Your Authorised Supply Capacity could be one of the biggest unnecessary costs you’re paying for on your electricity bills and you might not even know.
Once you have arranged fair supply contracts for your Half Hourly electricity supplies, it’s easy to assume that what you’re paying isn’t costing you more than it should be.
What is Authorised Supply Capacity or ASC?
The Authorised Supply Capacity is a level agreed with your Distribution Network Operator (DNO) and is the set amount of electricity they must ensure is always available to your supply. It’s sometimes referred to as the Agreed Supply Capacity and is measured in KVA. The charges will show as a pass-through cost on Half Hourly invoices, often in the distribution charges section and the top level you have set is multiplied by the rate you have agreed in the contract at a price per KVA. There are also excess charges for exceeding your capacity which are usually at a much higher rate.
How is the level set in the first place?
Initially, the ASC is set when a New Supply is connected or during an upgrade or downgrade. Often at this time there is no certainty of the capacity that will be required, and an estimate is made based on expected consumption. This is like taking out a phone contract expecting that you may need to 1,000 minutes per month and still paying the full amount, even if you never exceed 300. However, before choosing your next phone contract you’d look at one that’s more suited to what you’ll need to save money, so you should also be regularly reviewing your ASC for the same reasons.
When to review your ASC on your Half Hourly supply?
- If you’ve never reviewed it before
- 12-18 months after installing a new supply
- When the nature of your business has changed
- When your consumption has changed significantly
- When you take over a new property
- If you’ve noticed excess charges on your bills
- Once every 24 months if there are no significant changes
How to check your ASC is set accurately?
You have one opportunity a year to change your ASC and to do this we recommend we assess your Half Hourly Data to check the demand you’ve hit for every half hour in the day over a year. From this we can asses the overall peak and either confirm that you’ve got an appropriate level set or whether you could save money in the long run by making an amendment. If we recommend a change and you would like to proceed, we can arrange this with your DNO to apply for the change. If they accept the change, this will apply from the following month’s bill so you can start saving as soon as possible.
If you have any queries regarding ASC, give the NFU Energy team a call on 024 7669 8885.