Thursday 26th of October 2017 | Posted In: Contracts, Buying energy

ASC excess charges increase in April 2018

From April 2018 changes are coming in from your distributor for Available Supply Capacity (ASC) charges. Anytime you exceed your agreed capacity, your excess will be billed on much higher rates than those you’ve agreed. So it’s time to start thinking about making the necessary changes if you think you may be affected. Before we go into how we can help you, let’s have a quick recap on ASC and how it works.

What is ASC?

ASC is a charge levied by a Distribution Network Operator (DNO) for the amount of electrical capacity reserved for you on half-hourly metered electricity supplies. This will have been set by your DNO either when the meter was installed or when it was upgraded to half-hourly metering; you can usually find your stated ASC level on your bills or contract.

Every month, your DNO will use the half-hourly data your meter collects to work out your maximum demand; this is compared with your ASC to check if this has been exceeded.

How are charges working at the moment?

You are charged for your ASC each month at a fixed rate per kVA.  Currently, if you exceed your agreed ASC, the DNO will charge you for the extra amount at the same rate. For example, at present if you have exceeded your allowance and used 200KVA instead of your allotted 150KVA, your bill would look something like this:

  • Agreed charges: 150kVA x £1.05 = £157.50
  • Excess charges: 50kVA x £1.05 = £52.50

What’s changing and when?

It’s always been a little odd that excess has not carried a premium price - you would normally expect to be ‘penalised’ for exceeding any kind of threshold. However, with our clients benefiting from this situation, we weren’t complaining!

However, all good things come to an end and, from April 2018, this arrangement will cease to exist. We’re still not certain what the penalty rates will be, but we have noticed that some suppliers are already showing excess charge rates on their long term contracts significantly higher than the agreed rates. For example:

  • Agreed charges: 150kVA x £1.05 = £157.50
  • Excess charges: 50kVA x £2.10 = £105.00

How can I avoid these excess charges?

If you’re already using us to negotiate your Half Hourly contracts and have a renewal between now and April, we will be checking your ASC as part of our standard pre-tender checks and contacting you if we think an amendment is needed. If you aren’t using us for a renewal before April and think you need to amend your ASC, we offer a fixed fee service to both analyse your data and arrange the new connection agreement.

If you’d like to talk to somebody about amending your ASC or help negotiating your contract, please contact Jodie on 024 7669 8890 or email [email protected].