Use Less Pay More.

[jambutty]

A few days ago I received my energy bill (Gas & Electric) from Powergen based on their estimate of the meter readings. Of course they were wrong to their advantage, as usual, but then with the prices coming down after the 30th April that was to be expected.

Ordinarily if their estimate is pretty close to reality I don’t bother phoning in the true meter readings, comfortable in the knowledge that as prices have been rising I would be paying for energy about to be used at a lower price. But this was different in that Powergen’s energy prices are due to come down by more than 10%.

I rang Powergen (free phone) gave the meter readings that I had taken myself 10 minutes before and sat back waiting for the new bill. It arrived this morning and believe it or not I am being charged more for using less electricity.

The original bill showed that I had used 670 kWh at a cost of £82.49. The new bill based on my readings (which were accurate) showed that I had used 663 kWh at a cost of £82.74. I kid you not!

My enquiries revealed why. There are currently two rates – 17.16p per kWh and 9.48p per kWh. It works like this. The first 900 kWh used in a year are charged at the higher rate and the remainder at the lower rate. This breaks down to 2.465753425p per day, multiplied by the number of days in the quarter (105 in my case) = 258.9041096 kWh (259kWh). The original bill only covered 99 days so there was less energy used at the higher price during those days.

There is a similar scheme for gas where the first 4572 kWh per year is charged at the higher rate of 3.559p per kWh and the lower rate of 2.83p per kWh. In the case of gas you have to manipulate the meter reading differential between what was and what is to arrive at a kWh figure. The meter measures cubic metres of gas used so you have to multiply them by the conversion factor of 1.02264. Then you multiply the result by the calorific value of 39.488 or whatever the current value is. The calorific value can change from day to day. My original bill had a calorific value of 39.488 but the new bill showed 39.46038. Then finally you dived the result by 3.6 to arrive at kWh for gas. So a meter reading differential of 442 ends up as 4955 kWh.

This two tier charging system will penalise people whose usage is small, like during the spring, summer and autumn months. Using my situation as an example the 4572 kWh high rate level will use up about 1,300 kWh during the winter quarter leaving 3272 for the remainder of the year or 1,090 kWh per quarter. I use a lot less than that per quarter for the remainder of the year so I never get to the lower rate.

Surely in this day of saving energy shouldn’t the two rates be changed around? The more you use the more you pay. That would encourage people to be more energy conscious.