Business billing and payments
Get to know your business energy bill.
What does my power bill pay for?
Your energy bill is made up of different parts contributing to the total cost, and there’s also a lot of information about your property. To help you navigate what make up the charges on your bill, here's a simple breakdown of these costs.
Transmission and distribution – 35.5%
These are the costs required to build and maintain the power lines that transport electricity from where it is generated to your house - Genesis pays this cost to the regional lines companies, and these costs are covered in the Network Charges portion of your bill.
Wholesale costs (Generation) – 32%
This is the cost we pay for purchasing electricity.
Retail – 13%
This is what retailers like Genesis charge for providing services.
Metering and other– 4.5%
This includes the cost of reading and maintaining your electricity meter and the Electricity Authority Levy, which everyone pays. This levy helps to fund the authority's work to regulate the electricity industry.
GST – 15%
The Goods and Services Tax for your total bill price.
Finding info on your bill
A descriptive and diagrammatic guide to make your bill easier to navigate.
More about large business bills
View a bill that includes half hourly and time-of-use billing. This bill is an example only and not all items appear on all bills.
Information about network charges
Genesis invoices you for your energy costs, the lines company charges for your area as well as other costs such as meter reading, Government levies, taxes and our service charge. The Network Charges shown on your bill are a total of the applicable rates from your local lines company and a charge from Genesis.
Not all networks have the same charges, and we recommend you check your local lines company for more details on their different rates and charges.
Networks have a range of charges specific to business accounts. These charges are related to supply across a network, management of demand during peak periods, or for the type of metering you have. Below is a summary of these charges.
This is a charge for each day in the billing period. It is calculated by multiplying your total rate (for the Daily Fixed Charge) with the number of days in your billing period. This charge includes meter rental costs, Genesis overheads (such as meter reading), a margin and a fixed amount from your lines company.
electricity is available when you need it. Your lines company estimates the maximum amount of power that can flow through your meter (kVa or kilo volt ampere), and this is your “assessed capacity.” The Capacity Charge is calculated by multiplying your “assessed capacity” with your total rate (for the Capacity Charge) and the number of days in your billing period. This is called the Demand Charge in the Alpine Network.
For example: Assessed capacity (kVA) x number of days the bill covers x capacity charge (price).
The Congestion Charge covers the cost of electricity supply when the network is under heavy demand. Your lines company calculates and sets a factor called the ‘congestion period demand’ (kW). The Congestion Charge is calculated by multiplying the ‘congestion period demand’ by the days in the billing period and the total rate (for the Congestion Charge). This is called the Demand Charge in the Horizon Network.
For example: Congestion period demand (kW) x number of days the bill covers x congestion charge (price).
The Distance Charge is a fee paid to your local lines company to recover the costs associated with high voltage lines and cables and sub-transmission lines and cables. Costs are recovered by a kVA-km price. The total kVA-km for each connection is the product of the “assessed capacity” in kVA and the circuit distance from the distribution substation supplying the connection. The Distance Charge is calculated by multiplying the kVA-km by the days in the billing period and the total rate (for the Distance Charge).
For example: Distance capacity(kVa-km) x number of days the bill covers x distance charge (price).
The charges cover supply during peak periods and not every ICP has the same quantity applied to it. The quantity is assessed and decided by each individual network based on a customer’s usage. It is then used as a multiplier on the total rate for a charge, for a billing period. In addition, Genesis charges a margin on fixtures prices to cover cost to serve, discounts and metering costs.
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