The total cost of your electricity is the combination of the wholesale price plus a range of non-energy costs or recharges, no matter who your supplier is. From last year to this, we’ve seen significant variance in these charges.
Your location, which meter type & size you have and your usage or pattern of power use have all affected whether the unit rates and standing charges in your new AF electricity contract have increased, decreased or are similar to your previous contract.
We explain the key elements which contribute to the final costs for your electricity bill and why they may differ between sites.
We bought wholesale electricity for your new AF electricity contract for 2 p/kWh lower than your previous contract (ended 31st March ’25).
We achieved this by buying, when market conditions were favourable, on several occasions between August ’24 and January ’25.
Whether your charges are up or down largely depends on your local Distribution Network Operator (DNO) and type and size of your electricity supply.
These cover DNO’s cost of maintaining and upgrading electricity network infrastructure. They are passed to your supplier to recover from you, the energy bill payer.
These represent the largest percentage increases from previous contract rates. This is due to the large increase agreed for (TNUoS) transmission costs to send electricity through the national and regional grid network.
Like for like increase of between 40% - 90% with even higher increase of between 120%-240% if your supply is moved up a band to a higher cost level.
This year sees the introduction of a new levy – RAB Levy and increased higher than inflation for a number of these various costs.
These charges are passed by DNO to suppliers to recover from you, the energy bill payer.
Costs of supporting large scale renewable projects and ensuring there is sufficient renewables generation capacity are passed on to you, the energy bill payer, and increase each year.
We anticipate these will continue to rise in coming years.
Apply only to Half Hourly supplies (where you have a chargeable agreed capacity in place with your network provider).
We’re seeing significant increases above inflation on so we recommend you check you’ve sufficient capacity agreed to meet your usual peak demand plus seasonal high’s if you have them so you can draw this amount of power from the grid when needed.
If you have questions or queries about your new AF electricity contract, get in touch with you AF Utilities team. We’re here to help.
