Whenever you receive an energy bill, whether that is by post or via email, it may be tempting to put this to one side and ignore it. However, it is incredibly important to read your business energy bills when you receive them. This will help you to understand your energy usage and how your energy supplier has calculated your costs.  Our quick guide provides all the details you need to decipher your business energy bill and use this to your advantage.  How to break down your bill  Receiving a letter with numbers across the page, graphs and more, can make understanding your energy bill confusing. But, it doesn’t have to be. Being able to break down each section of your bill will simplify the information you have been provided. Bills will look slightly different, depending on who your supplier is. However, the majority of energy bills will display the following information in some format.  Your usage period – this will be a date range, indicating what period of time this bill is for. Usually this will be between several months.   The amount required – The total amount will be shown clearly on the page, this is the figure that you owe your energy supplier. Your energy consumption – Your energy bill will typically display the amount of energy you have consumed during this period. This will be measured in kilowatt hours (kWh).  Your meter readings – If you were providing your energy supplier with regular meter readings during this period, they will display your actual meter readings. If this was not the case they will display their estimated meter readings based on previous energy consumption. Your meter serial number must also be shown here, so be sure to check this is correct.  A breakdown of your bill – this will usually be included in your bill to further explain the figure you owe.  When you first receive your bill, you should read it through thoroughly and identify each of these key sections. If there is anything missing or information that you do not believe to be accurate, it is important that you get in contact with your energy supplier who can further explain this. If the meter serial number shown on your bill is incorrect, you must identify this immediately and let your supplier know, as they could be retrieving data from the wrong meter and making poor estimations.

Plans unveiled today (21/09/2021) by Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg have been announced to support growth, prevent unnecessary insolvencies and protect jobs in response to the rising energy bills faced by businesses, households and public sector organisations in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. What are the government doing to support UK businesses To support UK businesses, the government has set a Supported Wholesale Price which will help to cut bills this winter. This price is expected to be £211 per MWh for electricity and £75 per MWh for gas, less than half the wholesale prices anticipated this winter. Key points from the latest government announcement: The introduction of a new government scheme will see energy prices as businesses, charities and public sector organisations cut – protecting them and their jobs from rising costs. Through a new government Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the government will provide a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices for all non-domestic customers This support is in addition to the Energy Price Guarantee for households, with further measures today to strengthen support for families across the United Kingdom, including those in rentals or park homes source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-outlines-plans-to-help-cut-energy-bills-for-businesses How will this energy support be applied? In this latest announcement, the UK government has stated they will apply this support to fixed contracts agreed on or after 1 April 2022, as to deemed, variable and flexible tariffs and contracts. This will also apply to energy usage from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, initially running for a six-month period. Businesses can expect to see these savings applied to their October bills which are, in most cases, received in November. As with the Energy Price Guarantee for households, business energy customers do not need to take action or apply to the scheme to access the support. Support (in the form of a p/kWh discount) will automatically be applied to bills. To ensure the protection of businesses during winter months, the introduction of this scheme will help businesses manage what was expected to be an incredibly challenging time. Liz Truss, the newly appointed Prime Minister, had this to say: “ I understand the huge pressure businesses, charities and public sector organisations are facing with their energy bills, which is why we are taking immediate action to support them over the winter and protect jobs and livelihoods. “As we are doing for consumers, our new scheme will keep their energy bills down from October, providing certainty and peace of mind. At the same time, we are boosting Britain’s homegrown energy supply so we fix the root cause of the issues we are facing and ensure greater energy security for us all.” Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng added: “We have stepped in to stop businesses collapsing, protect jobs, and limit inflation. And with our plans to boost home-grown energy supply, we will bring security to the sector, growth to the economy and secure a better deal for consumers.”  For any of our business energy customers concerned about the current energy crisis, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our customer service team for advice and guidance regarding your bills and payments.

