Still too many invoices with estimates of consumption by distributors, but on the other hand, complaints from users are significantly down. These are the main results that emerge from the fact-finding survey on 'Retail market billing 2013' conducted by the Authority for electricity, gas and the water system.
In the report presented by the Authority emerge significant differences between the gas and electricity markets, especially as regards the issue of remotely managed meters.
With regard to the electricity sector, in 2013, non-remotely managed meters accounted for 2% of the total (approximately 750 thousand) and for 4% of those that are remotely managed there were problems with remote reading. The situation in the gas sector is quite different, where the process of installing electronic meters is just starting, less than 1% of the total.
The Authority then highlighted delays in making the readings available (in the electricity sector 2,7% of the data does not reach vendors within the deadlines set by the regulation, 28,1% in the gas sector) and a high recourse to estimates of consumption by distributors.
Overall, in the electricity sector, 11% of estimated invoices and 9% of mixed invoices (with actual consumption and with estimates). In the gas sector, over 50% of invoices show estimated consumption while 27,2% contain adjustments. It should be emphasized that in the gas sector almost half of the customers carry out voluntary self-readings, a behavior that compensates for the substantial absence of electronic meters.
A first indication of the evolution of the 'invoicing' phenomenon from 2013 to today may be the number of complaints relating to this issue received by the Authority's Consumer Desk. Despite a general trend of contraction in reports, in 2014 and in the first six months of 2105 the number of complaints about billing is constantly decreasing, with a drop of approximately 27% among those recorded in the first quarter of 1 (2014) and those of the 4.617nd quarter of 2 (2015).
