North America Billing and Payment

Billing and payment represent core revenue-generating business activities for utility industries and their companies. Billing requires an effective and accurate means of measuring ratepayer consumption of water, natural gas, electricity and other delivered commodities. Payment requires an effective and clear interface between utility service providers and their customers, with the billing process characterized by mutual understood billing practices, service costs and rates. The rates and volumes of consumption for electricity, natural gas and water within a utility district or other region is correlated to the efficiency of delivery and rate of losses in distribution. In other words, high electrical loads during peak periods of demand result in energy losses across transmission and distribution (T&D) systems, increasing incurred costs for the utilities that raise prices for ratepayers.

Auxiliary services such as maintenance, inspection and ratepayer education supplement the core business activities of billing and payment and ensure effective and consistent utility service and help to reduce grid system inefficiencies. Emerging practices in billing and payment include prepayment, time-of-use (TOU) pricing and billing that reflects the variable costs and pricing for services during higher and lower demand, demand response (DR) that incentivizes reduced or non-consumption during peak demand to reduce system stress and congestion, and payments for metered distributed generation (DG) from fuel cells, solar panels, small wind, and other generators owned by ratepayers. Vital technologies for advanced and next-generational billing and payment include smart grid devices like smart meters, home energy information displays, wireless routers, network servers, and smart appliances.