A redesign of energy bills to make them easier to understand has seen the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) partner with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA).
The Team said the partnership applied behavioural insights to the design of energy bills and its Improving energy bills: interim report revealed the results of a survey and six survey experiments that involved over 14,000 people.
“(The Interim Report) will inform AER’s development of a new billing guideline,” BETA said.
It said AER’s Better Bills Guideline was expected to simplify energy bills so households and small business owners could more easily understand and manage their energy usage and costs.
BETA said the Guideline was also intended to help people find a better energy deal and thereby drive improvements in competition.
“BETA has also published a supporting Literature Review, and pre-analysis plans for the research,” it said.
“The Literature Review identified key principles for an improved bill design: Simple language, attractive presentation, make key information prominent, and clear structure.”
BETA said its Energy bill contents and bill requirements: Literature review also identified research questions related to bill content, bill simplification and bill comprehension that underpinned its subsequent research.
The Team said its Final Report was to be published later this year.
BETA’s 77-page Interim Report can be accessed at this PS News link and its 26-page Literature Review at this link.
