Read a bill or upload smart-meter data

Attach a bill

1. In Story & consultant, under Evidence, tap the box or drag the files in. Add every page, and a summer and a winter bill if you have both.
2. It takes photos (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC) and PDFs: up to 6 files, 5 MB each.
3. Press Generate draft →.

The AI reads the NMI, the retailer, the amount and period, the energy rate (or the peak, shoulder and off-peak rates), the supply charge, the feed-in rate and the daily usage. It leaves out anything it can’t read clearly rather than guess. It never sets a price.

Check what was read

1. After generating, open Customer & site. Under Read off the bill are the figures as the AI read them.
2. Check each one against the bill and correct any it misread.
3. Generate again. It’s the same customer link, as the next version.

A corrected figure moves the savings, never the price. Where the savings use a figure you corrected, the proposal says the bill’s figures were checked by you. Each figure has to be in a sensible range, and the NMI has to be in the standard format, or nothing is drafted until it’s fixed.

No bill? A yearly figure helps

With no bill, the usage comes from the household: the people at home and what you ticked under The home. Typing a yearly kWh from the bill replaces that guess and narrows the savings band from about ±30% to ±20%.

Upload smart-meter data

1. Ask the customer to download their interval data from their distributor’s online portal: the poles-and-wires company, not their retailer. It’s a NEM12 file.
2. In Story & consultant, press Upload smart-meter data (NEM12 CSV) and choose the file (.csv or .txt, up to 10 MB). A .csv dropped on the bill box goes here too; any other file dropped there is attached as a bill.
3. Check the summary: the NMI, the dates, the days read, the kWh a year and anything filled in.
4. Generate (or Refine). The savings are modelled on this year. The price doesn’t change.

The file is read in your browser. Only the hourly year goes with the draft, and it isn’t kept on your device. It needs at least 180 days of readings. Gaps are filled from the same hour in that month, and missing months from the nearest month read, and the band widens to say so. Interval data starts the band at about ±10%.

When a file is refused, or needs a look

• A NEM13 file, or a file that isn’t NEM12, is refused.
• Fewer than 180 days is refused: use the bill, or download a longer period.
• A file that looks like the wrong units (Wh or MWh labelled kWh) is refused. The one exception: a year that reads low because the home already has solar and exports most of what it makes is accepted, and the summary says so.
• You’re warned if the meter’s NMI differs from the bill’s, if the file shows export but no existing solar is set, or the other way round. Check these before you send.