Bill Comparison
The Bill Comparison allows customers to compare their current bill to their previous bill and to the corresponding bill from the same time period the previous year. A statement indicates whether the customer is spending more, less, or about the same as the compared bill.
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Bill Comparison Time Basis
The bill comparison can show a comparison between the current bill period against the previous bill period, or the same bill period from the previous year. A time menu allows customers to select which comparison to use. If data from the previous year is not available, only an analysis against the previous bill period can be shown.
A bill period from the previous year is defined as the bill period that overlaps the most with the current bill period. Customers can also use the This Bill drop-down list to select a historical bill to review a previous bill comparison.
Bill Comparison Chart
The chart presents a visual comparison for customers so that they can see at a glance how their two bills compare. Annotations on the bars in the comparison graph identify the bill date, the number of days, and the cost amount of the compared bills. The bar for the current bill uses the "you" color, which is blue by default. The bar for the previous bill or last year's bill uses a gray color by default.
The cost of the difference is displayed above the chart, if applicable. In some cases, there is no significant cost difference, and so none is shown. The dollar figures are rounded to the nearest dollar. For example, $1.51 would be rounded to $2, $1.50 would be rounded to $2, and $1.49 would be rounded to $1.
Fuel or Resource Menu
The fuel menu allows customers to select which fuel to view a bill comparison for. By default, the Electricity fuel label and data is shown. An additional gas menu only appears for dual fuel customers.
Reasons for Differences
Comparisons for a higher or lower bill can include the most likely reason for the cost difference. Customers can view a list of insights explaining the difference, along with the contribution of each insight to the overall change.
Days in Bill Period Insight
Differences due to a different number of days in the bill periods being compared. For example, one bill period might be 6/1-6/30/2020, whereas the other might be 6/10-7/9/2019. A bill period that has fewer days in it usually costs less than a bill period with more days. The calculation for determining the cost impact of this difference is as follows:
(Reference Bill Length - Compared Bill Length) / (Compared Bill Length)) * Compared Bill Amount
For example, suppose that the reference bill length (this month) is 29 days, and the compared bill length (the bill from last month or the same month last year) is 30 days. Let's also say that in the compared bill period, the customer's bill was $105. This means the calculation would be:
(29-30)/30 * 105 = -3.49999
Rounding is then applied to the nearest hundredth decimal point, which in this case would bring the number to -$3.50. This means the messaging would say that the customer used $3.50 less in the reference bill period than in the compared bill period.
Weather Insight
If sufficient weather data is available, the bill comparison can show differences due to changes in the weather. In the standard bill comparison experience, Oracle Utilities calculates the adjusted total usage for the earlier bill period using a weather normalization algorithm that is based on Heating Degree Days, Cooling Degree Days, and weather sensitivity coefficients defined on a utility-wide basis. However, if the customer meets the appropriate AMI data requirements, customer-specific rather than utility-wide heating and cooling coefficients are used, resulting in a more accurate, personalized weather insight. The cost of what the adjusted usage would have been is calculated and compared to the actual usage. The difference is attributed to weather.
Peak Energy Savings Insight
Rebates received during peak events can be included in the list of cost differences when comparing bills. Peak energy savings credits reduce the total bill and are displayed as a negative, credit value. Due to the nature of peak events, it is common that only one of the compared bills includes a peak energy savings credit.
Rate Plan Insight
The rate plan insight highlights cost differences in bills due to the customer switching rate plans. This information can only appear if the customer's rate plan is different for the two bills, and both rate plans have been modeled in the Rate Engine. The cost of the reference period's usage on the previous rate plan is calculated and subtracted from the cost during the reference period on the actual rate plan to determine the difference. Note that differences in prices between bills charged on the same rate plan are not called out separately.
A rate plan in the Oracle Utilities Opower system has two parts: a base plan and one or more components added onto it. For example, a base plan may be an electricity plan for residential customers in a utility's territory, but different versions of that plan could be: (1) electricity residential customers on a community assistance program, and (2) electricity residential customers on a solar plan. The rate plan change insight can be triggered if a customer moves from one of these combinations to another, even though the base plan—electricity residential customer—is the same.
Rate Tier Insight
For customers on a tiered rate plan, the bill comparison can display cost differences due to being on a cheaper or more expensive rate tier between bill periods. The switch between rate tiers depends on how much energy the customer uses.
Time of Use Insight
Information about a customer's energy costs due to time-of-use rates can be displayed below the cost difference information, if a utility applies different rates during different times of day.
Appliance Disaggregation Insight
Appliance Detection and Disaggregation insights can be displayed below the cost difference information. These insights explain how much of the cost difference between bills was due to changes in large appliance use (such as electric vehicle charging, water heating, or HVAC systems). This allows customers to better understand how their behavior affects their utility bill. Customers can increase the accuracy of the cost comparison by completing the Home Energy Analysis.
Solar Insights
Differences due to the use of solar technology. While negative bills can be shown in the interface whether or not a customer has solar technology, additional solar insights can be displayed if the utility has purchased the Distributed Energy Resources cloud service. See Solar Messaging in Bill Comparison for details.
Non-Usage Insight
Differences due to changes outside of a customer's normal energy consumption, such as taxes, flat fees, and adjustments. This information allows the bill comparison to better match the amounts that customers see in their bills. Displaying this information may require additional setup and configuration. Contact your Delivery Team if you have any questions.
Other Factors
Differences due to factors not explained by the above reasons. Such reasons could include being on vacation, buying a new appliance, or having additional people at home.
Customer Feedback
A customer feedback module is displayed at the bottom of the Bill Comparison. See Customer Feedback for more information.
Data Requirements and Limitations
- Billing Cadence: Customers must be billed on a monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly basis. Utilities that use quarterly bills must send both energy use and cost data for the same billing period. (They cannot, for example, send monthly usage data and quarterly cost data.)
- Billing History: The customer must have two historical bills to compare energy use between bill periods. Billing data from the previous year's bill period is required for the year-over-year comparison. 100% coverage of billing data is required for the bill periods being compared.
- Weather Data: Weather data is required for the weather insight to appear. The customer must have a minimum of nine months of historical AMI usage data with 75% coverage in order to calculate customer-specific rather than utility-wide heating and cooling coefficients.
- Peak Event Data: Peak event data (day and time of peak event, as well as rebate amounts) is required for the peak energy credit insight. The utility must also purchase the Peak Management: Time Rebates cloud service.
- AMI Data: AMI data is required for AMI-based insights to appear. AMI data requires the Digital Self-Service Energy Management AMI cloud service. See Getting Started for details.
- Estimated Bills: If one of the compared bills was estimated (meaning the bill was designated by the utility as "estimated" during the data transfer process), the bill comparison will still show it. However, there will be no indicator in the interface that the bill was estimated.
- Rates Data: The Rates Engagement cloud service must be purchased and customers' rates must be modeled for rates insights (such as rate plan changes, time-of-use information, and appliance use insights) to display.
- Supported Fuels: Customers with electric, gas, or dual fuel are supported.