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Speaker 1: You will recall yesterday on the show, we had some

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Speaker 1: concerns raised by residents in Karama about their power bills

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Speaker 1: going up following the installation of the new meters. Pensioners

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Speaker 1: also said that they'd been told they'd have to pay

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Speaker 1: three hundred dollars a three hundred dollar fee to have

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Speaker 1: someone come out and investigate if it's working properly. Now,

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Speaker 1: Power Waters Executive general manager of Core Operations, Michael Besolink

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line now to have a chat

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Speaker 1: to us about these issues.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Michael.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Kady. Thanks for having on this show.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks so much for your time. Michael.

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Speaker 1: Why are people seeing an increase in their power bills

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Speaker 1: after having these new meters installed.

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Speaker 3: I think there's a number of reasons why bills go

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Speaker 3: up and with I think I mentioned previously on your show,

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Speaker 3: Katy that the electricity meters that they have installed at

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Speaker 3: the moment are mechanical meters, and the mechanic meters over

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Speaker 3: time slow down and under record the amount of energy

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Speaker 3: that's used. But that's only to a figure, maybe up

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Speaker 3: to about five percent. So when the new meters are

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Speaker 3: put in, they're more accurate, so they will record the

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Speaker 3: amount of energy that is actually used, and that amount

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Speaker 3: of energy may then record higher by that amount of

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Speaker 3: sort of up to five percent. With that meta, there

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Speaker 3: are many other reasons why power bills go up, and

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Speaker 3: those power bills can go up because the weather at

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Speaker 3: the moment is fairly cloudy, and if we've got things

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Speaker 3: like solar panels on rooftops, they may not be producing

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Speaker 3: as much as other days when those things were there.

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Speaker 3: There could be some sort of a faulty appliance, or

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Speaker 3: there could be an increase in consumption due to air

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Speaker 3: conditioners and things like that. So there's multiple reasons, but

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Speaker 3: the meter is generally a small part of that.

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Speaker 1: So we'd spoken to one listener in particular yesterday who

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Speaker 1: told us that that bill had gone from around one

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars I believe it was about one hundred dollars

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Speaker 1: a quarter to now about one hundred dollars a month.

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Speaker 1: I mean that certainly seems like it's more than five percent.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and again, Katie, it's a matter of actually understanding

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Speaker 3: what consumption is within the premises, whether we've all of

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Speaker 3: the things that consume power have been checked. But there

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Speaker 3: is the potential with three phase power meters. The older

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Speaker 3: three phase power meters, there is a higher risk of inaccuracy. If,

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Speaker 3: for example, one of the phases in that three phase

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Speaker 3: was not recording correctly, then that will have been a

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Speaker 3: sort of that amount of power then it's missed going

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Speaker 3: through the meter. So there is a possibility if that

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Speaker 3: custom will was a three phase power meter customer, that

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Speaker 3: there were some issues with that with one of the

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Speaker 3: phases or two of the phases going through that meter,

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Speaker 3: which may have changed. So again in that it's an

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Speaker 3: under recording issue where people may in the past have

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Speaker 3: actually through different means, actually had less had paid less

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Speaker 3: for their power.

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Speaker 2: So you reckon.

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Speaker 1: Because the readings are now more accurate, people will potentially

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Speaker 1: see their bills increase.

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Speaker 3: Well. With all mechanical meters, Kadie, they slow down over

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Speaker 3: time and that's why we have to replace them. So

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Speaker 3: they slowed down to a point where they become inaccurate,

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Speaker 3: and then we change them as part of that process.

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Speaker 3: So it is sort of one of those processes where

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Speaker 3: it does actually from mechanical meters, they do start to

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Speaker 3: they do start to become slower and record less, so

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Speaker 3: it will slightly when you put a new meter in Michael.

