Why has the standing charge for electricity in London gone up the least?

saver2000

Have been wondering this, ofgem's excuse for the rise is that the extra money is for green levys, network costs and moving people from bust suppliers.

I would have thought the network costs would be largely unaffected, so the question is, why are places like scotland getting a 100% increase why places like London, standing charges are only increasing by around 38%? Why are rural areas taking the brunt of the increases?

MattMattMattUK

saver2000 said:

Have been wondering this, ofgem's excuse for the rise is that the extra money is for green levys, network costs and moving people from bust suppliers.

I would have thought the network costs would be largely unaffected, so the question is, why are places like scotland getting a 100% increase why places like London, standing charges are only increasing by around 38%? Why are rural areas taking the brunt of the increases?

Population density has an impact on network costs, London has a lot more dwellings per km of network and transformer than Scotland, as well as more dwellings per transformer, far lower transmission losses etc.

MWT

saver2000 said:

I would have thought the network costs would be largely unaffected, so the question is, why are places like scotland getting a 100% increase why places like London, standing charges are only increasing by around 38%? Why are rural areas taking the brunt of the increases?

If I remember correctly, there were also some very significant costs in Scotland from storm damage...

t0rt0ise

In London we have the highest unit prices so it evens itself out.

bristolleedsfan

t0rt0ise said:

In London we have the highest unit prices so it evens itself out.

Huge differential standing charge between London and most of the areas of UK has only occurred since 1 April 2022

The idea that highest unit rate in London since 1 April 2022 evens out lower standing charge contradicts stated reason for huge increase in standing charge, parts of which was moving some elements from unit rate to standing charge and all consumers paying same share of SOLR costs/SOLR costs spread evenly across all regions

Certainly does not even itself out out for very low users, or so called typical users in North Wales and Merseyside and South East regions
r505_deemed_rate_card.pdf (edfenergy.com)  April 2022

r505r883.pdf (edfenergy.com)  April 2021

maisie_cat

MattMattMattUK said:

Population density has an impact on network costs, London has a lot more dwellings per km of network and transformer than Scotland, as well as more dwellings per transformer, far lower transmission losses etc.

This, we are rural and 1 mile from the village where the distribution thingy is, there are 3 properties using a mile of cables and pylons that were replaced last year at what I suspect was great expense for western power.

MWT

bristolleedsfan said:

The idea that highest unit rate in London since 1 April 2022 evens out lower standing charge contradicts stated reason for huge increase in standing charge, parts of which was moving some elements from unit rate to standing charge and all consumers paying same share of SOLR costs/SOLR costs spread evenly across all regions

The SoLR costs have been spread evenly, that explains the general high increase in the Network Costs component of the standing charge across GB.

The highest percentage increase was in N Wales & Mersey, then East Midlands, the lowest percentage increase was London, and then N. Scotland.

N. Scotland has historically been a lot higher than London, and most other regions for that matter so the added costs for the SoLR scheme had a lower impact on the percentage rise.

In absolute terms, the highest increase in Network Costs was South Western, then Southern Scotland, the lowest was London, then Eastern.

The SoLR costs are only one part of the Network Costs though, and it would be interesting to see a more detailed breakdown of the rest of the costs by region.

I've just located that spreadsheet, and taking a look at the moment...

 

bristolleedsfan

MWT said:

bristolleedsfan said:

The idea that highest unit rate in London since 1 April 2022 evens out lower standing charge contradicts stated reason for huge increase in standing charge, parts of which was moving some elements from unit rate to standing charge and all consumers paying same share of SOLR costs/SOLR costs spread evenly across all regions

The SoLR costs have been spread evenly, that explains the general high increase in the Network Costs component of the standing charge across GB.

The highest percentage increase was in N Wales & Mersey, then East Midlands, the lowest percentage increase was London, and then N. Scotland.

N. Scotland has historically been a lot higher than London, and most other regions for that matter so the added costs for the SoLR scheme had a lower impact on the percentage rise.

In absolute terms, the highest increase in Network Costs was South Western, then Southern Scotland, the lowest was London, then Eastern.

The SoLR costs are only one part of the Network Costs though, and it would be interesting to see a more detailed breakdown of the rest of the costs by region.

I've just located that spreadsheet, and taking a look at the moment...

 

My reply was specifically relating to title of this thread.

We know previously there were regional variations, some regions slightly higher SC/lower kwh rate and visa versa.

If you are able to relay to us why SC in London increased by so little compared with most other regions of the country and have figures that confirm that all consumers in London irrespective of electricity usage are paying the same share of SOLR costs as consumers living within other regions of UK that would be awesome.

( figures quoted are exclusive of VAT)

https://twitter.com/senojus/status/1510225459883266057

( 

QrizB

bristolleedsfan said:

If you are able to relay to us why SC in London increased by so little compared with most other regions of the country and have figures that confirm that all consumers in London irrespective of electricity usage are paying the same share of SOLR costs as consumers living within other regions of UK that would be awesome.

It's all in annex 3 here (sheet "DUoS (DCP628)") but you need to click through to the individual power companies' own calculations to get the breakdown:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/default-tariff-cap-level-1-april-2022-30-september-2022

UKPN in the London region has added 9.76p/day for SoLR costs:

https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/-/media/files/about-us/distribution-use-of-system-charges/london-power-networks/london-power-networks-lc14-statement-2022-v1-4.ashx

For comparison, WPD in the old SWEB region has added 9.65p/day:

https://www.westernpower.co.uk/downloads-view-reciteme/493366

I'm not going to check every region but if you've got time, you know where to look.

MWT

QrizB said:

bristolleedsfan said:

If you are able to relay to us why SC in London increased by so little compared with most other regions of the country and have figures that confirm that all consumers in London irrespective of electricity usage are paying the same share of SOLR costs as consumers living within other regions of UK that would be awesome.

It's all in annex 3 here (sheet "DUoS (DCP628)" )but you need to click through to the individual power companies to get the breakdown:

Thanks, I started going through the individual sheets yesterday, but had to stop to do some paid work

bristolleedsfan

Can someone remind me please, how much of April 2022 E standing charge increase relates to  paying back SOLR costs ?