Economy 7 Tarriffs

Hi there penny,

Your situation is not that uncommon. As you have two physical meters at your property you are whats referred to as a Multiple MPAN Site (MPAN being your meter point administration number, which is also referred to as your supply number).

With a multiple mpan site it is not as straight forward as when you have one meter. If you were to sign up with a company when you have a single meter they use the 13 digits on the bottom line of your supply number (the top 8 are not needed) if you take the bottom 13 and top 8 this makes 21 digits for a full supply number but as I said with a single meter only the bottom 13 are needed.

Now in your case to switch suppliers with a multiple mpan site you have to obtain the full 21 digits (top 8 and bottom 13) for BOTH meters, so you will end up with 42 digits in total. You also need to know if you are on an economy7 or standard tariff, just because you have two physical meters does not mean you are automaticaly on an economy7 tariff, so check your exisiting bill for all the details you need. Your MPAN's (supply numbers) can be located by looking for a big S with a series of boxes next to them.

To complicate matters not alot of companies will handle multiple MPAN sites as they have to go through manual registration with your local electricity distributor and supplier alike, so often take twice the usual timescale in this case of around 6-8 weeks. Also as you are a multiple MPAN site there is no set tariff the companies currently quote that will fit you. During a manual registration you will be entered onto a 'best-fit' tariff and then notified of what those prices will be in the post.

As I work for british gas I can tell you they do accept these manual registrations for your type of supply, but as you have said from your own experience to date from trying other companies none you have tried already will accept two physical meters, and there will be very few of those you have not tried yet that will.

Your type of meter setup is pretty old school but does not mean your local distributor is obliged to replace it. modern meters where two supplies are needed have two supplies in one physical box, whereas your setup was used before the usage of one meter with two supplies.

Basically get a list of suppliers, ring them, ask them do they accept new customers that have two physical meters (use the lingo multiple mpan) and hopefully you can change your supply to a different company. Alot of info I know but hope ive helped

=BOB=

I'd have thought that if you have two separate meters, you have two supplies, and the supplier for each one can be changed separately.

Am I right in thinking that your storage heaters are permanently connected to one of the meters, and your normal power supply is connected to the other - and that there is no switching between them going on?

Still - what grimbo says seems to make sense. Maybe suppliers have ways of spotting multiple supplies at one address, to stop you signing up for one of them, and pretending the other one doesn't exist. Otherwise, it would be too easy to put one of them on an economy 7 meter, and keep a standard meter on the other one, thereby circumventing the day-rate premium you normally have to pay for economy 7.