As of 1st April 2018 a new legislation called DCP161 will come in to force across the UK. This new legislation, regulated by OFGEM, ensures any Half Hourly (HH) meter is billed fairly and correctly for their available capacity (kVA).
kVA is the unit used to track and monitor the volume of power to your site. Each HH meter across the UK has an agreed kVA level with their local distribution network and is charged on p or £ per kVA – this rate is agreed within your supply contract for that meter. Currently there is no penalty for exceeding the agreed level of kVA and any kVA used over the agreed figure is charged at the same contracted price.
There are however many meters across the UK which are consistently pulling in excess of their agreed kVA which puts an unexpected stress on the electricity network. This can cause the need for additional repair works and upkeep to the networks, therefore resulting in increased standing charges for all billpayers in order to fund these repairs.
The new legislation, named DCP161, works to locate any meter pulling in excess of their agreed kVA and then charging any additional kVA at an increased rate. These increased rates have not yet been released by each local distributor but industry experts believe these charges could be anything from 40-180% above contracted capacity charges.
Due to this new legislation, we be offering a full review on every HH meter within your business to ensure the demand on each meter is well within the current agreed kVA level and you are not at risk of being charged these inflated costs.
We will be reviewing the meters’ past 12 months consumption data and running a comparison report against the agreed kVA level. This will then be presented to you including any recommendations for changing the agreed kVA level, if applicable. If you are aware of any expected changes to consumption at any of your sites, please do let me know so that we can include these changes in our review.