How to read my bill
Confused about your energy bill?
Our explainer guide makes understanding your electricity or gas bill simpler.
Get in touch
Here you’ll find the best ways to contact us – from the phone to our website (where you can access online live chat).
We’ve also included the faults and emergencies numbers. If your power goes out or there’s a problem with your energy supply, this is the number to call.
Your account details
Here you’ll find your important Simply Energy numbers:
- Customer number: Links all your energy accounts together.
If you have more than one energy type with us under your name (e.g. electricity and gas), each account will have the same customer number. - Account number: Unique to each energy type.
If you’re looking at your Simply Energy electricity bill it will have a unique account number, which will be different to your Simply Energy gas bill account number.
Your bill amounts and due date
This section shows what you owe in this billing period or how much you are in credit on this account.
It includes:
- The total amount of your last bill, how much you paid and any balance brought forward (if you overpaid or underpaid your last bill, the amount will appear here).
- The total amount of current charges for this bill:
- Energy charges – what you’ll pay for the energy you used.
- Supply service charges – charged by your energy distributor to get the energy to you and for maintenance of poles and wires.
- Any credits due to discounts or government concessions (shown as Cr)
- Total amount payable – what’s left to pay.
- Due date – the date you need to pay your bill by.
Usage benchmarks
This section compares your energy usage with other homes in your area.
View the information for the house that has the same amount of people as you do in your home to see how your energy use measures up.
Please note: We work out this comparison based on average usage data supplied by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) and the Essential Services Commission (ESC).
Useful information/Interpreter TTY service
- Useful information: Keep an eye on this section for useful information about your bill or energy account and other important messages.
- Interpreter/TTY service: If you need an interpreter or you’re hearing impaired, you’ll find useful contact numbers and information here.
Invoice details
This section shows details about this specific bill:
- Issue date: The date we sent your bill by post or email.
- Invoice ID: Unique to each bill so we can tell which bill you are paying or contacting us about.
- NMI/MIRN: The national identifier for your property – NMI for electricity meters, MIRN for gas meters.
- Billing period: The start and end dates of the period covered by this bill.
- Meter read type: Shows if your meter reading was:
- Actual (A): Your meter provider got real consumption data from your meter, either remotely or through visiting your property.
- Estimated (E): Your meter provider was unable to get an actual read from your meter, usually due to not having safe or easy access. Instead, they have provided a reading based off your past usage.
- Substitute (S): Your meter provider was unable to get an actual read from your meter, and provided a reading based on an average of your consumption for a similar period.
- Site address: The address we supply the energy to.
How we’ve calculated your bill
Meter number: Identifies the physical meters attached to your premises that are supplying your energy.
This section is a breakdown of all your energy charges, including:
- Bill period: Date range of this bill.
- Consumption: The energy you have used.
- Supply service charges: Charged by your distributor to get the energy to you and for maintenance of poles and wires.
Discounts: A breakdown of the discounts and government concession, grant or rebate credits applied to your bill will appear here.
Your consumption profile
This section tells you about your greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage – for both the current billing period and the whole time you’ve been a Simply Energy customer.
The information will depend on how long you’ve been a Simply Energy customer.
Average daily usage: The average amount of electricity you used each day for this billing period. It’s shown in kw/h and dollars so you can see how much you’re spending each day.
Payment summary
This section gives you an overview of your bill and includes:
- Your account number: Unique to your gas or electricity account.
- The bill due date: You need to pay your bill on or before this date.
- The total amount payable: What you owe.
- MyAccount: If you’re receiving bills by email, this section will also include a clickable link to pay online and a link to MyAccount – Simply Energy’s online account management tool.
Concession information and payment support
If you’re having trouble paying your bills, this section contains useful information including:
- Government concessions, grants and/or rebates that may be available.
- Payment assistance and support offered by Simply Energy, such as payment plans and one-off bill extensions.
Payment Options
This section tells you all the ways you can pay your bill: by direct debit, online, over the phone, by mail or in person.
It also outlines the payment reference numbers and codes you’ll need when you pay your bill, depending on which payment option you choose.
If there are any extra charges (such as a credit card payment fees), they’ll be outlined here.