Scottish Power Standard Online Tariff

IslaView

After the new announcement on energy caps today, can anyone confirm if I am understanding things correctly?

Current cap is £1951, and is set to rise to £2500.  This equates to roughly a 28% rise.  If my bills should currently be £456 per month, will they now become £584 per month?  If so, as I've been overpaying for some time, my current payments of £642 per month will decrease by almost £60.  Does this sound correct?

If I'm correct, I'd assume that there would be pretty much no chance of finding a fixed contract for the next 2 years.  Right?

The_Fat_Controller

The Government Fix is what will be available for the next two years, don't bet on anything else.

As for your own bills, don't think monthly £££S, think kWh x unit rates plus standing charges, unless your monthly DD x 12 exactly covers your annual usage.

IslaView

The_Fat_Controller said:

The Government Fix is what will be available for the next two years, don't bet on anything else.

As for your own bills, don't think monthly £££S, think kWh x unit rates plus standing charges, unless your monthly DD x 12 exactly covers your annual usage.

I've been paying pretty much the same for a year now (in images of original post), which I believe is based on my smart meter readings + extra to cover money that I was owed to them.  Now I may be in credit, having paid almost £200 extra per month for the last year or so.  If that continues to be the case, are my estimates (based on same monthly over course of a year using previous years usage) about right?

I'm already making some alterations to reduce bills.  I've bought a smart thermostat, and am contemplating changing my electric shower to a thermostatic mixer shower.  Will also be more vigilant with leaving plugs/chargers on for phantom charge, and reduce our tumble dryer use.

IslaView

Hi again!

I've been contacted by Scottish Power to say they are increasing my direct debit yet again. I was paying £642 a month, but they say they need to increase that to £730 or so. If you see the pic below, I have over £1.2k in credit based on an up to date meter reading (only 1 week before the 3 monthly bill). I have only used on average £240 of fuel over the last 3 months, and could probably hazard a guess that consumption was similar for the 2 months prior too (warm months, no heating). Based on this, I'd need to consume over £1k of fuel for the other 7 months to make this right. There is no way my consumption will quadruple though.

I wonder if the new direct debit suggestion is based off of an apparent high usage the other morning where it was at £20 by 7am which I believe to be wrong, as it barely budged £4 over the next 48-72 hours.

If I call Scottish Power (will be once onshore as currently away for work) would they be likely to accept a lower monthly direct debit (£585 like all calculations based on last year's use are saying)?

jbuchanangb

You are a very high consumer, and obviously you are trying to get your consumption down, but some quick mathematics using my spreadsheets gave me, using the EPG tariffs for my region:

Gas 44662 kWh and 365 days would cost £4711

Electricity 6911 kWh and 365 days would cost £2468.

Combined cost for 12 months is £7179. You are already £1230 in credit so should pay £5949 over next 12 months. That gives a monthly payment in round numbers, without taking into account the £400 reduction for the Energy Bills Support Scheme, £500. I suggest you get back to Scottish Power with your own version of these calculations and ask them to rethink your monthly amount. If they insist they are right, change your billing method the Variable DD, pay on receipt of bill, but make sure you put  money on one side to pay the very high bills you will get in winter when your credit balance runs out.

[Deleted User]

IslaView said:

Hi again!

I've been contacted by Scottish Power to say they are increasing my direct debit yet again. I was paying £642 a month, but they say they need to increase that to £730 or so. If you see the pic below, I have over £1.2k in credit based on an up to date meter reading (only 1 week before the 3 monthly bill). I have only used on average £240 of fuel over the last 3 months, and could probably hazard a guess that consumption was similar for the 2 months prior too (warm months, no heating). Based on this, I'd need to consume over £1k of fuel for the other 7 months to make this right. There is no way my consumption will quadruple though.

I wonder if the new direct debit suggestion is based off of an apparent high usage the other morning where it was at £20 by 7am which I believe to be wrong, as it barely budged £4 over the next 48-72 hours.

If I call Scottish Power (will be once onshore as currently away for work) would they be likely to accept a lower monthly direct debit (£585 like all calculations based on last year's use are saying)?

