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Questions

Questions we are asked

Ask us anything.Properly.

Figures verified 29 July 2026. Regulated charges reset each April. If you are relying on a figure, check the source or ask us.

How we are paid

Commission on the energy contracts we place, shown on the rate, line by line. It is not a separate invoice and it is not hidden in the standing charge. You see it before you sign.

Yes. It is a number on a page, so it can be discussed like any other number.

You pay the commission, and it is on the rate. What you are buying is the market being run properly, the contract being checked against the invoice afterwards, and someone tracking the end date. Whether that is worth it is a fair question and you should ask it.

Nothing. We look at your invoices and contract position and tell you what we find. The efficiency reviews that follow are quoted in writing before we start.

The fee is set out in writing and agreed before we begin. Where a change we identify needs implementing, that work is quoted separately and you are free to use your own contractors.

Yes. Since 1 October 2024, energy suppliers must disclose third party costs to all non-domestic customers, in the contractual principal terms and on request, in pence per kWh. If you have not seen it, ask your supplier.

Not yet. The government confirmed in October 2025 its intention for Ofgem to regulate third party intermediaries, including registration and fit and proper person criteria. That requires legislation and is not in force.

Contracts and switching

A document authorising us to speak to suppliers on your behalf. We hold Level 1 only, which lets us gather your data and approach the market. It does not let us sign anything. You sign every contract yourself.

The supply continues on out of contract rates. Those are significantly higher than a contracted price and they are variable, tracking the short term market rather than a rate you agreed. They apply from the day the contract ended.

The default terms a supplier applies when energy is used at a premises with no contract agreed, usually after moving into a new site.

Where a contract lapses and the supplier moves you onto a new fixed term without you actively choosing it. Some contracts require notice to prevent this.

Suppliers will typically price a forward start up to around eighteen months ahead, though it varies by supplier, fuel and site. The tradeable forward curve runs roughly five years out.

We do not forecast prices, up or down. What we can tell you is what the forward curve is doing at the point of the decision, and what the trade is between certainty and optionality.

No. Network charges are regulated pass-through and reset every April. Some products fix them and some do not, and it differs per product rather than per supplier. We do not describe a supplier as fixing them without written confirmation for that supplier, that fuel and that product.

Usually exceeded capacity and reactive power charges. A site can hold a contract correctly described as fully fixed and still carry those.

Often yes, and not about price. Capacity, billing errors, waste and compliance are all addressable inside a contract term, and the renewal is easier if the groundwork is already done.

No. Some of what we find has nothing to do with who supplies you.

The customer information document governs. It carries the rates, and it is the one we read first.

Bills and charges

The Meter Point Administration Number, a unique thirteen digit reference for an electricity supply. Gas uses an MPRN and water uses a SPID.

Regulated network charges and several policy levies reset annually on 1 April. From April 2026 the transmission residual rose by a volume-weighted average of 64 per cent, with individual capacity bands ranging from 28 to 116 per cent. These are set through regulation, not by your supplier.

Because the wholesale price is no longer the larger part of a business electricity bill. Network charges, policy levies and taxes make up the majority and they do not move with the wholesale market.

The electricity supply a site reserves with its distribution network operator, measured in kVA. It is billed daily whether or not it is used.

Through the distribution network operator for your region, not your supplier. It takes effect going forward rather than recovering charges already incurred.

Up to four months through the network operator, so it is worth doing before a renewal rather than after.

A charge on some half-hourly bills linked to poor power factor, meaning energy drawn but not turned into useful work. Trigger points are set by each distribution network operator rather than nationally.

A tax on business energy use, currently 0.801p per kWh for both electricity and gas, rising to 0.827p per kWh from 1 April 2027.

Two. A Climate Change Agreement, for eligible energy intensive sectors, reduces it to 8 per cent of the main rate on electricity and 11 per cent on gas. And below 1,000 kWh of electricity or 4,397 kWh of gas per month per site the supply is treated as domestic and the levy does not apply, with VAT at the reduced rate on the same basis.

Usually 20 per cent on the whole bill including levies. A reduced rate of 5 per cent applies to qualifying low usage premises and to charities using the supply for non-business purposes.

A charge funding biomethane injection into the gas grid. It is charged per gas meter per day rather than per unit, so reducing consumption does not reduce it.

A charge on electricity funding the construction of Sizewell C, which appeared on bills from 1 December 2025. The rate is set quarterly by the Low Carbon Contracts Company, so check the current quarter rather than relying on a figure in print.

Metering and data

A meter recording consumption every half hour and transmitting it automatically, giving a pattern of use rather than a period total.

Yes. An estimate is a forecast, not a reading, and a run of them can hide a change in usage and store up a correction later. We say so on a validation rather than validating around it.

Every electricity meter is moving to settlement on actual half-hourly consumption rather than an estimated profile. Migration began in October 2025, with full implementation in May 2027. The practical effect is that consumption data becomes available on supplies where it did not exist before.

Overnight baseload, demand peaks that set capacity, poor power factor, and consumption that does not match how the site actually operates.

You can enter your own readings in Insights, including gas and water. It is often the fastest route to spotting a problem on a smaller site.

Compliance

If you have 250 or more UK employees, or turnover above £44m together with a balance sheet total above £38m, judged on your position at 31 December 2026. If any single UK entity in a group meets the test, every UK entity in that group is in scope.

Notification must reach the Environment Agency by 5 December 2027.

No, and this is the commonest error in the area. ESOS is 250 employees alone, or both financial thresholds together. SECR is two of three: turnover of £36m or more, a balance sheet total of £18m or more, and 250 or more employees. The same company can be in one and out of the other.

No. EPC E is the enforceable minimum for privately rented non-domestic property in England and Wales today, with penalties up to £150,000 per breach. EPC B by 2031 is a government proposal awaiting secondary legislation.

That interim step was previously proposed and will not be taken forward. Guidance still printing it is working from a superseded trajectory.

If you operate or supply a heat network, registration with Ofgem is required by 26 January 2027. Operating without it after that date is a criminal offence.

For systems with an effective rated output above 12kW, at intervals of no more than five years. The obligation sits with whoever controls the system, which is not always the building owner.

Working with us

By the backing mechanism named in writing: REGO certificates, supply direct from a generator, or half-hourly matching. A supplier's overall fuel mix is not a statement about your supply, and a rate never tells you whether a contract is green.

Yes. Sometimes the answer is to do nothing, and we would rather say so than sell you something.

We raise it in writing with the account, the meter, the period and the specific line, and pursue the correction. You pay the undisputed amount by the due date; we do not advise withholding a whole invoice over one line.

No. We scope the work, write the specification, put contractor quotations on the same basis, model the case and manage delivery. Installation is carried out by qualified contractors.

Every Omnium client does, at no charge. Some additional features are chargeable, and where one is, it is priced and agreed before you use it.

If your question is not here

Send the question with a recent full invoice for each meter and a signed Letter of Authority, and the answer comes back in writing against your own data rather than in general terms.

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