Gas standing charge

TomCanty

I realise that there have been many posts about standing charges over the years but can anyone help me with my specific case ?

Several years ago the roads outside my property were dug up to enable the renewal of gas-pipes. Following this , an engineer from the company that had been working there entered my home to check my gas appliances; I was using just one, a cooker which he said was faulty and capped-off my gas supply. I did not re-instate the gas supply , deciding to use electric instead, and I informed (with some difficulty ! ) my energy supplier (edf) that I was no longer using gas in my home.

I've been told that the standing charge that edf keeps making for gas shouldn't apply to me as I no longer have access to a gas-supply without making a choice to have it re-connected. Is this correct ? Grateful for any help offered.

ArbitraryRandom

I think to actually be 'disconnected' your meter has to be more than capped off - they come and actually remove the meter (at your cost). 

With it just being capped, any plumber could come and test your cooker and uncap without them being notified. 

QrizB

Do you still have a meter? If so, you still have a supply and are liable for the standing charge.

CSI_Yorkshire

QrizB said:

Do you still have a meter? If so, you still have a supply and are liable for the standing charge.

But strangely, a strict reading of the documents could suggest that a new occupant would not be.

TomCanty

Thanks for these replies. Looks like I'll just have to keep forking - out for something I never use...a bit like buying the TV licence when I never watch BBC !

ArbitraryRandom

Or you could contact your Local Network Operator and get your meter removed - Last I read it costs around £400 (but that was a while back) so I think that's a payback period of around 4 years. 

Depending on how long you intend to live at the property and if you're sure you're not going to want gas in the future, then it seems a sensible thing to investigate. 

You can find your LNO here: https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator 

powerful_Rogue

TomCanty said:

Thanks for these replies. Looks like I'll just have to keep forking - out for something I never use...a bit like buying the TV licence when I never watch BBC !

Off topic - The TV licence doesn't just fund the BBC. If you watch everything on catch up (except iPlayer) then you do not need a TV Licence.

Licence free since 2017

Mstty

Switch to Octopus they will disconnect your gas for free.

la531983

Mstty said:

Switch to Octopus they will disconnect your gas for free.

This seems odd if true. Why would a company accept you as a gas customer and then immediately agree to get you off the gas network for no charge at all? 

QrizB

la531983 said:

Mstty said:

Switch to Octopus they will disconnect your gas for free.

This seems odd if true. Why would a company accept you as a gas customer and then immediately agree to get you off the gas network for no charge at all? 

It's their philosophy.

Octopus see their role as being to lead the transition to a zero-carbon energy network. Removing gas connections meets that goal.

la531983

QrizB said:

la531983 said:

Mstty said:

Switch to Octopus they will disconnect your gas for free.

This seems odd if true. Why would a company accept you as a gas customer and then immediately agree to get you off the gas network for no charge at all? 

It's their philosophyOctopus see their role as being to lead the transition to a zero-carbon energy network. Removing gas connections meets that goal.

Fair enough, seems bizarre to me given its not a cheap procedure, and that just under 40% of the electric they sold in the last year is technically generated by fossil fuels, no matter how they spin that one.