On December 16, 2022, the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on Further Improving the City's Time-of-Use Electricity Price Mechanism" (Shanghai Development and Reform Commission [2022] No. 50). The notice clarifies Shanghai's time-of-use electricity price mechanism. The electricity prices for general industrial and commercial and other two-part systems, as well as the two-part system for large industries, during peak periods in summer (July, August, September) and winter (January, December) will rise on the basis of flat electricity prices. 80%, the electricity price during the off-peak period is 60% higher than the normal electricity price, and the electricity price during the peak period is 25% higher than the peak electricity price. In other months, the electricity price during the peak period is 60% higher than the normal electricity price, and the electricity price during the trough period is 60% higher than the normal electricity price. The electricity price for each section will be raised or lowered by 50%, and the notice will be implemented from January 1, 2023.
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1 The impact of adjustments to the time-of-use electricity price mechanism
At first glance, does this time-of-use electricity price mechanism seem a bit confusing? If we rely on manual statistics, can the electricity bill be calculated clearly? In order to make it easier for everyone to understand this time-of-use electricity price mechanism, I made a time-of-use electricity price period chart to help everyone understand Shanghai's time-of-use electricity price mechanism more intuitively. (The unit price of electricity in the picture is for reference only. It is specifically related to the enterprise's power supply voltage level and season. The actual electricity price shall prevail. The picture only indicates the floating ratio)
Figure 1 Time-of-use electricity price adjustment mechanism in Shanghai
As can be seen from Figure 1, electricity prices not only have four periods of peaks and flat valleys, but also have different settings in different months, and the floating ratio of electricity prices in each period is also different, which brings great difficulty to many companies' electricity bill statistics. .
This is an inevitable process of power market reform. With the evolution and development of new power systems, the installed capacity of new energy increases. Due to the instability of new energy, it is necessary to increase the peak-valley electricity price difference to guide the use of energy storage to promote new energy. The consumption of power generation reduces the peak and valley differences of the power grid and guides users to use electricity in an orderly manner. Therefore, electricity prices will fluctuate more and more frequently, which can reflect the value of electricity in different time and space. After the release of the "Notice on Matters Concerning Further Improving the Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing Mechanism in Our City", many property companies in Shanghai are busy updating electricity meters and billing software, seeking more efficient and reasonable electricity billing solutions to avoid imbalances in electricity bills. or be fined.
2 Transfer of electricity supply: Difficult to collect electricity bills
On March 21, 2022, 10 Beijing branches of Beijing Sohou Property Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of SOHO China, charged end users increased electricity fees in the name of power transformation service fees due to the existence of higher electricity prices than the average electricity price of the power company for the same period. He was fined 79.013 million yuan by the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Department for charging fees and other behaviors. In addition, he was fined about 86.64 million yuan for increasing electricity bills in 2021, and the cumulative amount of the two fines exceeded 165 million yuan. In October 2022, Chongqing Ruizheng Property Management Co., Ltd. was fined and confiscated 1.6067 million yuan for charging electricity bills from merchants higher than the government's set price. Such cases are common across the country. The fined objects include properties, universities, commercial complexes, etc. They were all fined because the electricity transfer charges exceeded the reasonable range.
The "Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission on Relevant Matters Reducing General Industrial and Commercial Electricity Prices" (Fagai Price [2018] No. 500) clarifies that operators such as commercial complexes should charge tenants electricity fees according to the electricity sales prices stipulated by the state, and the electricity consumption and losses of related shared facilities Negotiate the solution through rent, property fees, service fees, etc.; or pay the electricity fee to the power grid company according to the electricity sales price stipulated by the state, and all users will share it fairly according to the amount of electricity in each sub-meter.
Business in Shanghai is relatively prosperous and developed. There are many factories, shops, and offices for rent. The electricity used by tenants is transferred to the power supply by the property management company. The problem faced by the property management company is how to collect the electricity bill from the tenants to ensure the electricity bill after paying the electricity bill to the power supply company. The balance of payments? If charges are directly based on meter counts and government-guided electricity prices, who will bear the electricity costs such as grid loss and tenants’ public electricity consumption? This will cause the property's electricity bill to be unable to break even, and how to collect losses and public shares is also a big problem. The electricity bill, which is already difficult to calculate, seems to have become even more difficult after the issuance of the "Notice on Further Improving the Time-of-Use Electricity Price Mechanism in Our City". This is also a problem faced by many power supply transfer entities across the country.
