5 minute billing

What is 5 minute billing?

5-Minute Settlement refers to the pricing mechanism where the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) publishes electricity prices every five minutes, instead of in 30-minute intervals as was done up until a few years ago. Until now, we’ve billed customers based on 30-minute prices regardless of whether their meter records usage in 5 or 30 minute increments, but that’s about to change!

From around February/March 2025 we will be billing customers based on the granularity of their meter reads. If your site has a meter that records your usage in 5 minute increments, you might start to notice a few changes in the Amber app. However we will send you a pull notification when we switch you over for the first time.

Read on below for more details on the upcoming changes.

If you're interested in knowing more about how electricity settlements work, check out this old blog post where Chris explains some of the context around five minute settlements.

What does 5 minute billing mean for me?

The key change is that your future bill periods will be calculated using your 5 minute meter reads and the 5 minute prices instead of a 30 minute average price.

As your bills are aggregated over a while month you wont see anything different when you receive your next bill, and we don't expect this change to make a significant impact to the amount you pay for your monthly bills.

There have also been a few changes in our app to accomodate this:

• The live price bubble on the Live Prices tab will show you the current 5 minute price and the applicable time period.
• You will be able to tap on the current, next or any historical 30 minute period in the forecast bar to see the 5 minute prices making up each half hour.
• If you are a SmartShift customer, the live price pills in the devices tab will also show the 5-minute price.
• Cost/earning summaries on the Usage page will be calculated using 5 minute prices to match your future bills, but to ensure legibility the charts in the Daily usage breakdowns will still show 30 minute values.
• Your Week With Amber weekly reports will be calculated with 5 minute prices to match your future bills.
• Usage files downloaded from our web app will be at 5 minute granularity.

How do I know if I have a 5 minute meter?

If you live outside of Victoria and have a smart meter at your property (you need a smart meter to see your usage data in the Amber app), you most likely have a 5 minute meter.

If you live in Victoria, you most likely have a 30 minute meter.

We will send you an in-app notification if/when your account switches to 5 minute billing.

How can I get 5 minute prices from the Amber API?

You can now find out the interval length for your sites data (5 or 30 minutes), and request prices at different resolutions (5 or 30 minutes).

For more details check out our Github release notes here.

What if I have a 15 minute meter?

Unfortunately our new billing provider does not provide support for billing in 15 minute increments, so you will continue to be billed based on a half hour average price. 

What if I have a 30 minute meter?

If you have a 30 minute meter we cannot determine how much power you use in each 5 minute interval, so nothing will change for you. The price for your usage for each half hour period will continue to be the average of the six 5 minute prices that make up your half hour meter read intervals.