checked. But there
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: is the potential with three phase power meters. The older
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: three phase power meters, there is a higher risk of inaccuracy. If,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: for example, one of the phases in that three phase
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: was not recording correctly, then that will have been a
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: sort of that amount of power then it's missed going
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: through the meter. So there is a possibility if that
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: custom will was a three phase power meter customer, that
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: there were some issues with that with one of the
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: phases or two of the phases going through that meter,
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: which may have changed. So again in that it's an
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: under recording issue where people may in the past have
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: actually through different means, actually had less had paid less
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: for their power.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: So you reckon.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Because the readings are now more accurate, people will potentially
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: see their bills increase.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Well. With all mechanical meters, Kadie, they slow down over
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: time and that's why we have to replace them. So
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: they slowed down to a point where they become inaccurate,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: and then we change them as part of that process.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: So it is sort of one of those processes where
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: it does actually from mechanical meters, they do start to
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: they do start to become slower and record less, so
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: it will slightly when you put a new meter in Michael.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: What can because I know that we've had a few
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: people get in contact with us since we took that
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: call yesterday. In fact, quite a few people get in
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: contact with us saying Katie, I feel like there's something
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: wrong here. You know, my power bill used to be
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: this Now it's gone up substantially since having that new
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: meter installed. What can people do if they are concerned
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: that there's some kind of fault with their new meta
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: or that there's something.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Not quite right.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: The first thing they need to do is to ring
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: their retailer and talk to their retailer about the electricity billing,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: because you know, billing is done through the retailer, so
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: they need to have a chat to their retailer and
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: the retailer will work with them to sort out what
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: they need to do. They're also we have tips on
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: our website about how to look at consumption of elect tricity,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: how to save on some of those to have to
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: save on using electricity as well, So it's worthwhile having
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: a look at those things. But it's also worth while
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: just to understand. Last year we had sixty requests for
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: electricity meters to be tested. Out of those, about eighty
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: percent of them were within their tolerance, so they were
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: reading okay, and twenty percent were reading lower than what
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: they should have done. So I charging a bit less
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: than what was being consumed. So we haven't In most
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: cases the meders were reading were accurately.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So when you say they've got to check with their retailer,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I'm imagining that most of the time that is through Jacana,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: which is obviously not Power and Water that is separate
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to you guys.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct. So the majority of customers would talk
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: to Jacanada as their retailer, and if there is any
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: request that then Jacana may of us. Well, Jacana will
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: make that request of us have a look the tea.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: And so when you know, yesterday, for example, when we
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: did have a pension, I say to us that they'd
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: been told that they'd have to pay a three hundred
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: dollars fee to have someone go out and investigate if
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that meter is working properly. Is that something that they
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: do through Jacana or is that something that they do
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: through Power and Water.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: That would be for electricity meters that would be through Jacana.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: We Jacana will issue us a service request and have
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: a look, and we have we would charge to Kara
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: for that service request.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: So, Michael, by the sounds of things, it's like it
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: sort of sounds to me as though, as these old
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: meters are getting phased out, some of these old meters
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: were obviously we're not reading as accurately as they should
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: have been. Now people have got the new meters that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: are reading very accurately or you know, much more accurately,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and it's actually costing customers a lot more than what
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: they had sort of previously budgeted for. So I would
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: imagine that we're going to have people who are are
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: in some you know, some financial stress in some ways,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: if they are maybe on the aged pension and if
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: they are struggling with the cost of living.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: As those bills go up.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: But is that something they need to go through Jacana
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to try and sort out if there's a hardship payment
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: or if they are going through that stress.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So again Katie, if they talk to their retailer,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: so most likely Jacana as to how that would how
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: they deal with that.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Now, Michael, I understand that there's also going to be
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: water meters being replaced as well.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So the water meter a situation slightly different, Kadie.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: We're not putting smart meters in with the water, so
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: we're replacing water meters with other mechanical water meters. At
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: this stage, we haven't got the benefits to put a
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: smart water meter in, so we're working on replacing them
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: as a standard annual program of work with another mechanical meter.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Do you reckon that.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: It's likely people are also going to see an increase
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in their water usage bills?
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Well, Again, the reason we replace these meters is because
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: they go through a cycle of going out of specification.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: So we replace them as and we try to replace
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: them as soon as we can as they sort of
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: as matches of them go out of specification, so up
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: to about five percent again typically after a service life
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: of about seven to ten years, and then we'll replace
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: them and they will be slightly more accurate.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Again, I mean, is it a case I suppose that
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: these are also needing to be replaced because the infrastructures
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: at its end of life, or how come they're needing
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to be swopped over?
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Are these these meters that are part of our annual program.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: So these are meters that will actually have been in
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: place for seven to ten years and are slowly losing
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: their accuracy and therefore we need to replace them and
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: just bring them back up to standard again.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Michael, is there charges associated with replacing those meters for customers?
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: No, these are all part of the standard program that
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: we have, so there's no charge for this.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Michael.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I know that you know, the big thing that people
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of people listening this morning are going to
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: be thinking, is oh, no, you know my met has
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: changed over, my power bill is going to go up and.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: It's going to cause stress.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I know that you have said that that is something
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that people need to contact their retailer about. But what
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: is your message for territori ines this morning that you
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: know might be feeling a bit dismayed by this news?
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: I think, Katie, the key thing is to have people
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: just check around their properties to make sure they're you know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: there are no leaks for water, that everything is running well.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Because you know, when we talk about a five sorry
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: seven the team of your life, you know there's a
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: potential that if we move five percent in the accuracy,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: that's about half a percent a year. So last year
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: to this year is not a five percent shift. That
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: last year to this year is a small shift it's
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: only when you're replaced to Meeta, you'll see that change again.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: So just make sure that the leaks anywhere, make sure
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: that you've checked your property through, make sure that from
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: an electricity perspective, that you've done what you can to
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: you know, again, make sure there's no appliances that are
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: faulty and no sorts of things and all of those
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: things then will help with making sure that you have
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: you know, the least impact that you can. Have a
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: look at our website, look at some of those things
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: there to check through as to how you can actually
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: make sure you've got those things checked off. And yeah,
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: that's probably the biggest message with Michael.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: A quick question from one of our listeners wanting to
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: know a caller just calling through wanting to know how
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: do you estimate people's power usage if you can't access
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: or don't access the property.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: So, like with estimation, that goes on history generally.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Michael, we really appreciate your time this morning. I
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: know it does sound to me as though we'll have
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: to try and get Jakana on at some point. I
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: know that some people do have different retailers, but yeah,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: we might have to try and get them on at
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: some point. Thank you for having a chat with us
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: this morning and just telling us a little bit more
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: about those meters. Thank you for your time.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: Thank you Katie.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Thanks