They won't be basing anything from one morning's usage.

I would expect this winter to be higher usage than last winter (just from statistics because last winter wasn't very cold in general), so that should mean this year's DD being higher than last year's DD.  That amount of credit should really be enough to deal with a cold snap though, which could negate the need for the higher DD.

You say that there is no way your consumption would quadruple between months without heating and months with heating.  I can't see how you can possibly make that statement.  One of the 'standard' curves used by the industry includes a 6-fold increase from the lowest to the highest gas consumption months.  You will probably need some actual meter readings from last winter to argue a lower usage - not just this offhand comment.  There also needs to be evidence of your efforts to reduce usage coming through in terms of meter readings before a supplier can rely on a change of pattern.

IslaView

[Deleted User] said:

IslaView said:

Hi again!

I've been contacted by Scottish Power to say they are increasing my direct debit yet again. I was paying £642 a month, but they say they need to increase that to £730 or so. If you see the pic below, I have over £1.2k in credit based on an up to date meter reading (only 1 week before the 3 monthly bill). I have only used on average £240 of fuel over the last 3 months, and could probably hazard a guess that consumption was similar for the 2 months prior too (warm months, no heating). Based on this, I'd need to consume over £1k of fuel for the other 7 months to make this right. There is no way my consumption will quadruple though.

I wonder if the new direct debit suggestion is based off of an apparent high usage the other morning where it was at £20 by 7am which I believe to be wrong, as it barely budged £4 over the next 48-72 hours.

If I call Scottish Power (will be once onshore as currently away for work) would they be likely to accept a lower monthly direct debit (£585 like all calculations based on last year's use are saying)?

They won't be basing anything from one morning's usage.

I would expect this winter to be higher usage than last winter (just from statistics because last winter wasn't very cold in general), so that should mean this year's DD being higher than last year's DD.  That amount of credit should really be enough to deal with a cold snap though, which could negate the need for the higher DD.

You say that there is no way your consumption would quadruple between months without heating and months with heating.  I can't see how you can possibly make that statement.  One of the 'standard' curves used by the industry includes a 6-fold increase from the lowest to the highest gas consumption months.  You will probably need some actual meter readings from last winter to argue a lower usage - not just this offhand comment.  There also needs to be evidence of your efforts to reduce usage coming through in terms of meter readings before a supplier can rely on a change of pattern.

While I agree my estimation is simple, I don't believe it is a million miles from the truth.

Baaed on my 5 months at £240, my gas has come in at an average of £80 per month. For arguments sake, we'll just assume all usage is before latest cap, and say 50% increase, meaning £240 for electricity and £120 for gas. Other than 2 electric blankets, we don't own any other electric heaters, so electrical consumption won't differ too much. My remaining 7 months come in at £1080, meaning gas would be roughly £840 of that, a 7 fold increase.

Also worth taking into account that ee've already had the heating on for minimum 6 hours a day over the last 3 weeks or so as the weather has cooled down.

I think I'll likely go with the suggestion that I alter my payment method to pay after receipt of a bill and tuck away what I believe to be sufficient to cover it. 

[Deleted User]

IslaView said:

[Deleted User] said:

IslaView said:

Hi again!

I've been contacted by Scottish Power to say they are increasing my direct debit yet again. I was paying £642 a month, but they say they need to increase that to £730 or so. If you see the pic below, I have over £1.2k in credit based on an up to date meter reading (only 1 week before the 3 monthly bill). I have only used on average £240 of fuel over the last 3 months, and could probably hazard a guess that consumption was similar for the 2 months prior too (warm months, no heating). Based on this, I'd need to consume over £1k of fuel for the other 7 months to make this right. There is no way my consumption will quadruple though.

I wonder if the new direct debit suggestion is based off of an apparent high usage the other morning where it was at £20 by 7am which I believe to be wrong, as it barely budged £4 over the next 48-72 hours.

If I call Scottish Power (will be once onshore as currently away for work) would they be likely to accept a lower monthly direct debit (£585 like all calculations based on last year's use are saying)?

They won't be basing anything from one morning's usage.

