ESB low user standing charge

Ronin247

ESB are introducing a "low user standing charge" which is E9.45 per two months( E56.70 pa).Apparently this is to make up for the money they are not making off your account if you dont use more than 2 kwh per day.
I have a couple of questions on this,
Are Bord Gais and Airtricity doing this?
Is it fair/legal as it is a standing charge which should not be based on usage?

It costs the same to run the cabling/maintain the lines for an empty house as an occupied house and this just seems to be a new way of screwing the captive consumers.While I realise that 2kwh/day is small and will not affect me, I think it shows where this de-regulated market will go with tarriff plans so complicated the consumer will be bamboozled.

wmpdd3

My standing charge is over €14 per month, I didnt know you could have a lover one. Why cant i have it?

foggy_lad

Seems like a good idea to me, the standing charge does not cover all the cost of providing the electricity and meter reading etc but when people use lots of electricity they get a reduced rate and not those who don't use a lot will have to pay a bit more.

http://www.esb.ie/esbcustomersupply/residential/price-plans/low-user-standing-charge.jsp#ex-q9

Some information on it here.

foggy_lad

wmpdd3 wrote: »

My standing charge is over €14 per month, I didnt know you could have a lover one. Why cant i have it?

It will be increased by up to €9.45 every 2months.

wmpdd3

double post

jor el

wmpdd3 wrote: »

My standing charge is over €14 per month, I didnt know you could have a lover one. Why cant i have it?

The standing charge is 32.83c per day for urban, and 43.78c per day for rural, this works out at €19.70 per 2 months for urban and €26.27 per 2 months for rural. If you are on a night saver plan then it's higher at 45.08c for urban and 57.07c for rural, both per day. There is no lower charge than that.

The new low-user standing charge will increase the standard charge by 15.5c per day, it is not a charge of 15.5c per day. Everyone still pays the charges I listed above.
https://www.esb.ie/esbcustomersupply/residential/price-plans/low-user-standing-charge.jsp

wmpdd3

Sounds like it will affect holiday homes etc...

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Sounds like it will affect holiday homes etc...

And rightly so. The cost of maintaining an infrastructure for someone who hardly uses the end product justifies any additional charge for low users.

Ronin247

Derrick Crashing Ferry wrote: »

And rightly so. The cost of maintaining an infrastructure for someone who hardly uses the end product justifies any additional charge for low users.

People who have holiday homes paid for the original connection,it costs the same(if not less due to lower useage) to maintain it.Why should owners pay more.
Standing charge is for meter readings/maintainance so why base it on useage.Just another stealth charge in Rip Off Ireland.

It would be akin to charging low mileage car drivers extra because they do not use enough fuel to generate tax revenue to maintain roads.

wmpdd3

Eircom charge the same for a phone line if you never use it.

Cabaal

Ronin247 wrote: »

Is it fair/legal as it is a standing charge which should not be based on usage?

Yes, think of it as line rental. Just look at Eircom....25e even if you don't use it

It would be akin to charging low mileage car drivers extra because they do not use enough fuel to generate tax revenue to maintain roads.

Or everyone paying motortax regardless of how many miles they drive in a year, actually hang on we do that

keithclancy

Cabaal wrote: »

Or everyone paying motortax regardless of how many miles they drive in a year, actually hang on we do that

Cars aren't really comparable to a Managed Service.

Everyone pays for the roads, Motor tax and Duty+VAT on Fuel is only part of the contribution.

That stuff you buy in Tesco wouldnt be there if there wasn't a road to drive it there in the first place

Cabaal

keithclancy wrote: »

Cars aren't really comparable to a Managed Service.

Everyone pays for the roads, Motor tax and Duty+VAT on Fuel is only part of the contribution.

That stuff you buy in Tesco wouldnt be there if there wasn't a road to drive it there in the first place

Fair enough,
Phone line rental is a perfectly good comparable charge though

Ronin247

Cabaal wrote: »

Yes, think of it as line rental. Just look at Eircom....25e even if you don't use it

That is the ESB standing charge which you pay if you have a supply,why should people have to pay extra if they dont use the supply?

