Electric Connection Charge New House, Please Help.!!

Rockyfella2

We are currently in the process of building a new house and have just applied to YEDL to have an estimate for connecting us to the mains electric. We are literally 8 feet away from another house and in the middle of a thriving village. We have had an estimate back from them and were absolutely blown away by their quote of £4,500 to connect us. Having spoken to them on the phone they are stating that the current supply to houses nearby is at max load and they will have to connect us to the nearest main which is approx 30-40 metres away and will involve digging up the footpath and a small road too. I understand that there is some work involved here but not £4,500 worth. We didnt budget for this sort of cost and as they are the only ones that can do it they have the monopoly of charging what they want. I have tried negotiating with them re the price but they wont budge. Anyone else had similar problem and does anyone know if there is anything I can do about this, other than be without electric supply if I dont pay it?

Terrylw1

Hi,

You are not strictly tied to the local distributor anymore. The industry rules were changed over a year ago.

The electricity industry now supports what they call "embedded networks" or independant distributors. This new policy allows new companies to enter the market despite never having an area set down prior to de-regulation years ago.

This means that you get to nominate who you want to be the network distributor for your supply. They quote you and sort eveything out.

Now, this doesn't mean that they won't use the same people or even subcontract it to YEDL but it does mean that you will only deal with them.

There have been some embedded supplies in the YEDL or NEDL regions ( can't remember which) so it can be done.

The industry signed off these changes a while back to ensure that network distribution was more competetive since de-regulation has not correctly addressed the situation.

This has been done to open up the market for distributors since they still have a stranglehold on the supply provision market which is anti-competetive. So, in fact you can go with any now but whether it will work out cheaper since they are not traditionally from that area may be an issue.

I know that some builders have nominated whole sites this way.

It's a fairly new thing. I'm not too sure where you may the help you need on this one. Distributors used to come under the jurisdiction of the DTI, not the regulator's Ofgem. Some of that has now changed as of 2006 but the DTI may be the best place to start as you should be able to find these "independant" distributors. If you fancy looking through the Ofgem sites online documents you should be able to find the documents detailing all of this. They are public domain docs.

So, effectively the distribution market is going the same way as the supply market.

From what you have said, I don't think that the price is goig to be that much different but maybe you can then haggle between the parties for who wants your business. Bare in mind that some of these companies charge over £500-£700 just for jointing a supply where they are not up to capacity and thats a fair simpler job.

Remember that you also need to register your supply to an Electricity Supplier e.g. Npower (who are the main ones in your region, although I'm not stating you should go with them, look around). They will arrange to have the meter fitted as long as you have the meter tails ready and a contractors completion certificate (you may have to send that to the local Meter Operator or just show the meter fitter when he gets there). Your Distributor will tell you about this as well when it's getting closer to whe you need it but they won't recommend anyone, they are not allowed to.

They will also get an account set up for you.

To be honest, from experience, it's sometimes quicker to go with the old local Supplier (e.g. Npower - formerley Yorkshire Electric) because they have more customers in your region hence better Agent contracts meaning they can get your meter fitted quicker. You can always change straight after anyway, just remember that an a Supplier outside of the former YE region may take a few days more to get an engineer out. All a question of how quick you want that part doing.

Good luck!!!

Terrylw1

Very true, the only thing being that not all Suppliers support solar power metering so whilst you could get a grant and fit it, you would need to select a Supplier on this basis. It would also prevent you from transferring to certain Suppliers until they catch up.

I know BGas have supported since 2006 and Npower were running a trial. Not sure on others. I can tell you that they cause a lot of confusion since you have an additional meter fitted (they are called import export meters) so you can actually monitor what you are getting out of the solar side. Thats quite useful and could help reduce your bills. I guess it depends how much it would costs to get it on there.

BGas caused a lot of problems by signing customers up and then lettering them go to other Suppliers and never warning them of this! Ofgem didn't make it compulsory for all Suppliers to support it!

You would still need a full supply via cabling, a local distributor & Supplier in place to do that.

Not sure on wind power but if you could connect your telephone to it and dial BGas customer care they could probably support your electricity for the year in hot air alone!!!