Is it possible for home owners to buy energy in advance?

ey143

Does anyone know if it is possible to pre-pay for energy in advance?  I don't mean putting credit on a smart meter per se, but buying e.g. £1000 of energy at today's prices and consuming that energy over the course of 6-12 months?

If one accidently gave an overly estimated meter reading it would have the same effect but I wasn't sure if there was a formal way of purchasing energy in advance of a price rise.

Can anyone confirm whether a smart pre-pay meter allows you to do that if you top it up with £1000?  Does it bill at today's per kw rate or it bills as the rates change?

GingerTim

ey143 said:

Does anyone know if it is possible to pre-pay for energy in advance?  I don't mean putting credit on a smart meter per se, but buying e.g. £1000 of energy at today's prices and consuming that energy over the course of 6-12 months?

If one accidently gave an overly estimated meter reading it would have the same effect but I wasn't sure if there was a formal way of purchasing energy in advance of a price rise.

Can anyone confirm whether a smart pre-pay meter allows you to do that if you top it up with £1000?  Does it bill at today's per kw rate or it bills as the rates change?

You will pay the unit rate on the day you use those units, so no.

Verdigris

A smart meter will change rate on 1/4/2022. You can't give an over-reading on a smart meter because it will send the correct reading diectly to the supplier. You are just risking being prosecuted for fraud.

Some people might get away with advance purchase on older key meters but I suspect suppliers are quite likely to make an estimated reading for 1st April and make adjustments when the key is next topped up where they see people making unusual patterns of payment.

MWT

ey143 said:

Can anyone confirm whether a smart pre-pay meter allows you to do that if you top it up with £1000?  Does it bill at today's per kw rate or it bills as the rates change?

No, smart pre-pay meters will change their rate on 1st April and the meter charges according to the correct tariff at the time the energy is used.

ey143 said:

If one accidently gave an overly estimated meter reading it would have the same effect but I wasn't sure if there was a formal way of purchasing energy in advance of a price rise.

That would be fraud, and is likely to be caught as the customer meter readings are checked against previous usage patterns for anomalies.

QrizB

ey143 said:

Does anyone know if it is possible to pre-pay for energy in advance?  I don't mean putting credit on a smart meter per se, but buying e.g. £1000 of energy at today's prices and consuming that energy over the course of 6-12 months?

No.

But if you really want to, you can achieve a similar result for electricity by taking a stake in Ripple:

https://rippleenergy.com/

Buy a £1000 share and you'll get about 1700kWh/yr at a 2p/kWh wholesale price, plus levies and taxes, for 25 years starting at the end of 2023.

(Levies and taxes are currently around 14p/kWh, so an effective price of 16p/kWh.)

pochase

QrizB said:

But if you really want to, you can achieve a similar result for electricity by taking a stake in Ripple:

Buy a £1000 share and you'll get about 1700kWh/yr at a 2p/kWh wholesale price, plus levies and taxes, for 25 years starting at the end of 2023.

(Levies and taxes are currently around 14p/kWh, so an effective price of 16p/kWh.)

Where did you find this figures?

Checked the site and they are very vague. I found  an "average of 23% savings" and that the "owners" of their first wind park are currently saving 9p per KW, not even stating if that is really current, or from April.

Verdigris

Where did you find this figures?

It's a pro-rata figure from the actual offer that those of us who have bought in will receive.

GingerTim

QrizB said:

ey143 said:

Does anyone know if it is possible to pre-pay for energy in advance?  I don't mean putting credit on a smart meter per se, but buying e.g. £1000 of energy at today's prices and consuming that energy over the course of 6-12 months?

No.

But if you really want to, you can achieve a similar result for electricity by taking a stake in Ripple:

https://rippleenergy.com/

Buy a £1000 share and you'll get about 1700kWh/yr at a 2p/kWh wholesale price, plus levies and taxes, for 25 years starting at the end of 2023.

(Levies and taxes are currently around 14p/kWh, so an effective price of 16p/kWh.)

I hadn't seen this before but it's really interesting - will be investigating further!

Verdigris

There's a thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6177271/ripple-energy-wind-farm#latest

GingerTim

Verdigris said:

There's a thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6177271/ripple-energy-wind-farm#latest

Brilliant, thank you!

QrizB

Verdigris said:

Where did you find this figures?

It's a pro-rata figure from the actual offer that those of us who have bought in will receive.

Exactly this.

£1714 will buy you 2900kWh/yr (in an averagely-windy year) so £1000 will get 1700kWh/yr.

The entire wind farm is expected to generate 60GWh/yr at an operational cost of £1.2M, so around 2p/kWh, and to have a 25-year operational life.