Electricity tariffs/Prices

[robs1]

Had an email last week off E d f, just letting me know that if I didn't book my smart meter installation this week, my tarif would possibly increase to £2.50 sc and £1.15 and £1.08 pr kWh. .
I've not heard much good, and no signal here either, and I'm quite happy to send my meter readings once a month, so haven't bothered with the barrage of emails and text messages sent to me.
So with another year on this contract, I begrudgingly phoned them. I asked the nice Indian gentleman what happens if there's no signal for the smart meter to send the data. Oh everyone has a signal these days. Wel nope, I'm standing in a wet rainy field to phone you now, because there's no signal in the house. Oh hang on I'll talk with my manager (I'm assuming he either went for a cup of tea or went to look up mobile reception for my area) anyway he came back and said they would install a smart meter and make it dumb.
I asked well how will you get your meter readings, oh you will have to supply them. So isn't it a waste of time and money putting in a smart meter ? No it will be much safer for me having a smart meter installed .I asked how and he went quiet. Anyway, they can't book me in for an install, the computer wouldn't allow him. So there's 40 minutes of my time gone that I won't get back

We have two meters and two different companies over the last five years have complained that one of the smart meters doesn't send a signal, first time they sent a bloke to fir a new who could because he wasn't qualified to do three phase, the second came and said that's a smart meter already and went away, third came and said the SIM card isn't working and went away, they appear to have given up now. How these idiots ever run a business is a mystery

 

[Fubar]

Saw it on here somewhere so thought I'd better look into it.
All fixed Scottish Power tarrifs only have the unit rate fixed. The standing charge can go up or down. My broker insists that's not true but conversations with 2 separate Scottish Power advisors have confirmed it. And it's in the contract apparently. So if the gas price rises they'll obviously put up their standing charge.
I've told the broker they will have to cover the difference. Let's see how that pans out!

 

[Mr Mackay]

Saw it on here somewhere so thought I'd better look into it.
All fixed Scottish Power tarrifs only have the unit rate fixed. The standing charge can go up or down. My broker insists that's not true but conversations with 2 separate Scottish Power advisors have confirmed it. And it's in the contract apparently. So if the gas price rises they'll obviously put up their standing charge.
I've told the broker they will have to cover the difference. Let's see how that pans out!

Was chatting to my broker the other day and he seemed to confirm what you are saying !!
Also he said Scottish Power don't like quoting outside the 6 month renewal window ,(we are on a 1 year with them )which was annoying for us as the start of that period for us is 1st June ,and I really wanted to do it now !!

SP also look to be the keenest of most of the companies but the variable SC is a worry (not that they have messed around with ours yet !!)

 

[NFI]

I got this from love energy this morning.

Non commodity charges are the distribution and transportation costs imposed by the government and other third parties. Non-commodity charges are applicable to all energy tariffs, some suppliers include these in the fixed unit rates whereas other do not.
Scottish power do not fix the non-commodity element of their tariffs and the costs are reviewed quarterly. Sometime the costs can go up or down and sometimes they do not change.

Watch your backs boys and girls.

 

[farmbrew]

Hope this isn't a bit premature
The Ombudsman has reported back to me. He has thankfully found in my favour.
Bionic have to apologies to me, offer a good will gesture of £100 and cancel the 'new contract' and confirm that they no longer arrange my electricity renewal.
They can appeal so not over yet but fingers crossed I'm out.
Word of warning to anybody with Bionic....opt out of the 'do it for you renewal' contract asap.
I have certainly learnt my lesson.

 

[skidless]

Hope this isn't a bit premature
The Ombudsman has reported back to me. He has thankfully found in my favour.
Bionic have to apologies to me, offer a good will gesture of £100 and cancel the 'new contract' and confirm that they no longer arrange my electricity renewal.
They can appeal so not over yet but fingers crossed I'm out.
Word of warning to anybody with Bionic....opt out of the 'do it for you renewal' contract asap.
I have certainly learnt my lesson.

Glad too hear you may have had some success , I am currently speaking to the ombudsman about Bionic , behaving exactly the same with me. They have asked me to send an email with all the details etc and correspondence I have had with Bionic . I cant believe they can get away with there behaviour , they wont return phone calls or respond to emails now .

 

[farmbrew]

Glad too hear you may have had some success , I am currently speaking to the ombudsman about Bionic , behaving exactly the same with me. They have asked me to send an email with all the details etc and correspondence I have had with Bionic . I cant believe they can get away with there behaviour , they wont return phone calls or respond to emails now .

The Ombudsman was really helpful. To be fair I got away with it to a technicality coz they didn't take into account my wish to stay with the current supplier. Otherwise the 'Do it for you' would have stood.
I was far too trusting that Bionic were working on my behalf...they clearly had their own agenda.
Good luck with your case

 

[GeoffCapes]

Hi All,

A good friend of mine is a farmer (and long time lurker on here) and told me that I should register and provide some clarity regarding energy prices as my company does commercial energy procurement.

I guess first things first rates.

Current electricity rates for Half Hourly (HH) meters are around 21p kWh. That's for a fixed contract. Minimum 12 months.
Standing Charges vary from contract to contract. There literally is no set price every energy company price differently.

Are prices going up or down? Well, we're effectively sitting at the booth of the current curve, prices shot up in recent years, and have now come back down. But not as low as they were in 2020.
I'm not sure we'll ever see 14-15p again, as prices were artificially low back then.
My guess is that a political event is going to be the catalyst for the next spike or drop. So a war in the Middle East could send energy price shooting up, or a government policy change could send prices falling. Same as the Russians withdrawing from Ukraine. What do you think is most likely?