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Speaker 1: What can because I know that we've had a few

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Speaker 1: people get in contact with us since we took that

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Speaker 1: call yesterday. In fact, quite a few people get in

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Speaker 1: contact with us saying Katie, I feel like there's something

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Speaker 1: wrong here. You know, my power bill used to be

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Speaker 1: this Now it's gone up substantially since having that new

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Speaker 1: meter installed. What can people do if they are concerned

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Speaker 1: that there's some kind of fault with their new meta

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Speaker 1: or that there's something.

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Speaker 2: Not quite right.

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Speaker 3: The first thing they need to do is to ring

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Speaker 3: their retailer and talk to their retailer about the electricity billing,

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Speaker 3: because you know, billing is done through the retailer, so

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Speaker 3: they need to have a chat to their retailer and

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Speaker 3: the retailer will work with them to sort out what

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Speaker 3: they need to do. They're also we have tips on

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Speaker 3: our website about how to look at consumption of elect tricity,

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Speaker 3: how to save on some of those to have to

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Speaker 3: save on using electricity as well, So it's worthwhile having

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Speaker 3: a look at those things. But it's also worth while

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Speaker 3: just to understand. Last year we had sixty requests for

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Speaker 3: electricity meters to be tested. Out of those, about eighty

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Speaker 3: percent of them were within their tolerance, so they were

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Speaker 3: reading okay, and twenty percent were reading lower than what

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Speaker 3: they should have done. So I charging a bit less

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Speaker 3: than what was being consumed. So we haven't In most

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Speaker 3: cases the meders were reading were accurately.

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Speaker 1: So when you say they've got to check with their retailer,

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Speaker 1: I'm imagining that most of the time that is through Jacana,

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Speaker 1: which is obviously not Power and Water that is separate

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Speaker 1: to you guys.

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Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct. So the majority of customers would talk

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Speaker 3: to Jacanada as their retailer, and if there is any

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Speaker 3: request that then Jacana may of us. Well, Jacana will

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Speaker 3: make that request of us have a look the tea.

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Speaker 1: And so when you know, yesterday, for example, when we

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Speaker 1: did have a pension, I say to us that they'd

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Speaker 1: been told that they'd have to pay a three hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars fee to have someone go out and investigate if

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Speaker 1: that meter is working properly. Is that something that they

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Speaker 1: do through Jacana or is that something that they do

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Speaker 1: through Power and Water.

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Speaker 3: That would be for electricity meters that would be through Jacana.

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Speaker 3: We Jacana will issue us a service request and have

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Speaker 3: a look, and we have we would charge to Kara

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Speaker 3: for that service request.

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Speaker 1: So, Michael, by the sounds of things, it's like it

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Speaker 1: sort of sounds to me as though, as these old

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Speaker 1: meters are getting phased out, some of these old meters

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Speaker 1: were obviously we're not reading as accurately as they should

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Speaker 1: have been. Now people have got the new meters that

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Speaker 1: are reading very accurately or you know, much more accurately,

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Speaker 1: and it's actually costing customers a lot more than what

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Speaker 1: they had sort of previously budgeted for. So I would

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Speaker 1: imagine that we're going to have people who are are

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Speaker 1: in some you know, some financial stress in some ways,

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Speaker 1: if they are maybe on the aged pension and if

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Speaker 1: they are struggling with the cost of living.

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Speaker 2: As those bills go up.

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Speaker 1: But is that something they need to go through Jacana

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Speaker 1: to try and sort out if there's a hardship payment

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Speaker 1: or if they are going through that stress.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So again Katie, if they talk to their retailer,

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Speaker 3: so most likely Jacana as to how that would how

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Speaker 3: they deal with that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now, Michael, I understand that there's also going to be

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Speaker 1: water meters being replaced as well.

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Speaker 2: Is that correct?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So the water meter a situation slightly different, Kadie.

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Speaker 3: We're not putting smart meters in with the water, so

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Speaker 3: we're replacing water meters with other mechanical water meters. At

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Speaker 3: this stage, we haven't got the benefits to put a

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Speaker 3: smart water meter in, so we're working on replacing them

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Speaker 3: as a standard annual program of work with another mechanical meter.

