Would application of ISO standard 14452: 2012 Network services billing – Requirements benefit the customers of Canada’s energy distributors?

Author

Olivier Bourgeois

Organization

Option consommateurs

Published

2016

Summary

The aim of Option consommateurs (OC) research is to highlight the improvements that the implementation of ISO 14452: 2012 Network services billing - Requirements could bring about for Canadian energy distributors and to understand why they did not appear to use this standard in designing their bills. To answer these questions, OC consulted representatives of standardization and energy distribution organizations, conducted a comparative analysis of the bills of the largest energy distributors, mandated experts to perform a readability and intelligibility study of these bills, and conducted focus groups with Canadian consumers.

From the outset, it appears that Canadian utility companies do not use ISO Standard 14452: 2012 - Network services billing - Requirements because, first, they were not properly informed of its existence, and second, there are no sufficiently strong incentives for them to do so.

The analyses reveal various shortcomings in the bills issued by energy distributors, both in terms of their content and their form. It is particularly interesting to note that only one bill out of the 17 analyzed contained all the basic elements identified by the ISO standard. The combined results of the analysis lead us to conclude that the use of ISO 14452: 2012 by energy distributors would significantly improve their invoicing.

The focus groups helped highlight the fact that the design of a bill, including the visual elements such as text boxes and the use of colours, is as important as the use of simplified terms and calculations in ensuring that consumers fully understand them.
Finally, since the requirements of ISO 14452: 2012 cover the great majority of deficiencies identified in the energy bills, we recommend that measures be implemented to ensure that all Canadian energy distributors adopt this standard.

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OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database