Back in October 2021, the UK government introduced new legislation called the “UK Government’s Road to Zero Strategy” that set out their aim for all new cars and vans to be effectively zero emission by 2030. As part of these electric vehicle charging regulations uk, they announced that all new buildings – both residential and commercial – would have to be fitted with an electric vehicle charge point from 15th June 2022. Why was this legislation introduced? As the popularity of electric vehicles increases, with them now accounting for 1 in 10 of all new car sales, and the UK government’s recent ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2030, there is a growing need for more support to be given to help people make the transition to electric vehicles more easily with effective electric vehicle charging point installation at home (or commercial premises). Not only do homes and businesses need to be EV (electric vehicle) ready but electric vehicle chargers need to be smart too. This legislation was therefore introduced alongside the government’s recently published regulations on smart charging which were published earlier this year (2022). This calls for electric car chargers to have several smart functions installed to relieve the pressure on the national grid and to make them future-proof as well. Overview of the building regulations for electric charging points Builders should know that: All new residential buildings with a parking space now need to also have an electric vehicle charging point installed. All new non-residential buildings with more than 10 parking spaces need to have at least one electric vehicle charging point, and cable routes for every one in five parking spaces Existing non-residential buildings with more than 20 parking spaces will need at least one electric car charge point from 2025 Do the UK electric car charging points regulations affect homeowners? Only if you are thinking of moving house as if you buy a new house, it should already have an electric vehicle charger installed. If you are thinking of swapping to an electric vehicle or are starting to run an electric vehicle commercial fleet, then you may be thinking about electric vehicle charging stations near me. However, it may be wiser to think about installing electric vehicle charge points for your home or workplace – and D-ENERGi can help with that. Contact our EV charging points team on 0800 781 7626 for more information.

A lot of people have been put off buying an electric car because the charging aspect is very different from just filling your car up with diesel or petrol. We take a look at how long electric vehicle charging takes, and how long the charge will last. How long does it take to charge an electric car? The amount of time it will take to charge an electric car will depend on two things: Battery size – the bigger the battery the longer it will take to charge Amount of power the charger can deliver It can take anywhere between 30 minutes and 12 hours to charge an electric vehicle, but it usually takes around 8 hours on average. How are electric cars charged? Electric cars are charged by being plugged into a power outlet – either at your home or at a car park or service station. If you are going on a long drive, it is advised that you stop at a service station along the way and charge your car. The advantage of charging your car at an electric vehicle charging station rather than at home is that the service station will usually have commercial chargers that will charge your vehicle much faster. It has been said that the most efficient way to charge your car is in small bursts throughout the day, and then leave it plugged in overnight when you get home. Can I charge my electric car at home? Yes. You can have an electric vehicle charging point installed at home so that you can easily charge your vehicle when you are not using it. D-ENERGI also offers an electric vehicle charging station solution for workplaces, offering employers a free no-obligation site survey. How much will it cost to charge an electric car? It is quite easy to work out how much it will cost to charge your electric car by doing a few simple calculations. You need to know the kWh of the charging point and then multiply this by the cost of your electricity. To find the kWh of your charging point, you will need to check the power of your charger. Most home chargers are 3.7w but it is best to check yours just to make sure. You then need to convert this power into watts by multiplying it by 1000. So, a standard electric vehicle home charger is 3.7kwh x 1000 = 3700 watts Then think about how long you will be charging your electric vehicle. If we go with the standard of 8 hours, then we need to multiply 3700 watts by 8 hours = 29600 watts. We then divide this by 1000 to convert it back to kWh, which brings us to 29.6 kWh. Now that we know the kWh it will take us to charge our electric vehicle, we can work out how much this will cost us by multiplying the kWh by the cost of electricity. The average cost of electricity is 0.13p at the moment, so we multiply 0.13 by 29.6 = £3.80 a day. To find out more about how D-ENERGi can help you with electric vehicle charging points for domestic or commercial use, please get in touch.