I ran across this article from Paul Ring at Energy Choice Matters recently which discusses some changes Centerpoint is making in regards to a customer’s Usage History. In short, the article discusses a new automated Usage History Tool that Centerpoint is trying to implement for customers.
n April, CenterPoint announced the development of the new automated Usage History Inquiry Tool for use by Retail Electric Providers and other parties for accessing customer usage history, including Advanced Metering System (AMS) 15-minute interval usage and non-AMS IDR data.
Now, it doesn’t look like this tool would have immediate benefit to customers. However, something occurred to me as I was reading this. One of the most common complaints I receive through the website in regards to negative experiences is people complaining that REPs estimated their usage and sent them wildly inaccurate bills based on that estimated usage. Now, this isn’t supposed to happen, but it does happen with some regularity in the Texas electricity market. These estimations are often based on past years at the household on question.
If this new automated tool is actually more accurate, and in any way could make estimates based on historical usage for customers more accurate, it could go a long way towards cutting down on these complaints and increasing consumer satisfaction for Texas electricity. If the estimates are more accurate, and can be applied to the customer segment, that could be very beneficial.
Unfortunately, I have no idea if their new automated system will be able to be leveraged in this manner. And if it is, I have no idea if that is on the list of ways to utilize the resource. I’m simply expressing some of the thoughts I had as I read the article in question.