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Speaker 2: Do you reckon that.

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Speaker 1: It's likely people are also going to see an increase

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Speaker 1: in their water usage bills?

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Speaker 3: Well, Again, the reason we replace these meters is because

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Speaker 3: they go through a cycle of going out of specification.

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Speaker 3: So we replace them as and we try to replace

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Speaker 3: them as soon as we can as they sort of

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Speaker 3: as matches of them go out of specification, so up

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Speaker 3: to about five percent again typically after a service life

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Speaker 3: of about seven to ten years, and then we'll replace

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Speaker 3: them and they will be slightly more accurate.

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Speaker 1: Again, I mean, is it a case I suppose that

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Speaker 1: these are also needing to be replaced because the infrastructures

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Speaker 1: at its end of life, or how come they're needing

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Speaker 1: to be swopped over?

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Speaker 3: Are these these meters that are part of our annual program.

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Speaker 3: So these are meters that will actually have been in

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Speaker 3: place for seven to ten years and are slowly losing

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Speaker 3: their accuracy and therefore we need to replace them and

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Speaker 3: just bring them back up to standard again.

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Speaker 1: Michael, is there charges associated with replacing those meters for customers?

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Speaker 3: No, these are all part of the standard program that

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Speaker 3: we have, so there's no charge for this.

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Speaker 2: Michael.

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Speaker 1: I know that you know, the big thing that people

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Speaker 1: a lot of people listening this morning are going to

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Speaker 1: be thinking, is oh, no, you know my met has

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Speaker 1: changed over, my power bill is going to go up and.

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Speaker 2: It's going to cause stress.

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Speaker 1: I know that you have said that that is something

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Speaker 1: that people need to contact their retailer about. But what

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Speaker 1: is your message for territori ines this morning that you

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Speaker 1: know might be feeling a bit dismayed by this news?

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Speaker 3: I think, Katie, the key thing is to have people

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Speaker 3: just check around their properties to make sure they're you know,

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Speaker 3: there are no leaks for water, that everything is running well.

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Speaker 3: Because you know, when we talk about a five sorry

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Speaker 3: seven the team of your life, you know there's a

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Speaker 3: potential that if we move five percent in the accuracy,

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Speaker 3: that's about half a percent a year. So last year

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Speaker 3: to this year is not a five percent shift. That

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Speaker 3: last year to this year is a small shift it's

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Speaker 3: only when you're replaced to Meeta, you'll see that change again.

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Speaker 3: So just make sure that the leaks anywhere, make sure

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Speaker 3: that you've checked your property through, make sure that from

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Speaker 3: an electricity perspective, that you've done what you can to

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Speaker 3: you know, again, make sure there's no appliances that are

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Speaker 3: faulty and no sorts of things and all of those

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Speaker 3: things then will help with making sure that you have

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Speaker 3: you know, the least impact that you can. Have a

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Speaker 3: look at our website, look at some of those things

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Speaker 3: there to check through as to how you can actually

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Speaker 3: make sure you've got those things checked off. And yeah,

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Speaker 3: that's probably the biggest message with Michael.

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Speaker 1: A quick question from one of our listeners wanting to

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Speaker 1: know a caller just calling through wanting to know how

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Speaker 1: do you estimate people's power usage if you can't access

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Speaker 1: or don't access the property.

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Speaker 3: So, like with estimation, that goes on history generally.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Michael, we really appreciate your time this morning. I

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Speaker 1: know it does sound to me as though we'll have

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Speaker 1: to try and get Jakana on at some point. I

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Speaker 1: know that some people do have different retailers, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: we might have to try and get them on at

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Speaker 1: some point. Thank you for having a chat with us

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Speaker 1: this morning and just telling us a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about those meters. Thank you for your time.

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Speaker 3: Thank you Katie.

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Speaker 2: Thanks