Do you have to be on the electricity grid customer?

nappy501

I'm in the midst of other energy research at the moment, when this thought came to me.  I am a customer of the electricity company, but do I have to be?  If I can provide all my electrical needs, can I tell them to disconnect the service?  If it is possible, could I just have an electricity supply for 3 months?  Is there anything to say you have to have it longer?  
I wonder what would be the effect on the electricity companies if all the low users did this?

TheMilkmansDad

nappy501 said:

I'm in the midst of other energy research at the moment, when this thought came to me. 

I am a customer of the electricity company, but do I have to be? No

  If I can provide all my electrical needs, can I tell them to disconnect the service? Yes, will cost though to have the meter removed

 If it is possible, could I just have an electricity supply for 3 months? Yes, but you'd need to pay to have the meter installed (and then removed again)

 Is there anything to say you have to have it longer?  Have what longer?
I wonder what would be the effect on the electricity companies if all the low users did this? Nothing, customer would be down quite a lot due to the meter issue.

See notes above, stand to be corrected.

Robin9

There are a good many properties which have bever been connected to the grid.  Mostly because of the cost of the infrastructure.

singhini

Here's an article about living off grid if its of any interest to you Living off grid | FMB
i speed read it and think it suggests disconnecting from the grid costs between £500-£1,000

With the new unit only tariffs potentially coming into play in the coming months, you might want to stay on grid but reduce/stop using electricity and walk around the house with jacket, hat & gloves on 🤣 😂 🤣 😂 

Note to myself -----> why the emoji's?????   ----->  This is something i should do to actually see if i can reduce my own bills -----> no guess work, just hard facts -----> and if it doesn't work out then go back to a regular tariff with unit charges & standing charge
EDIT: i am a low unit user so perhaps avoiding standing charges is worth looking into

born_again

So to come off the grid, you need to supply your own electric.
Which would be solar & batteries for most. Maybe wind as well.
If you were lucky to live with a river in the garden, then you could install water wheel or a Archimedes screw system.
Or a generator.
Then you can get meter disconnected.

None of which are going to be cheap options.

Scot_39

In a milder winter - its possible to get by with only 3-4 months heating.

But the punitive costs of disconnect and reconnect would likely dwarf the ave c£200 all electric SC for 9 months of the year.  It cost my uncle over £100 7 years ago to get Ovo to remove one of 2 meters - when rewiring house away from multirate for old NSH - with no supply disconnection / re connection.

And you might not need to wait for the new raft of low / zero SC offerings from Jan ?? - if genuinely interested

As AFAIK Utilita still do zero SC prepay electric - I know they cancelled the credit meter version.

From their webiste - the little note 2 still says yes

https://utilita.co.uk/campaigns/easy-for-you

"2 Our tariffs without a standing charge are only available to Pay As You Go customers.

Spoonie_Turtle

I had a quick look to see if there was any relevant context in your other threads or comments (such as if you were already a very low user or had lots of battery storage) and I notice you recently said you were planning to move in the next couple of years.  There's no way you'd be able to sell a house for a reasonable price without a mains connection, so you'd either have to pay again to have it reconnected, or just grit your teeth and pay the standing charge which is orders of magnitude cheaper than disconnection and reconnection.

nappy501

What actually happens when your electricity supply is terminated due to non payment?  Do they take out the meter?  I didn't think so, but I don't seem to beable to find anything about it on the internet.

MattMattMattUK

nappy501 said:

What actually happens when your electricity supply is terminated due to non payment?  Do they take out the meter?  I didn't think so, but I don't seem to beable to find anything about it on the internet.

Cut off and sealed, then meter and cabling back to the street removed either at the same time or a few months later, £1,500-5,000 to reinstate depending on the layout.

Qyburn

I've seen informal reports of (a) simply removing the meter (b) removing main fuse as well, and (c) disconnection underground like this lady ..

https://www.gofundme.com/f/fighting-greedy-energy-companies

mac.d

That's an interesting reason for not paying your energy bills! 

"I stopped all payment until they could prove to me that they provide energy….they could not.

Energy companies do not provide energy they are brokers licensed by the government.

This culminated in my being a victim of state sponsored crime, my gas and electric were disconnected from the grid without prior warning."

So does that mean they eventually did prove to her that they do Indeed provide energy? 😂