Half hourly meter, huge standing charge

Beckyp1976

Hi.  We run a very small business which is in a premises with a half hourly meter installed.  Electricity usage is very low (approx 1300 KWH pa) but the standing charge is £12 per day.  I can't get it lower than £11 per day.  We can have the meter removed for £1500 but this invloves us digging up the road and resurfacing after.  Does anyone have any experience of similar?  Is it possible just to have the electricity cut off and start again with a new provider, requesting a standard meter?

Keep_pedalling

It is nothing to do with the type of meter, it is because you are on a commercial contract which tend to have very high standing charges. Maybe you could go off grid with solar panels and batteries. 

Beckyp1976

I have been told by all the electricity suppliers and brokers that the high standing charge is due to it being a half hourly meter.  If the meter were changed to a standard one (on a commercial rate) the standing charge could be just 40pence per day.

MultiFuelBurner

Keep_pedalling said:

It is nothing to do with the type of meter, it is because you are on a commercial contract which tend to have very high standing charges. Maybe you could go off grid with solar panels and batteries. 

You are wrong half hourly meters are intended for businesses with big power usage 100kwh per 30 mins so don't mix them up with domestic smart meters

https://www.exchangeutility.co.uk/guides/half-hourly-meters-explained/

MultiFuelBurner

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/moving-half-hourly-energy-reads-bsc-p272-and-p322-guide-businesses

I don't think you can downgrade them once they are business half hourly meters all you can do is search for a better deal for SC and kwh prices.

Robin9

@MultiFuelBurner I use less than 800 kWh a month and have 30 min reading for my commercial supply

100 kWh in 30 mins is  more suitable to large business when then CT (Current Transformer) might be installed

@Beckyp1976 Ring around the big suppliers -  my daily standing charge is £3

When does your contract run out ?

ArbitraryRandom

The other option would be to consider when your lease is up and moving premises to somewhere with lower overheads (assuming you don't actually need the extremely high power capacity?)

daveyjp

If this is a commercial meter you may also be paying a figure based on the capacity of the supply.  

What kVa is the supply to the property?  There are legacy installations in some properties which are into hundreds kVa, but the use of the building has changed and it has never been reviewed.

MattMattMattUK

daveyjp said:

If this is a commercial meter you may also be paying a figure based on the capacity of the supply.  

What kVa is the supply to the property?  There are legacy installations in some properties which are into hundreds kVa, but the use of the building has changed and it has never been reviewed.

This is what I suspect, something previously had a huge power draw, now the current occupants are paying for the high capacity connection.

I am not sure if the supplier would be able to downgrade it by replacing a meter and/or fusing, I imagine it might be load balanced across all three phases to cope with capacity, which might be why a simple downgrade is not possible.

Keep_pedalling

MultiFuelBurner said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It is nothing to do with the type of meter, it is because you are on a commercial contract which tend to have very high standing charges. Maybe you could go off grid with solar panels and batteries. 

You are wrong half hourly meters are intended for businesses with big power usage 100kwh per 30 mins so don't mix them up with domestic smart meters

https://www.exchangeutility.co.uk/guides/half-hourly-meters-explained/

I stand corrected, apologies.

MultiFuelBurner

Keep_pedalling said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It is nothing to do with the type of meter, it is because you are on a commercial contract which tend to have very high standing charges. Maybe you could go off grid with solar panels and batteries. 

You are wrong half hourly meters are intended for businesses with big power usage 100kwh per 30 mins so don't mix them up with domestic smart meters

https://www.exchangeutility.co.uk/guides/half-hourly-meters-explained/

I stand corrected, apologies.

I was a bit harsh I blame the cold lol