Electricity prices for schools
School electricity prices are determined by a range of factors. For a start, the wholesale price of electricity accounts for about 50% of your electricity costs. The rest is mainly network charges and government tax and levies. And sometimes high fees charged by brokers, framework and energy basket providers.
Unlike other brokers and basket providers, we are completely transparent and clear in our charges, and will let you know what they are up front.
We are also available for the entire length of the contract, should you ever have any questions.
We have seen many instances where even contracts arranged through national agencies are costing schools thousands of pounds in hidden fees.
Wholesale prices can vary according to region, time of year and a host of events that affect supply and demand.
Prices for Half Hourly electricity meters
The MOP pricing scandal
The main electricity meter at your school might be a Half Hourly meter. In this case a specialist meter operator (MOP) will collect the data remotely and send it to your electricity supplier. This is an additional charge on your bill. Although, if you haven’t appointed your own MOP, then your school electricity supplier will have appointed their own and will be charging this one of two ways:
- Building it into your standing charge (along with a hefty mark-up). You have no way of knowing how much they are charging you, and it is likely to be considerably higher than a separate MOP contract.
- Billing it separately on your electricity bill as ‘Meter rental’, ‘MOP charge’, ‘DC charge’, or similar. This can be £40 – £80 per month, or £480 – £960 per year. What should it be? Less than £200 per year.
You probably haven’t even been given access to your own data. The whole point of Half Hourly metering is that the user can see their data and analyse it to reduce electricity consumption.
Again, this is another area where we can save your school money. We can arrange a better MOP contract, and one that gives you day +1 access to your electricity consumption. Viewable in a graph format.
Capacity charges for Half Hourly meters
Some Half Hourly meters will have an additional cost called Capacity charges. These are charges made by the network to make enough power available to your meter for your school needs. Capacity (also known as availability) charges are measured in kVA.
Another area we can potentially save your school money, it is important to check the kVA isn’t set too high or too low. A kVA that is too high will cost your school money. But a kVA set too low will also cost money in the form of Excess Capacity charges. Basically, if you use more power than allocated by the network, the supplier is fined. They will pass this onto you in the form of Excess Capacity charges, which you may see on your bill.
It is therefore important to have your kVA set within the correct parameters.
Fully fixed and Pass-through electricity prices
Depending on the volume of electricity used, a pass-through electricity contract could be an option for your school. While not necessarily better, they should be looked at alongside fully fixed prices.
Pass-through contracts remove all the network charges and government levies and taxes from the price per kWh, and pass these on at cost on your electricity bill. These can go up or down during a contract, while the electricity price remains fixed. In this instance, you may have day electricity prices of 7p or 8p per kWh, and night electricity prices of 5p or 6p per kWh (the exact price being dependent on many factors).
We can advise which option is best for your school given the prevailing market conditions at the time.
Have you considered green electricity for your school?
When we talk to schools about green electricity, they (understandably) think it will be too costly, especially when they are trying to reduce costs. This isn’t necessarily the case, however.
Several major energy companies have given us access to their green prices (alongside our ‘green only’ energy suppliers). They don’t generally advertise these to customers, and the ‘green premium’ isn’t actually as high as it once was.
In many cases, there is very little difference between 100% green electricity prices and standard prices. We can easily price both options for you.
When prices are rising, confirm your school energy prices early
Thanks to the relationships we have built with over 20 energy companies, they let us confirm electricity prices for schools a long time in advance. This can be a year ahead of the start date for example.
This flexibility really helps your school electricity prices. And when we say increasing, prices have risen pretty much every month during this period.
Please note, the new prices agreed only apply once the current contract ends, and the new contract starts.
This approach isn’t for everyone of course, you may not feel comfortable committing to prices so far in advance. In which case, our portfolio of over 20 electricity suppliers will ensure you have a competitive price, at the time you decide to proceed.