Can we buy direct from National Grid?

patman99

I know that users of heating oil can club together to buy a full tanker load and save money that way, but want I want to know is, can a community (such as a large village) form their own Power Company & use it to buy electricity (and gas) at wholesale prices?

If so, how would we go about it?.

Cardew

Well firstly you would probably need to lay your own gas main and electricity pylons to the village, get meters fitted to all properties, arrange for authorised meter readers.

Then persuade the generating companies to let you have gas and electricity at a price that would undercut the distribution firms that they own.

You will also get a licence from Ofgem to confirm that all your employees met the safety standards etc.

I suggest you contact Ofgem and seek their advice.

Sorry to appear negative!

Snakeeyes21

you can but it would be hard. there is another option you can use, ive forgot the website, but you can set up your own utility company with them and buy from the distributors

moonrakerz

Another slight problem - the grid operates at up to 400,000 volts ! So you would have to spend a few million on transformers, etc.

patman99

The original q was based on the theory that companies such as NPower, EDF & the like all buy from the national grid at wholesale prices, then, acting as distributers, sell-on to their customers (either other powerco's or their own residential retail arms) at a profit. The end-user (us) then buys the product from the power-co of our choice with even more profit lumped on top (in simple terms, its like when you pay your phone bill, your telco then has to pay BT Wholesale for the use of their exchange & line connection).

Based on this, I get my electricity from Utilities Warehouse, they don't employ anyone who is capable of laying cables or installing meters. If all it takes to emulate these 'resellers', then setting-up a 'Community Power Company' and simply adding the serial numbers of any new customers to the appropriate database, then it might be worth doing.

tripled

The regional distributor is responsible for the network, so you wouldn't have to worry about that. I would re-iterate Cardew's advice though to contact OFGEM if you are serious, however due to the amount of rules and regulations involved I doubt it would be very practical.

The only thing I could suggest is setting up a 'buying group' to buy off one of the big 6. If there were a few hundred households involved then it may be enough to interest them, however I wouldn't expect a significant discount as operating margins for the power companies are generally fairly tight.

patman99

setting up a buying group is exactly what I am proposing.

lemontart

does not work like that the suppliers buy from the likes of shell bp etc who pump the gas from the earth they then pay a transporter company for use of the pipes to transport to their customers , National grid i transports the gas to suppliers and producers customers they are not the gas producers .

AlanMoneySavingMan

Did you ever setup a "buying group" or look at it in more detail?

Pincher

I think you'll find it's easier to buy energy futures.

Make money if it rises, but you lose money on the gas and electricity bill, so it balances out.


If you really want to buy from the National Grid, think "shopping club", and then petition Costco to get in the game. Executive Members get 2% off.

C_Mababejive

National Grid dont have any Electric or Gas to sell.

They own and operate the transmission and distribution networks and charge gas shippers for its use.

Crazy eh?

Once upon a time we had a joined up industry.