Is This Right?

brightondave

My daughter is with SP and has a repayment meter for her flat which is all electric. She sent me the breakdown of her electricity bill for Dec and it showed an Economy 7 day rate of about 45p kwh and a night rate of about 35p per kwh.    I'm with Octopus and have rates of 31p and 7.5p, should her night rate be that extortionate? She did owe them some money in the past.
Thankyou

QrizB

brightondave said:

My daughter is with SP and has a repayment meter for her flat which is all electric. She sent me the breakdown of her electricity bill for Dec and it showed an Economy 7 day rate of about 45p kwh and a night rate of about 35p per kwh.

Those seem a little high. What's her daily standing charge? And the name of her tariff?

brightondave said:

I'm with Octopus and have rates of 31p and 7.5p

Those seem absurdly low for the current market. Are you sure you have E7 not an EV tariff? Is it a legacy fix?

What do you get for "Flexible Octopus" if you enter your postcode here?

https://octopus.energy/tariffs/

And for your daughter's postcode?

brightondave

QrizB said:

brightondave said:

My daughter is with SP and has a repayment meter for her flat which is all electric. She sent me the breakdown of her electricity bill for Dec and it showed an Economy 7 day rate of about 45p kwh and a night rate of about 35p per kwh.

Those seem a little high. What's her daily standing charge? And the name of her tariff?

brightondave said:

I'm with Octopus and have rates of 31p and 7.5p

Those seem absurdly low for the current market. Are you sure you have E7 not an EV tariff? Is it a legacy fix?

What do you get for "Flexible Octopus" if you enter your postcode here?

https://octopus.energy/tariffs/

And for your daughter's postcode?

Mine is Intelligent Octopus Go 
31.21p  & 7.5p between 11.30pm and 5.30am because i have an EV
My daughter would save 10p off the day rate per kwh and halve the night rate to 17.5p with Octopus
Question could she jump ship to them if she owes money hence the PP Meter?

QrizB

brightondave said:

Mine is Intelligent Octopus Go 
31.21p  & 7.5p between 11.30pm and 5.30am because i have an EV

OK, you can't usefully compare that to E7.

brightondave said:

My daughter would save 10p off the day rate per kwh and halve the night rate to 17.5p with Octopus
Question could she jump ship to them if she owes money hence the PP Meter?

Is she definitely a direct customer of Scottish Power and not eg. on a landlord's sub-meter? What is the name of her tariff?

brightondave

She is on a prepayment with SP, she has a private landlord. Not sure what its called. Her graphs on the account show about 20kw usage today and 173kw used so far this month. 
Didn't know if they've bumped her night rate up because she owes them money but 34p kwh sounds excessive?

QrizB

Usually, I think they'd charge a fixed amount per day to recover arrears. Not increase the unit price.

Do we have any prepayment experts reading this who can confirm or deny this?

The name of the tariff could be very useful, it might give some insight into what's going on.

Gerry1

The rate (kWh, not kW) wouldn't be increased, but the meter might have debt on it.

https://www.edfenergy.com/help-support/faq/understanding-screens-your-electricity-prepayment-meter-not-smart?steps=23147-24075-25351-25329-25325#node-25310

Scot_39

brightondave said:

My daughter is with SP and has a repayment meter for her flat which is all electric. She sent me the breakdown of her electricity bill for Dec and it showed an Economy 7 day rate of about 45p kwh and a night rate of about 35p per kwh.    I'm with Octopus and have rates of 31p and 7.5p, should her night rate be that extortionate? She did owe them some money in the past.
Thankyou

Prepayment kWh rates are currently slightly cheaper on single rate than direct debit.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-price-guarantee-regional-rates/energy-price-guarantee-prepayment-meters-regional-rates-and-standing-charges-january-to-march-2024



I would have to check Ofgem multirate average total tables - but as SR electric prepay rates around c28p/kWh average, would be amazed if both night and day rates over 30p.

35p vs 45p seems very high.

14-16 / 35-37 p would be a more typical e7 split at other suppliers on e7 - including Octopus in many regions.

If a direct customer of SP suspect there's possibly something wrong at those rates.

At c42% night split - the Ofgem basis for e7 - that 35/45 works out c41p about 13p more expensive than average prepay SR.

A recent poster with a prepayment meter indicated their meter deducts a fixed daily amount as part of the formal debt agreement. It's even visible as a number on their smart prepayment meter display.
But not sure how it would be specified on their statements.

But other suppliers may do other ways - but logically lumping it on kWh rates would seem cruel - as would demand higher repayment rate just when energy demand highest - when such customers likely to be struggling most.

Suspect she realky needs to query the bill with SP or with landlord or their agency if not a direct customer.

It's possible she's on some sort of heat network or commercial rates.

Or even again a special legacy  tariff contract

So check the exact supplier name and tariff name.

Scottish Power have several other multirate tariffs 

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/energy-efficiency/energy-efficiency-toolkit/electric-heating

But again would largely still expect one rate to be lower and one higher than Ofgem SR numbers.

brightondave

Sorry, just been sent the tariff type etc
Its a standard tariff with a split of 35.301p day and a night rate of 17.653p per kwh and a SC of 49.75p (sorry my mistake earlier was looking at their charts on their website, a bit misleading).
So a standard tariff, is there now a cheaper rate than that for people on a PPM?
Thankyou for your input guys.

MattMattMattUK

brightondave said:

Sorry, just been sent the tariff type etc
Its a standard tariff with a split of 35.301p day and a night rate of 17.653p per kwh and a SC of 49.75p (sorry my mistake earlier was looking at their charts on their website, a bit misleading).
So a standard tariff, is there now a cheaper rate than that for people on a PPM?
Thankyou for your input guys.

Do you know the split of her usage, how much is on peak and how much is on off peak? There probably is not at the moment, but it does depend on the region she is in as the tariffs vary by region. 

Scot_39

brightondave said:

Sorry, just been sent the tariff type etc
Its a standard tariff with a split of 35.301p day and a night rate of 17.653p per kwh and a SC of 49.75p (sorry my mistake earlier was looking at their charts on their website, a bit misleading).
So a standard tariff, is there now a cheaper rate than that for people on a PPM?
Thankyou for your input guys.

Sounds much more normal - and if she has a prepay meter - those will be prepay rate versions on her bills.

For SR the gov uk link above suggests rates a little cheaper but SC a little more expensive. the 49.75p SC pretty close to Southern if ex vat or South East if ex vat in that gov uk SR link

With debt iirc from other posts she may not be able to switch until cleared - can anyone confirm the actual rules for OP ?

But if and when she manages to clear that debt if needed - it might be worth looking at the annual day / night use split - and the see saw balance of day and night rates offered across suppliers in a given region.

The in region variation across suppliers can be several pence - on E7s off peak / peak rate balance.

One poster tabled the result of their quotes recently - as his supplier had withdrawn sub 10p night rates (EDF EM Only - a national outlier) about 5p difference on off peak rates from cheapest c12p to expensive c17p - iirc. (Obviously the see saw around Ofgem cap would then make the day rates coreesponding more expnsive for cheapest night rates).  But that range makes a difference when like them - they were very high off peak percentage users.

Oops c5p right but was 11.2 to 16.4p - see

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80472751/#Comment_80472751