SSE THTC Price Hike - Alternatives?

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  • Rubidium
    Rubidium Posts: 663
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    Mysonacc wrote: »
    I have spoken to SSE who tell me they will change my THTC meters to an E7 meter for free but I will still have to pay an electrician to come and rewire things inside. SSE will only deal with putting in a new meter.

    I still don't fully understand it, I'm assuming the rewire needed means there will only be one set of tails going into a new E7 meter rather than the two sets that are there just now and that's what they want an electrician to do.

    I'm not sure if it would be better to shell out for this or not. I can't really afford it but I do think I'd be cheaper on E7.

    Thanks for the update. Did you specifically question them about the Restricted Meters Order 2016 and the change made to their licence to supply regarding this?

    The person that you spoke to may be unaware of this or it is possibly that they are not complying to this new order yet as they don't have to fully comply until September 2017 and they want to continue to rip off their customers for as long as possible.

    You currently have a separate meter for registering heating and hot water units and another meter for all other use. SSE currently control when your heating/hot water is energised and if they remove this meter, they would need to supply one E7 meter with a built-in contactor to take over control from the removed meter.

    The order states:
    Obligation to make available Relevant Tariffs
    20. The aim of Article 3 of the Order is (a) to impose an obligation on licensed electricity suppliers with 50,000 or more Domestic Customers (Relevant Retail Electricity Suppliers) to make all Relevant Tariffs (as defined below) available to each Relevant RMI Customer (also defined below); and (b) to prohibit Relevant Retail Electricity Suppliers from making the Relevant Tariffs available conditional upon such customers changing their existing meter, or incurring any costs associated with keeping their existing meter.

    and
    to allow restricted meter (RM) customers to switch to non-RM tariffs. Switching to a non-RM tariff cannot be conditional on a change of meter or the payment of additional charges;
    I would have expected MSE to investigate this change and do an article on this, just like they have with switching suppliers to save money and the mis-selling of PPI etc. etc.
  • Rubidium wrote: »
    Thanks for the update. Did you specifically question them about the Restricted Meters Order 2016 and the change made to their licence to supply regarding this?

    I did. A Supervisor went off to read it whilst I was on the phone. I was told it didn't apply to them as they already do not charge for meter swaps. It applies to other companies who do charge to swap meters.

    They say all they are responsible for is the actual meters themselves, they insist all other rewiring is not down to them.
  • Rubidium
    Rubidium Posts: 663
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    Mysonacc wrote: »
    I did. A Supervisor went off to read it whilst I was on the phone. I was told it didn't apply to them as they already do not charge for meter swaps. It applies to other companies who do charge to swap meters.

    They say all they are responsible for is the actual meters themselves, they insist all other rewiring is not down to them.

    As already quoted in post #5 above, your supplier is required to:
    31. For the avoidance of doubt, a Relevant Retail Energy Supplier will be required to make the Relevant Tariffs available to the Relevant RMI Customers on their existing meters, at no additional cost for the customer.
    So in order to comply to that statement, no rewiring or meter change is required, so they obviously do not understand.

    The logical thing for them to do would be to remove their non standard THTC meter and simply connect your tails to a new E7 meter with a built in contactor. This would be an industry standard setup that would allow you to freely switch to other suppliers. I don't believe that the person that you spoke to understands the implications of the recent changes to their licence to supply.

    The fact that the order states that you can request a switch to any tariff on your existing meters means that no meter change is required, however the different suppliers will need to reach agreement on how this will be done as these are non standard setups and you must not be preventing from switching due to non standard metering.

    Good luck resolving this issue.
  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,586
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    Please keep us posted on the outcome as the info will be useful to others
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • footyguy
    footyguy Posts: 4,157
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    Mysonacc wrote: »
    I have spoken to SSE who tell me they will change my THTC meters to an E7 meter for free but I will still have to pay an electrician to come and rewire things inside. SSE will only deal with putting in a new meter.