3 Ankerui provides solutions for electric energy billing
In order to help the property management company reasonably collect the electricity charges for the power supply transfer and the operating costs in the process, AcrelCloud-3200 remote prepayment platform solution configures reasonable billing instruments and software according to the time-of-use electricity price policy to help the transfer power supply entities complete electricity fee statistics, power grid losses and tenants’ public electricity sharing, helping power supply entities to more efficiently solve the problem of electricity bill collection.
Figure 2 AcrelCloud-3200 prepaid management platform
Ankerui's prepaid solution mainly consists of fee control meters, collectors and billing software. Cost control instruments include single-phase, three-phase single-family instruments and multi-user instruments, which are configured according to the user's on-site conditions. The meter has rich time-of-use rate adjustment functions to meet the complex changes in time-of-use electricity prices in different seasons and months, and can communicate with the platform through wired/wireless communication methods. In order to adapt to the problem of frequent rate adjustments, the platform can also set different time periods and rates, and send them to the billing instrument with one click, avoiding the need for frequent manual adjustment of instrument settings and solving the problem of difficult billing for users.
3.1 Billing instrument
Due to the adjustment of the time-of-use electricity price mechanism, the seasonal mode (summer, winter, other months, etc.), time period (the peak and flat valleys of each day correspond to the time period settings), time period (peak, peak, flat, valley, deep valley), rate ( (different floating ratios up and down) become more complicated, so the billing instruments are also adjusted accordingly. Ankerui single and three-phase billing instruments can set more than 10 rate period settings and settings such as peak, peak, flat, valley, and deep valley. Seasonal mode meets the time-of-day electricity price adjustment requirements in different areas. The following are some metering and cost control instruments.
Figure 3 Electric energy billing and control instrument
3.2 Billing management software
Real-time billing: AcrelCloud-3200 prepaid management platform cooperates with prepaid smart meters to achieve one meter for each household, remote automatic meter reading, electricity precharge, real-time meter deduction, and automatic tripping for arrears. The electricity unit price can be set for each tenant or store according to the guided electricity price given by the power supply bureau. It not only supports a single electricity price, but also supports peak and off-peak electricity prices in multiple time zones and multiple periods. The electricity meter will measure and deduct the electricity in real time according to the set electricity price. If the balance is insufficient, the system will notify the tenant in advance via text message to recharge according to the settings. The monthly electricity consumption and electricity bill of each household can be clearly checked, helping the property management to calculate the electricity consumption.
Figure 4 Operation of electric energy billing and control instruments
Loss sharing: By interpreting the electricity price policy, expenses such as daily operation of the property, line losses, and electricity consumption of public equipment can be added to the property fee. Basic room or shop project information can be set for each household in the platform, which can be used as the basis for deducting property fees on the platform, such as area used, unit price of property fees, deduction date, discount amount, etc., to ensure the balance of electricity bills of enterprises transferring power supply.
Figure 5 Cost sharing
Time-of-use electricity price settings issued by the platform: The time-of-use electricity price mechanism may be adjusted in the future, and as the electricity reform deepens, adjustments may become more and more frequent. Does that mean that every adjustment requires changing the time period and rate settings on the electricity meter? Not required. The platform can set the time period and rate and then issue them to all meters in a unified manner. You can choose to issue them directly or at a scheduled time, so that you can more quickly change the time-of-use electricity price settings and adapt to the adjustment of electricity price policies.
Figure 6 Time-of-use period and electricity price issuance
4 Electric energy billing/cost control instruments
Ankerui provides a variety of electric energy billing methods for power supply transfer enterprises, including single-phase three-phase meters, single-household single-meters, and multi-household meters. Both prepayment mode and post-payment mode can be flexibly switched. In addition, billing instruments with different functions are configured according to user needs in different situations. For example, commercial complex properties focus on pre-collection of electricity bills, while university student apartments focus on electricity safety and identification of malignant load characteristics.
5 Conclusion
As the electricity reform further deepens, adjustments to the time-of-use electricity price mechanism will become more and more frequent. Since the release of the "Notice on Matters Concerning Further Improving the Time-of-use Electricity Pricing Mechanism in Our City" (Hufa Price Management [2022] No. 50), many property companies have been upgrading billing meters and software, without violating relevant electricity price regulations. Under the premise of ensuring the collection of electricity transfer fees and balance of payments, this requires the cost control meter and software to work together to deal with the challenge of fluctuations in the time-of-use electricity price mechanism.