Contract Procurement.
You can procure a new HH contract up to 5 years in advance of your renewal. And you can fix for up to 5 years. Although I've only ever done a few of those.
Brokers who charge you for doing your procurement should be shot as they're double dipping as they always get a commission from the energy company on the kWh's used. So charging a fee is just adding insult to injury.
How much do they charge? Some get away with up to 2p kWh, which quite frankly is outrageous! I would guess the average is between 0.8 and 1p kWh.
My company charges less as we have less overheads.

Type of contract.
You can have fully fixed which means everything stays the same throughout the length of the contract. Price per kWh, Standing Charge the lot. The only exception is Climate Change Levy (CCL) and other charges which are beyond the energy companies control.
Variable contracts go up and down with market prices.
Flex contracts are where the commodity is bought in advance when you tell the broker to do so. 'Normally' your non-commodity costs are fixed. So slightly different to variable contracts. However, you do need to be on the ball regarding the energy market.
Fund contracts. Where a team of experts buy your energy when market signals tell them to. The savings for these contracts can make your bill 20-30% less than the market. However, you do need a large supply to qualify. Same as a Flex contract.

Use a Broker or do it myself?
There are pros and cons to both. If your supply is relatively low (under £10k a year), you may well be better off ringing round energy companies. But that is time consuming.
If you are time poor, and you have a large supply, then a broker will always be the better option. You may know 6 energy companies, we tender contracts to 27. And can do that in one day. And we charge a fee.


I think that pretty much covers everything. Happy to answer any questions, or offer advice if I can. And of course I can look at your contract and get you some prices without obligation.
But the main reason for the post is because my mate Nick asked me to.

 

[Happy hillbily]

Clearing some old filing cabinets for the boss (wife) this afternoon found this

 

[Rich_ard]

Clearing some old filing cabinets for the boss (wife) this afternoon found this View attachment 1177711

It's interesting looking back to the start of these threads too! Similar to yours in 2013.

 

[essex man]

Hi All,

A good friend of mine is a farmer (and long time lurker on here) and told me that I should register and provide some clarity regarding energy prices as my company does commercial energy procurement.

I guess first things first rates.

Current electricity rates for Half Hourly (HH) meters are around 21p kWh. That's for a fixed contract. Minimum 12 months.
Standing Charges vary from contract to contract. There literally is no set price every energy company price differently.

Are prices going up or down? Well, we're effectively sitting at the booth of the current curve, prices shot up in recent years, and have now come back down. But not as low as they were in 2020.
I'm not sure we'll ever see 14-15p again, as prices were artificially low back then.
My guess is that a political event is going to be the catalyst for the next spike or drop. So a war in the Middle East could send energy price shooting up, or a government policy change could send prices falling. Same as the Russians withdrawing from Ukraine. What do you think is most likely?

Contract Procurement.
You can procure a new HH contract up to 5 years in advance of your renewal. And you can fix for up to 5 years. Although I've only ever done a few of those.
Brokers who charge you for doing your procurement should be shot as they're double dipping as they always get a commission from the energy company on the kWh's used. So charging a fee is just adding insult to injury.
How much do they charge? Some get away with up to 2p kWh, which quite frankly is outrageous! I would guess the average is between 0.8 and 1p kWh.
My company charges less as we have less overheads.

Type of contract.
You can have fully fixed which means everything stays the same throughout the length of the contract. Price per kWh, Standing Charge the lot. The only exception is Climate Change Levy (CCL) and other charges which are beyond the energy companies control.
Variable contracts go up and down with market prices.
Flex contracts are where the commodity is bought in advance when you tell the broker to do so. 'Normally' your non-commodity costs are fixed. So slightly different to variable contracts. However, you do need to be on the ball regarding the energy market.
Fund contracts. Where a team of experts buy your energy when market signals tell them to. The savings for these contracts can make your bill 20-30% less than the market. However, you do need a large supply to qualify. Same as a Flex contract.

Use a Broker or do it myself?
There are pros and cons to both. If your supply is relatively low (under £10k a year), you may well be better off ringing round energy companies. But that is time consuming.
If you are time poor, and you have a large supply, then a broker will always be the better option. You may know 6 energy companies, we tender contracts to 27. And can do that in one day. And we charge a fee.


I think that pretty much covers everything. Happy to answer any questions, or offer advice if I can. And of course I can look at your contract and get you some prices without obligation.
But the main reason for the post is because my mate Nick asked me to.

Hi, thanks for coming on.
when you say prices of 15p were "artificially low", what do you mean?

 

[GeoffCapes]

Hi, thanks for coming on.
when you say prices of 15p were "artificially low", what do you mean?

Effectively there has been very little investment in the UK power infrastructure for 20+ years. This is the blame of successive governments.
This meant prices were kept low, as no-one was paying for the upgrades required.

It was good for the economy, good for keeping inflation low etc etc etc. Political basically.

However, now the UK has a grid which is so poor if you want to add a utility scale PV Solar farm to the grid you can be waiting for up to 15 years for a connection date!
These upgrades need paying for, and the National Grid don't have the money. So the end users are now paying more as part of their bill to pay for these upgrades.

It's my belief that we may see prices dip below 20P kWh every now and again, but the days of 15p are long gone.
20p is the new bottom IMHO.