Business electricity rip off

lordie

I run a small market stall in a large indoor market hall.

We received a letter yesterday informing us that our local council in Stoke on Trent are putting up the price of our electric from next month by 35% !!

Our old rate was 9.02p/unit and the new rate is 12.24p/unit.

Does anyone here have experience of buying electricity in bulk as our market hall uses in excess of one million units of electric per year?

It would be very helpful if someone could give me an idea of a competitive rate for being able to purchase that amount of energy per year.

daveyjp

The Council should be bulk buying all their energy for all properties anyway and passing on savings to their tenants.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

The council will be purchasing the energy and charging you accordingly. It will almost certainly be an obligation of the lease on your stall that you pay them for this, so I don't really think there's anything you can challenge.

They won't be buying as "the market hall" (1GWh isn't that big in the grand scheme of things), or even as Stoke-on-Trent council - they'll be a small part of a huge basket deal such as GPS, NEPO or LASER http://www.laserenergy.org.uk/ who will tender for energy. They will agree a framework price for energy, and trade the remaining margin. It's quite complex.

9p sounds like an historical rate that's come to it's conclusion, 12p is much closer to the market rate.

lordie

9p sounds like an historical rate that's come to it's conclusion, 12p is much closer to the market rate.


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Have just been talking to UK Power and they say that for the consumption used in the market hall we could get a rate of between 9.5p/unit to 10.2p/unit.

Have told the council and am awaiting their response.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

lordie wrote: »

9p sounds like an historical rate that's come to it's conclusion, 12p is much closer to the market rate.


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Have just been talking to UK Power and they say that for the consumption used in the market hall we could get a rate of between 9.5p/unit to 10.2p/unit.

Have told the council and am awaiting their response.

And what would the standing charge be on that? And I bet they've conveniently forgotten the 20% VAT. Be very careful with brokers. Although as I said, they contract is almost certainly signed and sealed - check your lease for how energy is treated before anything else.

lordie

And what would the standing charge be on that? And I bet they've conveniently forgotten the 20% VAT. Be very careful with brokers. Although as I said, they contract is almost certainly signed and sealed - check your lease for how energy is treated before anything else.

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I have just emailed them to get a more accurate quote including ccl,feed in and standing charges.

I am pretty certain their quote did not include VAT, and I know my council`s new price was excluding VAT.

I have at least got somewhere with my negotiations as the market area manager has just offered me a compromise of 10.66p/unit.

This is still an increase of 18% compared to the old rate !!

lstar337

lordie wrote: »

And what would the standing charge be on that? And I bet they've conveniently forgotten the 20% VAT. Be very careful with brokers. Although as I said, they contract is almost certainly signed and sealed - check your lease for how energy is treated before anything else.

===================================

I have just emailed them to get a more accurate quote including ccl,feed in and standing charges.

I am pretty certain their quote did not include VAT, and I know my council`s new price was excluding VAT.

I have at least got somewhere with my negotiations as the market area manager has just offered me a compromise of 10.66p/unit.

This is still an increase of 18% compared to the old rate !!

The forum has a proper quote feature. Just click the 'Quote' button.