[meldrewreborn]

I recently asked for my smart meter reading dates to be set to the fist of each month (might be useful if I go back to variable tariffs on the price cap!). Just minutes before the reply to that landed in my mail box, another arrived revising my Direct Debit amount. So just somebody looking at my account to change the reading date, seems to have triggered a DD review ( so be careful what you wish for).

Anyway I checked my figures using both my annualised advance and the EAC figures from my most recent bill. and thought it likely that the EAC figures had been used in the DD review. So I replied notifying that I did not consent to their figure, and asked for the detail behind their assessment. I also said that I would accept a Direct Debit of £110 per month in line with my assessment.

Today I got the reply the most important part was as follows:-

"Calculation Details:

• New Monthly Payment: The new monthly payment is calculated based on your average monthly consumption charge plus a balance adjustment, designed to bring your balance to its target value over 12 months.
• Average Monthly Consumption Charge: Your estimated total charge for this ledger over 12 months is £1,355.76, giving an average monthly charge of £112.98.
  
  • Average monthly gas charge: £72.01
  • Average monthly electricity charge: £40.97
  
  
• Balance Adjustment: This includes a £2.99 adjustment to ensure your balance returns to its target balance over 12 months. At the time of calculation, your target balance was £2.03, while your ledger balance was -£33.90. This adjustment is why the bill was increased.

Please note that direct debit amounts are influenced by OFGEM, the energy regulator, which introduces price caps four times a year: on 1st January, 1st April, 1st July, and 1st October. Around these times, prices may go up or down. As your energy supplier, we comply with the set price changes.
Additionally, as per your request, the direct debit amount has been moved back to £110. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

The only way to get to the annual spend of £1355.76 is by using the EAC figures for each fuel. By not using my annualised advance computation as required by OFGEM (the most accurate information available to the supplier should be used) Eon Next are in breach of their licence conditions. But it does show that energy specialists do respond to logical points put to them. And Email gives a full audit record.

I had previously ensured that my direct debit year commenced just before the winter months, so fully expected my account to go into debit virtually straight away. And so it did. Now over the coming months my account will go further into debit through March and April and then from June onwards start to climb back to parity later in the year.

[HannahD_EONNext]

Hey @meldrewreborn

Really interesting points raised here, thank you!

We do encourage our Energy Specialists to do a health check on any accounts they're making changes to, sounds like that's what happened here when you asked for your smart read dates to change.

Glad they were also able to listen to your explanation and make the necessary changes to get your payments back where you feel they should be - exactly what I'd expect them to do in this case.

In theory, EAC should be more accurate as it takes into account things like seasonal changes and any changes at the property compared to AAC, although admittedly many of these advantages even out if the AAC is using a good amount of data (which I'm sure yours does). What we tend to find is where we use AAC to estimated usage/costings, perhaps where the EAC isn't available, we end up seeing more fluctuations throughout the year which then causes mis-balance with the payments.

I have just read your other post around your EAC being so much higher, so whilst in theory EAC is seen as more accurate for us as a business, there's clearly some issues in how it's being calculated in some cases. Particularly as other examples were shared on that post telling a similar story.

Leave that part with me to do some digging, I'd love to understand if we've made any changes to our EAC calculations that would mean it's suddenly showing an increase in figures.

Hope this helps

Hannah

[meldrewreborn]

@HannahD_EONNext

As far as I am aware the EAC is an industry construct, that Eon Next has no control of. Suppliers contribute information to the system and get data from it, but can’t correct any inaccurate data. Eventually, after about 2+ years accurate data will replace any excessive data errors. That doesn’t match the valid expectations of most customers.

The EAC system is used by all generators, distributors and suppliers for a huge number of purposes, and frankly the needs of the consumer for an accurate consumption figure are virtually not considered, nor appreciated.

My point is that after one year with a supplier, the supplier should have an accurate annual figure in most cases for those customers that have supplied accurate reading information. The factors that go into an EAC figure are arcane, lack transparency and would only serve to confuse the vast majority of customers, even if it were explained to them.

”Keep it simple , stupid” abbreviated to KISS, is a great slogan for any review of this topic. OFGEM say that the supplier should use the most accurate data for consumption, without specifying how that should be obtained. In my opinion it should relate to actual customer data, with specific emphasis on the most recent data, Having said that my own electricity consumption is quite stable from year to year, but my gas consumption more volatile particularly due to the severity of the winter period. All predictions of consumption are liable to be wrong in practice, but my concern is that EAC figures lead to direct debits being set to higher levels than strictly necessary to the advantage of suppliers and the detriment of customers, most of whom don’t have the knowledge to challenge suppliers assessments.