Why are Octopus increasing their standing charge by almost 10%?

swiftyswallow

Just received a big email from Octopus about how electricity Energy prices will be dropping in April following Octopus championing against some govt levies etc and how much I'm going to be saving on my electricity bill, overall £98.89 a year on an electricity bill of £1777 - so -5.5%…but at the same time they are increasing the daily standing charge by 9%! - wow!

Is there really justification for increasing the daily standard charge which in itself should be abolished anyway IMO. I like Octopus but there is only a footnote that refers to increased network costs to explain the increase, but is very much below the radar.

masonic

It is very much a regional thing. You'll see the changes reflected in the price cap changes. I believe in a few regions the standing charge has come down, so it is and has always been a bit of a postcode lottery. What tariff are you on?

MyRealNameToo

But what ratio of your bill is usage and what percentage is standing charge? Without factoring that in the relative movements of the components is misleading. For the average customer their bills are coming down because whilst the standing charge is going up faster than the units is coming down units make up the majority of the bill so more than offsets it.

What standing charge is for and why it exists has been done to death on here so no point reigniting those arguments. In my mind the cost of a pylon and sub station is the same no matter how many units I use so dont see why I should pay more or less to its upkeep depending on if I use more or less electricity.

born_again

IOG - Northern Power Grid

My S/C is 57.159p going up to 61.740p

Peak 27.879p going down to 26.084p

Off peak 7.000p going down to 5.200p

UnsureAboutthis

If you are not hapy, move to another provider.

Netexporter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81935705#Comment_81935705

But remember they'll be subject to the same distribution charges.

matelodave

I'd far rather the increase be put onto standing charges and the reduction put onto the unit rate.

Five pence added to the daily s/c will only cost me £18.25 a year, whereas just one penny reduction in the unit rate saves me a whopping £75. A 3p reduction is worth £225

Netexporter

I think the standing charge should be "nationalised". I know different regions cost more to run, if there is predominantly overhead distribution, but people can't always choose where they live. Somebody in relatively wealthy London pays half the SC that I do, for the same tariff, in poverty stricken Wales (deploys violin)

I wouldn't want to live in ThatLondon, though

paradigital

For balance in Cheshire my standing charge with Octopus is dropping almost 9.5%.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81935816#Comment_81935816

But transmission is still the old regional firms and isnt nationalised, the reforms required the old firms to put Chinese walls between generation, transmission and distribution to allow new entrants/out of region players to compete on the final stage without having to rewire homes etc or the former regional firm having an unfair advantage.

Dont have issues with regional differences, it's no different than any other element… live in central London and you'll be paying £7 a pint but your electricity standing charge will be ok, water and waste will be mains. Live in the middle of nowhere may cost you a bit to get to a pub but a pint will be £4 and your electricity distribution more likely higher but fairly likely to be on private water and septic tank. It's all swings and roundabouts.

HillStreetBlues

Octopus champions taking some levies off SC, Gov takes some levies off SC, Octopus then increase SC, you couldn't make it up!