Economy 10(E10) rates - can I complain

davidrt

I have an E10 meter (midlands) and cheap rate comes on 3 times over 24hrs. I have persuaded an energy company to charge me E7
rates as they dont give E10 - assume happy to get the business.
Not all energy companies will allow this which is a shame as Scottish
Energy has the cheapest e7 rates at the moment - would save over £100.
Does anyone know why majority turns away potential customers especially in the light of mis-selling.
Also it would seem Scottish Energy would quote E10 rates if I lived in Scotland (not sure of rates, but could be cheaper than my current E7 rate).
I am thinking of complaining (perhaps to my MP)
1) is there a Scottish bias here when should we should all have access to lower rates.
2) Cannot all energy companies be forced to quote as above

If anyone is in the know perhaps they could explain.

Terrylw1

Yes, because Suppliers have an obligation in their licence to ensure data going through the industry is accurate based on the meter you have at the site. This affects how they pay their settlement charges to the Distribution networks.

So, in the case of this, they will be incorrectly settling on energy unless the engineers reconfigure your meter to burst at 7 hours rather than 10.

Don't be surprised if this gets picked up at some point and they either try to change it back and tell you they want to come out to change the meter to E7.

Sadly, this is all part of the issue between sales staff and back office services. Sales don't understand meters & their capabilities enough and offer what they "think" should be ok. They the walk away. Back office operations & customers then have the hassle of really sorting this later.

You are in the Midlands so your meter will be a 1 MPAN 2 rate affair as opposed to dual MPAN 3 rate E10's which exist in some regions.

All Suppliers have to be able to support registration of all meters, however they can opt not to create tariffs for them as that is not part of the obligation. So, you get some Supppliers who don't want some meters that they don't want to pay extra to their billing systems to support.

davidrt

Thanks for the reply.
What about an E10 rate in Scotland and not in England.
Assume they have the option not to create a tarriff by location
as well as by meter.

SwanJon

The predecessors of these tariffs were created back in the days of the 15 electricity boards.
Each region ended up with it's own suite of options, not always analagous to those in other regions.
The E10 you see offered by Scottish Energy? (Hydro? Power?) is probably different to the version you have down south and would require a whole new set up in your house.
Remember that Scotland in the middle of winter gets a lot less daylight, even than the 'Midlands' so tariffs would have been developed according to purely local need.

Terrylw1

davidrt wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.
What about an E10 rate in Scotland and not in England.
Assume they have the option not to create a tarriff by location
as well as by meter.

It's your location that matters, not where the Supplier is. Pricing is driven by region based on the Distribution agents which is the common 15 Swanjon mentions. This Distribution end still operates very similiar to before de-regulation so pricing can be affected by a Supplier demand in that region. So, lots of customers can mean cheaper pricing, few customers can mean they don't get such as good rate to buy energy from the local Distributor.

As you say, you are in then Midlands. So, you will get the Suppliers' Midlands rate unit charges. You could only get Scottish regional rates if you live there.

This is why they need your post code to quote you.

Does that make sense?

davidrt

Unfortunately yes.
Thanks, which saves me writing to my local MP

Trow

I have an economy 10, and you are damn lucky to have got on a Economy 7 tariff! Scottish Hydro has the most expensive economy 10 tariff of the three that I have found with one (EDF, Eon and Scottish Hydro Electric) so if there is a bias its not a positive one!