    I still don't fully understand it, I'm assuming the rewire needed means there will only be one set of tails going into a new E7 meter rather than the two sets that are there just now and that's what they want an electrician to do.

    I'm not sure if it would be better to shell out for this or not. I can't really afford it but I do think I'd be cheaper on E7.

    I thought you said the property was rented???

    I refer you again to my post#8

    Good luck! (this is getting tedious now :cool:)
  • Mysonacc
    Mysonacc Posts: 6 Forumite
    footyguy wrote: »
    I thought you said the property was rented???

    I refer you again to my post#8

    Good luck! (this is getting tedious now :cool:)

    It is rented.

    Apologies if you feel this is tedious. I'm just trying to fully understand and deal with this situation. Please feel free to not bother with the thread anymore.
  • I have been passed from pillar to post this morning, everyone from Ofgem, the Energy Ombudsman and Citizens Advice. It's shocking how unaware people are of this document and are just giving me the standard 'talk to your supplier' advice.

    I now have another contact number for a different Ofgem team but have been unable to get through so far.

    Regardless of whether I am actually helped by this in my own personal situation or not, it's ridiculous how difficult it is to get accurate and definitive information. Especially from people who I feel should really be more informed.

    Will update again.
  • Rubidium
    Rubidium Posts: 663
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    Mysonacc wrote: »
    I have spoken to SSE who tell me they will change my THTC meters to an E7 meter for free but I will still have to pay an electrician to come and rewire things inside. SSE will only deal with putting in a new meter.

    This is incorrect because if they remove your THTC meter and change it for an E7 meter at no cost to you, they will connect the existing heat tails to the new meter along with the existing tails from your standard unit rate meter, which they would remove so that your new industry standard E7 metering would only have one MPAN for the new E7 controlled meter. An electrician cannot do this due to the required meter seals that are fitted when meters are fitted/exchanged.

    Each property will be different because there are various restricted hour tariff metering setups, differently implemented in the supply regions across the country. Each supplier will need to ensure that their respective solution will change the metering to be standard, so as not to prevent customers freely switching without problems if they choose to.

    The big six have obviously colluded, pleaded for more time to implement this order and now have a further six months till 1 Sept 17 to continue to charge their rip off rates, 14.80p standing charge, 21.90 standard unit rate and 11.06 heating control rate from 1 April in your case on SSE THTC.

    The customer service reps have obviously not been informed of these changes, presumably because at the moment they don't have to be as the suppliers currently do not need to comply but it is wrong that they can't answer your questions accurately and tell you when they will switch you to an industry standard E7 setup.

    Read Shedule 1
    Condition 22G – Requirements for Restricted Meters
    Obligation to make available Relevant Tariffs

    specifically 22G.2 but I believe that they will do nothing until they need to in order to comply by 1 Sept 17 as they will lose considerable income if they comply before they have to.

    It's not called Rip-Off-Britain for nothing!
  • drjunk
    drjunk Posts: 37
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    Hi. I must be missing something here. If you switch to Economy 7 then yes, you are still getting cheap rate but then your heating the house during the night while everyone is in there bed. Then having to wait until midnight the following day to heat the house again. And yes. I know there called storage heaters for a reason but they aren't that good.

    That's the only good thing about thtc, is that the storage heaters get a random boost of cheap rate heat through the day which keeps the house warm.

    Why can't electricity suppliers simply take on the thtc tarriff?
    Save themselves the hassle of changing the meter.
  • Hi all

    I cannot find much more info about the above situation regarding thtc removal and who is responsible for the corresponding electrical work required to "join the tails". Was wondering if any of the above contributors found a resolution to this, as our off peak and 24hr boards have just been disconnected by SSE this morning leaving us with half functional sockets etc and no power to our new heating system (just normal power). We were expecting these to be joined/connected to a single source when the extra meters were removed.

    Also, is it substantial electrical work required to join the three circuits into one? Not sure if it is worth pursuing further.

    regards
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