Daughter’s stay inflated energy usage for new contract

Annelii

My dual fuel contract with Scottish Power is due for renewal. However my daughter stayed with me for 3 months earlier in the year and her high maintenance energy usage has artificially inflated my yearly usage, with the result that my new quote is 50% higher, far more than the energy price tariff rise. I have written to Scottish Power explaining the problem but just got a computer generated response assuming I was questioning the general rise in prices. Am I doomed to have to pay an inflated price this year? Would the same thing happen if I tried to switch providers? Or would I be better off paying the standard variable rate until I have amassed a long enough record to get a deal that reflects my normal usage, presumably a year? Alternatively if I accept the deal, do I have to pay the higher price for the duration of the contract or is it reviewed every so often to see if it still reflects usage? Any advice gratefully received. Thanks!

Brie

It's the sort of thing I find is better handled with a phone call (assuming you can get through??)

I think it was SP that did a recalc on my usage based on 3 months in an exceedingly cold winter when we were getting our roof done.  Obviously all heat was going straight up and out for a week despite us trying to keep the heat use to a minimum during the work.  The individual on the call was completely understanding of not being able to base a full year including summer useage on such a unique situation.  I got them to recalculate by using the previous 6 months which took us from mid summer to new year which was a better representation of use.

Robin9

Why stick with SP and why dual fuel ?

Switch to another supplier and give them what you think the annual consumptions should be.

Separate suppliers are generally cheaper than dual fuel.

Reed_Richards

Annelii said:

....Alternatively if I accept the deal, do I have to pay the higher price for the duration of the contract or is it reviewed every so often to see if it still reflects usage? Any advice gratefully received. Thanks!

You can review it yourself even if SP do not.  Make sure you submit readings to SP so your bills show your usage accurately.  If the bill then indicates that you have a credit balance you can claim the credit back.  But it is not such a bad thing to have a credit balance going into winter because you will use more energy then than in the summer. 

tim_p

You’ll pay for what you use. Your DD might be higher for a couple of months but if you provide regular meter readings then it will reduce your DD. 

[Deleted User]

tim_p said:

You’ll pay for what you use. Your DD might be higher for a couple of months but if you provide regular meter readings then it will reduce your DD. 

To put things into context, daughter or no daughter energy prices have increased markedly over the past 12 months. As stated above, the annual cost is a function of the tariff that you are on and your actual usage. You can choose your tariff and you can try to reduce your usage.

FWiW, Ofgem-capped variable/flexible tariffs are now generally cheaper than most fixed tariffs. For suppliers, these tariffs are now losing them money so expect to see more supplier failures. The other risk is that Ofgem may be considering a review of the October Cap to reflect the extraordinary rise in wholesale prices. If they did this then the cost of variable/flexible tariffs would increase. At the moment, the October cap lasts until the end of March 2022.

brewerdave

[Deleted User] said:

tim_p said:

You’ll pay for what you use. Your DD might be higher for a couple of months but if you provide regular meter readings then it will reduce your DD. 

FWiW, Ofgem-capped variable/flexible tariffs are now generally cheaper than most fixed tariffs. For suppliers, these tariffs are now losing them money so expect to see more supplier failures. The other risk is that Ofgem may be considering a review of the October Cap to reflect the extraordinary risk in wholesale prices. If they did this then the cost of variable/flexible tariffs would increase. At the moment, the October cap lasts until the end of March 2022.

Politically unacceptable when the Govt. are stopping the £20pw rise in UC from October - I suspect that BoJo & Co would rather allow more utility suppliers to go to the wall!!

[Deleted User]

brewerdave said:

Dolor said:

tim_p said:

You’ll pay for what you use. Your DD might be higher for a couple of months but if you provide regular meter readings then it will reduce your DD. 

FWiW, Ofgem-capped variable/flexible tariffs are now generally cheaper than most fixed tariffs. For suppliers, these tariffs are now losing them money so expect to see more supplier failures. The other risk is that Ofgem may be considering a review of the October Cap to reflect the extraordinary risk in wholesale prices. If they did this then the cost of variable/flexible tariffs would increase. At the moment, the October cap lasts until the end of March 2022.

Politically unacceptable when the Govt. are stopping the £20pw rise in UC from October - I suspect that BoJo & Co would rather allow more utility suppliers to go to the wall!!

I agree that the Government is facing a perfect storm partly of its own making: for example, it took the decision to reduce our gas storage facilities. There is though a certain irony in Ofgem pushing people towards capped tariffs as it is these tariffs that are losing suppliers lots of money!

From the latest Utility Week headlines:

Quote: Average power prices over the past two weeks have been eight times higher than the average in 2019, according to data from EnAppSys. Phil Hewitt, director of the energy market analyst, told Utility Week further supplier failures were inevitable and that retailers should be lobbying Ofgem to give them some relief from the price cap. He said many suppliers had been far too relaxed about actively trading in the intraday and advanced markets. Unquote

Tokmon

Annelii said:

My dual fuel contract with Scottish Power is due for renewal. However my daughter stayed with me for 3 months earlier in the year and her high maintenance energy usage has artificially inflated my yearly usage, with the result that my new quote is 50% higher, far more than the energy price tariff rise. I have written to Scottish Power explaining the problem but just got a computer generated response assuming I was questioning the general rise in prices. Am I doomed to have to pay an inflated price this year? Would the same thing happen if I tried to switch providers? Or would I be better off paying the standard variable rate until I have amassed a long enough record to get a deal that reflects my normal usage, presumably a year? Alternatively if I accept the deal, do I have to pay the higher price for the duration of the contract or is it reviewed every so often to see if it still reflects usage? Any advice gratefully received. Thanks!

It sounds like from what you have written you don't understand how energy bills work. 

What you pay is based on your usage and your monthly DD "quote" is just an estimate so if you use less then you pay less and if you use more then you pay more so going on to a standard variable is not going to help you and will just mean you pay more due to the higher unit rate and standing charge.

FreeBear

If you are on a variable rate tariff, electricity prices are about to go through the roof - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58579829

Annelii

Many thanks for all the incredibly valuable advice! Yes Tokmon you are right, I don’t really understand how it works, but I’m a lot clearer now. 😊