2 Meters - Bulb

1882

I've just applied to move from Scottish Power (3 rate all electric) to Bulb as they're much cheaper. Bulb however sent me the following email and are charging me for 2 supplies/meters even tho' SP only charged for 1 and although 2 supplies I have just 1 meter! This significantly reduces the financial advantage of the move. Is there any thing I can do other than stay with SP or pay double standing charges?

We have picked up that there are two electricity supplies for your property. This means you have what are called related meters. We have now registered for the second supply.

This does affect your tariff. Because you have two supplies, we need to charge an additional standing charge for the second supply. The tariffs that you will be supplied on are below:

MPAN 1: XXXXXXXXXXX

Unit Rate 13.50 p/kWh, Standing Charge 20.44 p/day

MPAN 2: XXXXXXXXXXX

Unit Rate Day 15.70 p/kWh / Night 8.70 p/kWh, Standing Charge 20.44 p/day

The additional standing charge is £74.62 per year, or £6.22 a month. This means your payment amount has been increased by £6.22 a month.

If you no longer want to continue with the switch, you can cancel the switch by logging into your Bulb Account at account.bulb.co.uk

matelodave

The difficulty with some of these specialised and complex metering systems is that they are unique to the supplier or region that installed them and many of the smaller suppliers are unable to co-opt them onto their systems.

You will either have to stay with SP or have the metering changed to something more conventional, something that is likely to cost you money to get sorted out.

Suppliers are now obliged to offer you a standard single rate supply but not necessarily to change all the meters unless you pay to have them swapped out and any internal wiring changed to suit.

I found this https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/your-energy-meter/dts-energy-meter/ which tells whats going on but doesn't actually solve your problem because even if SP put you onto a single rate tariff, you'd still have two meters.

The other big six suppliers also have a few odd "legacy" tariffs which can't be easily transferred without extra work - just have a trawl of the internet.

The expectation is that this situation should get resolved with the roll out of smart metering. Perhaps you could see what SP have to say about shifting you onto a single smart meter which would have a single metering point thus making it easier to change suppliers.