The way network charges are structured has constantly evolved over the last few years. The introduction of higher excess capacity charges and retooling of time bands for half hourly meters have had big impacts on network charges. This in combination with the changes to the residual charges structure for transmission and distribution (to be introduced in 2022 as part of the targeted charging review) will only increase this.
A change that has not attracted as much attention is DCP 268. This change is being introduced from 1st April 2021 and will see the introduction of time bandings to non-half hourly (NHH) and unmetered supplies. The change forms part of Ofgem’s plan to eventually move all supplies over to half hourly (HH) measurements and will mean that NHH profile classes 03 and 04 will have red, amber and green distribution charges on their invoices and unmetered supplies will have yellow and black and green bandings added.
As NHH meters do not provide the level of data granularity to accurately measure this consumption, the distribution network operators will be using estimated profile data to calculate the time banding consumptions. Users with HH, AMR and Smart meters will be able to be charged on actual data. Ofgem believe this will more accurately reflect the costs of using the network and prepare users for eventually moving completely to half hourly billing. It is estimated currently that users will see on average around a 2% increase in their distribution costs, but this will vary between distribution areas with some users, in the south of England expect to see significantly larger increases.
For more information on how the changes could affect your business please contact your LGE account manager or email info@lgegroup.com