I would expect this winter to be higher usage than last winter (just from statistics because last winter wasn't very cold in general), so that should mean this year's DD being higher than last year's DD.  That amount of credit should really be enough to deal with a cold snap though, which could negate the need for the higher DD.

You say that there is no way your consumption would quadruple between months without heating and months with heating.  I can't see how you can possibly make that statement.  One of the 'standard' curves used by the industry includes a 6-fold increase from the lowest to the highest gas consumption months.  You will probably need some actual meter readings from last winter to argue a lower usage - not just this offhand comment.  There also needs to be evidence of your efforts to reduce usage coming through in terms of meter readings before a supplier can rely on a change of pattern.

While I agree my estimation is simple, I don't believe it is a million miles from the truth.

Baaed on my 5 months at £240, my gas has come in at an average of £80 per month. For arguments sake, we'll just assume all usage is before latest cap, and say 50% increase, meaning £240 for electricity and £120 for gas. Other than 2 electric blankets, we don't own any other electric heaters, so electrical consumption won't differ too much. My remaining 7 months come in at £1080, meaning gas would be roughly £840 of that, a 7 fold increase.

Also worth taking into account that ee've already had the heating on for minimum 6 hours a day over the last 3 weeks or so as the weather has cooled down.

I think I'll likely go with the suggestion that I alter my payment method to pay after receipt of a bill and tuck away what I believe to be sufficient to cover it. 

It probably isn't a million miles from the truth as you say.

What tends to happen is the customer errs on the side of low usage and the supplier errs on the side of high usage.  The truth is often between the two numbers.

As long as you're comfortable that you're putting enough away, then moving to variable DD if the supplier offers it (not pay on receipt of bill, because that's up to 10% more expensive) would avoid all the estimations.

IslaView

Once again I'm returning to my thread to ask more questions

I've been monitoring my gas/electricity usage through both my smart meter and the Loop app on my phone.  When I looked this morning, there was basically no information for gas usage for the last week in the Loop app.  A little concerned, I checked my Smart meter.  It says I've only used about £4 of gas this week, and is currently saying I've only used £0.02 this morning despite the heating being on for over an hour now.  To put this in perspective, Loop says I used nearly £12 of gas on one day last week alone.

I've been and checked my meters and added in the newest readings, Electricity was pretty much spot on, but gas was around 30kwh behind.

My question is should I take these readings as gospel?  I'm a little concerned that I'll get over confident that my bills are currently looking not too bad then all of a sudden I'll be hit with another large bill!  Saying that, even with the updated meter reading, I used around £120 of gas/electricity for the previous 8 day period since last reading, meaning I shouldn't surpass the current £640 current direct debit, and definitely not the recommended £730 updated direct debit.

[Deleted User]

IslaView said:

Once again I'm returning to my thread to ask more questions

I've been monitoring my gas/electricity usage through both my smart meter and the Loop app on my phone.  When I looked this morning, there was basically no information for gas usage for the last week in the Loop app.  A little concerned, I checked my Smart meter.  It says I've only used about £4 of gas this week, and is currently saying I've only used £0.02 this morning despite the heating being on for over an hour now.  To put this in perspective, Loop says I used nearly £12 of gas on one day last week alone.

I've been and checked my meters and added in the newest readings, Electricity was pretty much spot on, but gas was around 30kwh behind.

My question is should I take these readings as gospel?  I'm a little concerned that I'll get over confident that my bills are currently looking not too bad then all of a sudden I'll be hit with another large bill!  Saying that, even with the updated meter reading, I used around £120 of gas/electricity for the previous 8 day period since last reading, meaning I shouldn't surpass the current £640 current direct debit, and definitely not the recommended £730 updated direct debit.

The IHD may lag when you look at gas usage and cost. To prolong gas battery life, it only updates once every 30 minutes. The IHD cost may also be inaccurate if the supplier has not sent the correct tariff information to the meters

IHDs and other devices/apps are only advisory. You are billed by your supplier on meter readings that it pulls from your smart meters.

If you are concerned about your gas costs then it is a pretty simple exercise to work out your daily cost. As you have a M3 meter, then multiply the used units by 11.22 to convert to kWh.