First Utility Economy 7 Tariff Rates

ryanjohnstone

While doing some research on the cheapest tariff for me this year, I stumbled across the following differences between the standard rates and Economy 7 rates offered by First Utility's iSave Fixed v44 March 2016 tariff.

Copy these links into your address bar, as I am unable to post images!

Non-economy 7 Tariff
i60.tinypic.com/29fxkcj.png

Economy 7 Tariff
i62.tinypic.com/50fm2a.png

The day rate on Economy 7 is cheaper than the standard rate along with a substantially lower daily standing charge.

Can anybody explain this? Or is it likely to simply be an unnoticed mistake by First Utility?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

stuck pics up for you.

Nada666

E7 customers are usually electricity only so have a higher consumption which means it could make sense for FU to be happy to attract their custom.

One rate users may be using only 1,000 or so kWh per year and even with average use there is a smaller likelihood of getting a good return.

footyguy

ryanjohnstone wrote: »

While doing some research on the cheapest tariff for me this year, I stumbled across the following differences between the standard rates and Economy 7 rates offered by First Utility's iSave Fixed v44 March 2016 tariff.

Copy these links into your address bar, as I am unable to post images!

Non-economy 7 Tariff
i60.tinypic.com/29fxkcj.png

Economy 7 Tariff
i62.tinypic.com/50fm2a.png

The day rate on Economy 7 is cheaper than the standard rate along with a substantially lower daily standing charge.

Can anybody explain this? Or is it likely to simply be an unnoticed mistake by First Utility?

A supplier can charge what they like - it presumably reflects the price they are able to buy the electicity at from the generators.

It's not the first time this has occurred, and it not just by mistake (cough*eon*cough )

It could simply be that the region has an excess of night time electricity (e.g. heavy daytime industry , no night shifts, e.g. offices, shops, etc), so there is a big daytime demand and a much smaller nightime one, so the supplier wishes to encourage more night time use ... and encouraging people onto an E7 tariff would help that.

E7 exists, not primarily to help the consumer, but to help the supplier even out demand. Electricity cannot effectively be stored in any meaningful quantity, and output from certain types of power station can be incredibly difficult to change (those where output can be more effectively controlled tend to be the more expensive forms of generating the electricity in the first place)

Edit: Such situations are usually (although not necessarily) found in the Eastern supply region - not an area renowned for it's heavy 24/7 industry
If I am not miskaken, the prices above are for the Eastern region.

Cardew

This has happened many times over the years; and commented on by posters on MSE.


IIRC London Energy(now long gone) kept their E7 tariff at the same price when all other tariffs(including their own) had some substantial rises. Thus their peak rate on the E7 was considerably cheaper than their cheapest 24/7 single rate tariff.


Indeed this happened to me fairly recently with Scottish power. With gas and E7 dual fuel(a fairly unusual combination) I got a fixed tariff considerably cheaper for electricity i.e. as above ' their peak rate on the E7 was considerably cheaper than their cheapest 24/7 single rate tariff.' the loophole was closed a couple of days after I got the fixed tariff.