Time of Use windows, seasons, and when cost does not match consumption
If your total consumption matches the utility account closely but the cost does not, the time-of-use period times are the first thing to check. This looks exactly like a metering problem when it is not.
The signature to learn
Consumption matches. Cost does not.
That combination points at the tariff configuration, not the meter. If the meter were wrong, consumption would be wrong too. When you report a variance, say explicitly whether the total kilowatt hours agree, because it halves the investigation.
Seasons
High demand season runs 1 June to 31 August in most of the country. Low season rates resume from 1 September. Peak, standard and off-peak rates all differ between seasons, and the period windows themselves can differ too.
The annual tariff increase takes effect on 1 July, which is inside the high demand season. So a single winter straddles two price sets, and a June bill and a July bill on the same tariff will not be directly comparable.
The windows themselves
Time-of-use tariffs divide the day into peak, standard and off-peak blocks, with different blocks at weekends. Customers regularly ask Augos to confirm their understanding of these windows for their municipality. Augos will confirm them against the loaded scheme.
What to do
- Compare total consumption first. If it agrees with the account, say so.
- Compare the cost. If only the cost is out, ask support to check the time-of-use period times on your tariff scheme, particularly if it is June or July.
- If Time of Use shows no data at all for a point, that is usually a caching problem rather than a tariff one. See A report is behind the raw data.
What Augos will do
Support reviews the period times configured on your scheme, corrects them, and recalculates. Where the underlying data is fine they will say so explicitly, so you are not left wondering about the metering.
Good to know
- Time of Use and Consumption Breakdown can legitimately disagree on a site with solar, because one reports gross energy drawn from the utility and the other reports the net internal balance. See Net and gross on sites with solar.
- Where a customer's tariff has changed and Augos was not told, the scheme will not match the account at all and the Bill Verification tariff scheme field will be blank. See Charges missing or wrong on a verification.
Still stuck
Email support@augos.io with the site name, the month, the utility account, and
whether total consumption agrees.