Or everyone paying motortax regardless of how many miles they drive in a year, actually hang on we do that

We pay motor tax(standing charge) and we pay for petrol(useage).If the government decided they would double your motor tax if you didnt drive enough miles for them to make a profit off your petrol useage, then that would be the same thing.

Original question,does anyone know if Airtricity or Bord Gais are doing this?

Mollywolly

ESB kept this one under the radar didn't they?

I love the way they say this on their site:

"The charge is being introduced to enable Electric Ireland recover the costs associated with providing electricity to customers with very low consumption. These costs include a combination of the fixed charges associated with meter reading, network maintenance and a share of the supply costs incurred in servicing electricity accounts and are normally recovered through a combination of electricity units and standing charges. However, in situations where there is very low electricity usage as in the case of a vacant premises, these costs are not recovered fully. This charge will allow Electric Ireland to recover its costs in such circumstances."

We inherited a house down country and I don't think I've ever seen a meter reader at the house, nor have we ever gone down and there's been a card through the door saying that they came.

The only time ESB ever set foot on our property was just before Christmas, when they butchered a tree to accommodate the line that was passing above it. Never asked permission, nothing. The first we knew about it was when we went down and saw the state of the tree with all the hacked off branches lying around it - they couldn't even be ar**d taking it away! So if that's their idea of "network maintenance" then its pretty poor.

With all the other taxes introduced lately - NPPR, Household Charge, (maybe even a Septic tank charge?) - it won't be long before the cottage is on the market! (Send me a pm if you would be interested in taking it off my hands)

Jesus Shaves

Cabaal wrote: »

Fair enough,
Phone line rental is a perfectly good comparable charge though

Not really, why would you have a connected phone line if you don't use it

Cabaal

darokane wrote: »

Not really, why would you have a connected phone line if you don't use it

Why would you have connected electricity if you don't use it?
:rolleyes:

Jesus Shaves

Cabaal wrote: »

Why would you have connected electricity if you don't use it?
:rolleyes:

In fairness, that's completely different, holiday homes and properties you're trying to let would need a connected electricity supply and not a phoneline if you're not using it

Beaver1

So if you change to bord Gais do you still have to pay this low usage charge.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Beaver1 wrote: »

So if you change to bord Gais do you still have to pay this low usage charge.

Airtricity and BGE have also made changes to their Standing Charges in recent weeks. All suppliers have to re-coup the costs associated with maintaning a service to a premises regardless of the electricity consumption. Much more appropriate that the lower user pays for maintaining their services than the rest of society doing so for them. You would really have to take a close look at all the tarrifs to see which suited your own circumstances best.

wazzoraybelle

Derrick Crashing Ferry wrote: »

Airtricity and BGE have also made changes to their Standing Charges in recent weeks. All suppliers have to re-coup the costs associated with maintaning a service to a premises regardless of the electricity consumption. Much more appropriate that the lower user pays for maintaining their services than the rest of society doing so for them. You would really have to take a close look at all the tarrifs to see which suited your own circumstances best.

Bord Gais have not made any change to their standing charge recently as far as I can tell.

I switched over because of this charge which was going to cost me an extra 170 euro per annum, by switching , which I did reluctantly, I am saving myself 250 euro per annum.

None of my meters are from vacant dwellings, I have meters in a workshop, wellhouse and garage as well as my own house, and I'm sure a significant amount of other people have a similar set up.

EI expect that 100 000 accounts will attract this charge, thats an extra 6 million profit for an already profitable company.

Standing charges have always been for infrastructure maintanence which is the business of ESB networks not EI.

While these accounts may not have been profitable for them, the account holder must have had another account where they reside, like in my case, that is profitable. The smart people will and should switch.

booboo88

Ronin247 wrote: »

People who have holiday homes paid for the original connection,it costs the same(if not less due to lower useage) to maintain it.Why should owners pay more.
Standing charge is for meter readings/maintainance so why base it on useage.Just another stealth charge in Rip Off Ireland.

It would be akin to charging low mileage car drivers extra because they do not use enough fuel to generate tax revenue to maintain roads.

then surely they have their choice in which supplier they go with? So no its not a stealth charge

Beaver1 wrote: »

So if you change to bord Gais do you still have to pay this low usage charge.

No its just with electric ireland.