Electric pricing - can someone explain

mac_the_dog_2

Hi all,

I have electric storage heaters and have been on domestic standard and restricted hours B tarrif with scottish hydro. I phoned scottish hydro to try to find a cheaper tarrif ( I was paying £164 per month). I was recommended to go with godirect 5 economy 7.

I was quoted
Rate 1 - first 364 units at 15.55p, then 11.56p thereafter
Rate 2 - 4.42p per unit

My bill was as follows
Rate 1 - first 92 units 18.19p, then 13.73p thereafter
Rate 2 - 6.11p per unit

Scottish Hydro website quotes these prices
Rate 1 - first 364 units at 15.71p, then 11.86p thereafter
Rate 2 - 5.29p per unit

I have phoned Scottish Hydro everyday since last thursday and am getting nowhere. Anyone able to give me a bit of advice.

Thanks in advance

Mac

maxmycardagain

All i can tell you is that we have NSR's, we are on Bgas websaver and have 3 rates

Rate 1 31p (initial day rate 1st 140 units or so)
Rate 2 9p
Rate 3 4p (nights cheap)

with 4 NSRs on at the moment we spend £3 per 24hr period

Premier_2

mac_the_dog wrote: »

...I have phoned Scottish Hydro everyday since last thursday and am getting nowhere. Anyone able to give me a bit of advice.

Thanks in advance

Mac

Follow the Scottish Hydro complaints procedure

http://www.hydro.co.uk/Help/ForYourHome/ComplaintsProcedure.aspx

Do let us know the final outcome.

mac_the_dog_2

Thanks for the link. I will read through it and see what my next step is.
I will keep you up to date with my progress.

Mac

mac_the_dog_2

Ok so I have got to the bottom of my pricing problem.

I was quoted southern energy prices instead of scottish hydro prices. Which brings up the question "Why are electric prices cheaper in England than in Scotland?. I raise this question because Scotland is far colder in the winter than England, so more electric is consumed up here. Surely the principle of the more you use the cheaper it gets should apply. In fact the more I think about this the more angry I am getting.

I pay more for petrol and electric. What else do scottish customers pay more for than english customers. Anyone know.

Mac

Terrylw1

Prices differ from region to region based on their agreements with Distributors.

It is often influenced by a Suppliers need e.g. Southern may not have many customers in Hydro so pay more, whereas the Supplier with the large customer base in the region pays less.

The expense of the network will drive it as well so whats the Scottish infrastructure like compared?

You can only ask the Supplier but no one in the call centres is going to know the answer since this is a contractual/industry settlements question. You will probably turn up more searching through Ofgem's site about it.

When the market first opened up there was a rule in place to prevent the local energy supplier (the one that used to be the one for the board where you live) being competitive in their own region. So, other Suppliers could undercut them. This rule was removed years ago since it was a stupid anti competitive one anyway!

Airmike23

As Terrylw has stated sounds like you probably live in the former Scottish Hydro electric board region, so by privatisation ruling, they cannot be the cheapest electric provider in that former electric board region, same for Npower in former Yorkshire/Midlands/North East EB regions, same for Eon in former Eastern/North West/East Midlands EB regions, EDF in former South West/London/South Eastern EB regions, Scottish Power in Scottish Power/Manweb EB regions and Scottish hydro in that eb region SWALEC and Southern EB regions. Not that you cannot get a good deal from them but less likely too.

You have been given the unit rates over the phone xcl VAT, Hydro's website will show both with and without vat on their website

Terrylw1

The rules over competition changed years ago. It's all open now so prices can be quoted irrespective off the original Ofgem ruling. That was just to kickstart the market and it worked by forced Suppliers to pull customers from every other region than their own.

Distribution (settlement) is a different matter since larger use will mean cheaper energy. This can impact the customer, so in regions where Supplier have very little customer base, they won't be as competitive since they pay more than other companies with larger customer bases on those regions.