Rising Energy Costs
New for Winter 2022
This is a new web page for village and community halls. Halls want to meet the needs of their communities but they’re also dealing with rising energy costs.
We hope these tips and guidance will help halls navigate the current energy crisis.
We’ll keep updating this page as more guidance becomes available.
Rising Energy Costs
The government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme for non-domestic consumers, including community halls, is here.
The key points are:
- The scheme will provide a discount on energy usage between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.
- Your supplier will automatically apply the discount.
- The discount will be based on the difference between the wholesale price on the day your contract was agreed and a government “supported wholesale price” of £211 per megawatt-hour (MWh) for electricity and £75 per MWh for gas.
- Fixed price contracts will only be eligible if agreed after 1 December 2021, including new contracts agreed between now and March 2023.
- Variable or out-of-contract rates will also get a discount based on the daily wholesale price over the period, but the discount level is capped, so customers are exposed to further increases in pricing that are being seen in the market.
Utility Aid’s advice is as follows:
- Take sensible steps to reduce your usage – such as ensuring lighting and heating is off when the building is empty.
- If you are out of contract, variable and deemed & due for renewal — we want to stress the importance of getting into a contract as soon as possible to help protect you from eye-watering “out of contract” rates.
- Fixed and protected contracts — if you want maximum price certainty, check the terms and conditions of a contract carefully before you sign it. You want to ensure that the whole contract is fixed for the duration, not just for the energy itself. Some contracts are not as fixed as they first appear.
- Monitor your energy usage — take regular meter readings and keep a record to ensure you are being billed for the actual amount you have consumed. This may also help you identify opportunities to reduce your energy costs.
- VAT and Climate Change Levy — please check you are being correctly charged on your bill.
[Credit: UtilityAid]
Utility Aid have introduced a remote energy audit service (called a Remote Discovery Document) which will help halls to reduce their energy consumption. A lot of halls expressed interest in this in ACRE’s recent energy survey of halls. You don’t need to be an existing Utility Aid customer to use the service.
The service is essentially a remote energy audit and it’s done by walking round your hall with your mobile phone, with the Utility Aid energy adviser guiding you on the other end of the phone. You would need to have your camera on. You would also need to provide information from your energy bills. The cost of the service for halls is £150 plus VAT. You can find more information about this service here
Click here for details and to see a sample assessment report.
We recently asked our Kent halls how they are running their heating systems. These Information Exchanges are a great way to see how other halls do thing and to find solutions to problems you may be experiencing yourselves. Check out the results here: https://ruralkent.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Heating-System-Controls.pdf
Click here to access our Rural Kent guide to Dealing with Rising Energy Prices, updated in November of this year.
https://ruralkent.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RK-Info-Sheet_Dealing-with-Rising-Energy-Prices_Nov22.pdf
You may need to revisit your hire charges to balance out your higher expenditure.
Our useful How to Set Your Hiring Charges guide will help you through this.
View our Rural Kent guide to creating a Warm Space for your local community.
https://ruralkent.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Warm-Spaces-Info-Sheet.pdf
Check out the specific guidance sheet from the Centre for Sustainable Energy here:
Find out more about making your building energy efficient.
Funding for your energy efficiency or renewables project:
Click here to view our current list of county-wide funders
Section 7 details funds specifically available for energy efficiency and net zero projects, including decarbonising, improving efficiency and preserving and enhancing the natural environment.
Official guidance from OFGEM including help, contracts advice and energy efficiency schemes
The ‘money saving expert’ Martin Lewis was instrumental in quantifying the need for Warm Hubs this winter.
Read his original guide to these spaces here.
Corporate Partners
Utility Aid (https://utility-aid.co.uk/) are the largest energy broker for the not-for-profit sector. Utility Aid’s partnership with ACRE is helping to identify issues and possible solutions around energy use. Utility Aid will check your energy usage and identify the best value prices available. They also provide an automatic bill checking service, advising you of any anomalies or errors. Contact Emily at Utility Aid via this link for a quote: http://www.utility-aid.co.uk/contactform/RuralKent.
Click here to view the recent online talk given to Kent Village Halls by Utility Aid