Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

collectors

walpurgis02 said:

I don’t know whether this represents a change in policy, but the Competition and Markets Authority has issued advice on switching bulk LPG gas suppliers which says you are entitled to change supplier during your two-year exclusive contract (as well as after the contract). 

There is also a spreadsheet for calculating the transfer price for domestic LPG tanks.

These may have something to do with a letter that the CMA has sent to LPG supplier BDS Fuels accusing it of breaching the Domestic Bulk LPG Market Investigation Order in two ways - first, failing to to limit the exclusivity period in contracts to 24 months, and second, failing to provide important information to 757 of its customers when providing them with contracts.

The Sun has reported on the CMA investigation.

PS  I originally included links to the various documents but MSE won’t let me post them because I apparently haven’t been signed up for long enough (I registered last October). You can find the links by searching Google News and The Sun Web site for “LPG”. Perhaps someone who has been registered longer could post the links.

LINK to the above comments. 

walpurgis02

collectors said:

walpurgis02 said:

I don’t know whether this represents a change in policy, but the Competition and Markets Authority has issued advice on switching bulk LPG gas suppliers which says you are entitled to change supplier during your two-year exclusive contract (as well as after the contract). 

There is also a spreadsheet for calculating the transfer price for domestic LPG tanks.

These may have something to do with a letter that the CMA has sent to LPG supplier BDS Fuels accusing it of breaching the Domestic Bulk LPG Market Investigation Order in two ways - first, failing to to limit the exclusivity period in contracts to 24 months, and second, failing to provide important information to 757 of its customers when providing them with contracts.

The Sun has reported on the CMA investigation.

PS  I originally included links to the various documents but MSE won’t let me post them because I apparently haven’t been signed up for long enough (I registered last October). You can find the links by searching Google News and The Sun Web site for “LPG”. Perhaps someone who has been registered longer could post the links.

LINK to the above comments. 

Thanks for posting the Sun link. The official documents on the gov.uk Web site are also of potential interest, especially the one that offers advice on switching bulk LPG suppliers.

Sorting_Hat

The tank price calculator is the tool all LPG firms use to price the tanks as they are bought/sold when switching.
The customer has always been able to switch within 28 days of the end of contract. On the switch paperwork the choices are to say that the customer is out of exclusivity and can switch.
The customer is not eligible to switch.
The customer is within 1 month of their contract end, then that end date is specified so the customer can switch but the new firm can not put gas into the tank until that original end date.

The new firm in this scenario replies saying that so and so is a customer but deliveries shall not commence until such and such date.

markmorgan

Does anyone know what happens if you leave LPG for something like an Air Source Heat Pump? 

You are left with an LPG tank on your property that belongs to the supplier and is full of gas that you, the customer, have paid for. 

Will the supplier remove the tank and credit back the gas?

Has anyone got any experience of this?

heather8

collectors said:

walpurgis02 said:

I don’t know whether this represents a change in policy, but the Competition and Markets Authority has issued advice on switching bulk LPG gas suppliers which says you are entitled to change supplier during your two-year exclusive contract (as well as after the contract). 

There is also a spreadsheet for calculating the transfer price for domestic LPG tanks.

These may have something to do with a letter that the CMA has sent to LPG supplier BDS Fuels accusing it of breaching the Domestic Bulk LPG Market Investigation Order in two ways - first, failing to to limit the exclusivity period in contracts to 24 months, and second, failing to provide important information to 757 of its customers when providing them with contracts.

The Sun has reported on the CMA investigation.

PS  I originally included links to the various documents but MSE won’t let me post them because I apparently haven’t been signed up for long enough (I registered last October). You can find the links by searching Google News and The Sun Web site for “LPG”. Perhaps someone who has been registered longer could post the links.

LINK to the above comments. 

Hank you for posting the info, I wasn’t aware.  In the past I’ve been with BDS fuels and they were very good up to a point.  Once my contract ended which was in 2020, they advised me that the variable rate was 52p a litre, needless to say I moved supplier.  At the time I was quoted 23p for a variable rate from another company.

Here is the link to Gov website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-switch-your-bulk-liquified-petroleum-gas-supplier/advice-on-switching-bulk-lpg-supplier

I wonder if they would be interested to hear that suppliers are tearing up fixed term contracts due to the increase in price.  I am going to dig out my invoices as I have never noticed any info on those about switching.

123Ed

I received this email from Avantigas last week, has anyone else had the same?...

Dear Customer,

Due to the current instability in rising transportation costs, we must implement a £35 delivery charge on all LPG deliveries from the 8th July 2022. Despite our continuing efforts to minimise the impact of this cost on our customers, a delivery charge will enable us to further protect our customers from these volatile costs.

If you make payments through monthly direct debit, please note there has been no adjustments to reflect this charge.  Please monitor your payments regularly and contact us at enquiries@avantigas.com if you feel these no longer meet your requirements.

If you receive automated deliveries, we’ve updated our T&Cs under clause 3.5 regarding gauge updates from your tank. For more information on this please visit avantigas.com/domestic-terms-and-conditions.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuous support and being a valued AvantiGas customer. If you’d like more information or have a question, please visit avantigas.com/domestic-charges

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Craig
Customer Experience and Marketing Director

mcmullank

markmorgan said:

Does anyone know what happens if you leave LPG for something like an Air Source Heat Pump? 

You are left with an LPG tank on your property that belongs to the supplier and is full of gas that you, the customer, have paid for. 

Will the supplier remove the tank and credit back the gas?

Has anyone got any experience of this?

Your supplier will charge you to uplift the tank and will not credit you for any usused gas.  This is normally covered in your contract.

D924

Am I missing something or are the prices per litre in this thread actually very competetive with mains gas, per kWh, given a calorific value of around 7 kWh per litre?

A shame gas boilers will be banned soon and we will all have to pay 40p+ a kWh for our electric heating soon so they can burn twice as much gas in turbines to generate electricity (at least 40% losses) then transmit it through the grid (10% losses on top) for our resistive heating because noone can afford to retrofit heat pumps and they barely work in our winter temperatures anyway.

But muh windmills. Lol.

mcmullank

D924 said:

Am I missing something or are the prices per litre in this thread actually very competetive with mains gas, per kWh, given a calorific value of around 7 kWh per litre?

A shame gas boilers will be banned soon and we will all have to pay 40p+ a kWh for our electric heating soon so they can burn twice as much gas in turbines to generate electricity (at least 40% losses) then transmit it through the grid (10% losses on top) for our resistive heating because noone can afford to retrofit heat pumps and they barely work in our winter temperatures anyway.

But muh windmills. Lol.

They may be competitive at the moment but historically LPG has been around 3 times the price of natural gas.

Badger04

What is the going price for an lpg contract now. I have been offered 60p/litre from flogas.