Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
For decades, energy retailers have hoarded your energy data for themselves and used an array of sneaky tricks to keep you paying too much for your energy bills. Now, after years of pushback, the Australian Government with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have finally broken the shackles and implemented Consumer Data Right (CDR) for energy, also called “Open Energy”.
This means that, for the first time, Australian energy users have free and easy access to their own energy data, and can share this data with a range of new energy services providers who can help them gain control of their energy bills. Open Energy gives consumers choice, control and convenience about how they purchase and use their energy.
With energy prices increasing by over 20% from 1st July 2023, there has never been a better time to take advantage of your new consumer power and use Open Energy to reduce your energy bills.
“Sharing information such as a household’s current energy deal and consumption pattern with other energy service providers will enable a consumer to find the best deal for them,” said ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court. “This will enhance transparency and put consumers into the driving seat when it comes to comparing confusing deals, so they can find new and innovative offers that best suit them.”
More choice, more control, and more convenience, helping you to get lower energy bills. Solar Analytics is the first company in Australia to enable consumers to connect to Open Energy. Solar Analytics software helps households reduce their energy bills by 70% by maximising Smart Energy like rooftop solar, batteries and heat pumps.
Open Energy means that you can now share your energy data with Solar Analytics to get access to our full array of energy saving services such as:
“Open Energy finally puts the power back into consumers’ hands. We all get to decide who can use our energy data to find ways to give us cheaper or greener electricity. Our data, our choice. Long overdue”, said Stefan Jarnason, co-founder of Solar Analytics.
Over time we expect many more companies to connect to Open Energy and offer innovative products and services for customers, just as we have seen with the CDR for banking that was released two years ago.
Under Open Energy, you can share your energy information with an accredited provider of Open Energy services. You see exactly what data you choose to share with a given provider.
Because your energy data is typically only recorded once per day, your energy data will always be a day behind. For Solar Analytics, because we also get your energy data from your solar inverter, this means your solar production info will be up to date but your energy consumption data will only be available up until yesterday.
Open Energy is managed by the ACCC. To become an accredited recipient of your energy data, Solar Analytics has spent 12 months implementing rigorous data handling and security measures, and having our business and processes audited through the ACCC process. This includes:
Consumer Data Right providers must make it clear:
https://www.cdr.gov.au/your-rights
Sharing your energy data with a chosen provider like Solar Analytics is a simple online process that typically takes less than a minute.
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Open Energy is only available if you are in the National Electricity Market (NEM), which means in Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.
Currently, only AGL, Origin and Energy Australia are supported, however from 1st November 2023, most Australian energy retailers will be signed up to Open Energy. View the latest list of supported retailers here.
To get the full benefit of the Solar Analytics services, we also need to be able to see how much solar you are generating. This requires you to have a wi-fi enabled Fronius, Sungrow, Goodwe, GE or LG inverter (with more inverters being added all the time).
Everyone can use our free Solar Maximiser to find out which Smart Energy (rooftop solar, solar battery or smart hot water heat pump) will save them the most.
