[HannahD_EONNext]

Principle Terms

• Your electricity unit rates will change daily
• We will use independently published electricity wholesale prices plus industry and operational costs to calculate your daily unit rate
• Your electricity unit rates will be capped at 100p/kWh. Your gas unit rate will be in line with the Next Pledge tariff units rates
• You must have a working smart meter.
• You agree to us collecting data every half hour. This is so you can see your consumption, we can bill you accurately and pay the markets for the electricity you've used
• You must pay by direct debit and manage your account online
• This is a fixed term tariff for 12 months and there is no exit fee

Pricing Explanation

Your Daily Unit Rate will change every day depending on the wholesale market fluctuations, as well as other variable industry and operational costs of supplying your electricity. You will be able to see the Daily Unit Rate you'll be charged for the next day by 6pm each day through your online account which is accessible 24/7.

To access the independently published wholesale index, you can visit EPEX. This will differ to the unit rate you receive due to the operational, distributional & regulatory costs incurred when supplying your energy and a 5% tax rate.

Due to the nature of the ever shifting wholesale market, sometimes the rates you experience will be cheapear than the rest of our products and sometimes may be more expensive. We cannot make any guarantees on savings messages, so it is completely up to personal preference surrounding the amount of risk you are willing to accept and how much you are able to respond to opportune days.

Here is a regional view of Next Everyday prices vs Next Flex our standard variable tariff from w/c 23/02/24. Due to current geopolitical circumstances we’re seen a rise in recent wholesale costs, this graph demonstrates what your rates would have been over 2024.


Gas rates

Gas Rates for the tracker product are initially in line with our Next Pledge tariff, which tracks £50 under the price cap. This means that it will update on a quarterly, rather than daily basis.

As this is a test product we wanted to trial the electricity first, and we will continue to investigate the possibility of creating a daily gas tracker further down the line.
Standing Charges

Standing charges will also change but not on a daily basis. They are derived from the quarterly price cap, issued by Ofgem. Your welcome pack will confirm your initial standing charge price and we’ll communicate any changes to that in line with required Price Cap communications on a quarterly basis.

Leaving the Product

We do not believe in applying exit fees to an unpredictable product, meaning you are free to leave at any time. However, by doing so you will be unable to rejoin the trial.

Quote

Your quote is generated using the unit rate of the day it was provided, current price cap issued standing charges and your estimated usage. This may not be representative of your annual bill, as prices fluctuate on a daily basis and therefore will most likely over/underestimate price relative to the average, throughout the year.

The seasonality and day of the week will also influence the rates in your quote (see FAQs). We cannot predict what prices will be in the future, so this should only be used as a guide, so please be aware before making any decisions.


Price updates over the weekend

Shortly after launch we will be moving towards an automated process behind the scenes to guarantee that price updates are delivered exactly on the date they occur. However, in the meantime some of the rates may be updated retrospectively (e.g. Saturday’s rates would remain until Monday,but would then be back loaded to overwrite the previous days).

This will not impact your overall bills, as you will always be charged the exact amount specified on your online account. The two problems that may arise are rates on in-home displays not matching the pricing page, so always refer to your online account prices as the correct figure. Also, if you are billed within the window where rates have not been back loaded, then you will experience reverse charges in the following month to correct this.

FAQs/Tips

Shifting electricity usage

Differing Wholesale Cost

The daily wholesale costs may differ to the one seen on EPEX. This is for 2 reasons, the first is because EPEX is displayed as £/MWh, whereas we present it in pence/KWh.

Secondly, we take the hourly costs from the day ahead market and apply a tailored consumption pattern (i.e. what time of the day people consume their energy) that best fits ‘Everyday Tracker’ users. In turn this creates a more personalised weighted cost that better reflects you as a customer, and allows further saving from lower consumption at peak times.

Weekends

From historic market data we observe the price of your energy will typically drop over the weekend (although this is not guaranteed), as there is overall less demand and therefore cheaper wholesale costs. To maximise your benefit from the tracker, where possible, it may be a good idea to shift usage from weekdays to the weekend.

Seasonality

Temperature and the number of sunlight hours impact the overall demand within the energy market, and therefore will influence the day ahead wholesale price. This seasonality will generally mean you experience relatively cheaper energy in the summer months which will increase into the winter.


My bill looks different - why?

You may find that your bill is a little different to what you’ve previously seen. This is because we have to itemise the price you’ve been charged, each time it changes from day-to-day. It will provide a detailed breakdown of how you’ve been charged, however it means the bill will be a lot longer than normal.

You may encounter some reserved charges on your bill, don’t worry this is a known issue and means that you are charged the correct amount according to your usage.

What if prices start to increase dramatically?

As you’re on a tracker product - your price will vary in line with every day wholesale market changes. Your unit rate is capped at 100p/kwh - but if you feel you can’t continue on this product, then you can move to any of our other products at any time as we do not have an exit fee on this tariff.

What if my meter stops communicating?

If, for any reason, a technical fault has occurred, or your meter stops communicating and we are unable to obtain your usage, we will take your average consumption times and amounts to calculate your bill(s) until the technical fault is corrected or your meter is communicating again.

In the event we are unable to start communicating with your meter again, we will contact you to discuss the options available. If we are unable to contact you this tariff will end, and we will move you to our Standard Variable Tariff (Next Flex) and let you know. You will then be able to choose another tariff of your choice.

[meldrewreborn]

If someone had consumption that only varied marginally over 24hours and made no effort to shift consumption to cheaper periods, how would their average unit prices compare to those in Next Flex?

is it my imagination or do these wholesale prices indicate that retail suppliers are actually making excess profits?

[geoffers]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

If someone had consumption that only varied marginally over 24hours and made no effort to shift consumption to cheaper periods, how would their average unit prices compare to those in Next Flex?

is it my imagination or do these wholesale prices indicate that retail suppliers are actually making excess profits?

Have look at some of the earlier posts, when they first announced this was coming - I did some calculations over the last year's daily average wholesale rates here, (assuming E.On's costs will work much the same way...)
https://community.eonnext.com/thread...ll=1#post54207

[Andy65]

@geoffers

I asked a similar question to @meldrewreborn on another thread, I was interested in seeing the 30 minute prices plotted across 24 hours to see if there was a pattern (I assume there is), and does it vary on weekends etc.

Stating the obvious, I assume that the cost effectiveness of a TOU tariff also depends on the usage and lifestyle of the customer and how practical it is for them to manage their usage at cheaper times. It goes without saying that it's a choice and a customer shouldn't choose a tariff if it isn't right for them but I'm not sure that an average cheaper price over 24 hours is sufficient to make an informed decision - but many will assume that it is.
As an example, when I changed my tariff 6 months ago, the Next Pledge Tracker was the second most expensive option for me and was less than £15 cheaper than Next Pledge, not the notional £50 that was advertised and that was purely down to my usage. I would expect a high percentage of customers opt for Next Pledge Tracker because it's £50 cheaper and don't even check.

I can see similarities with TOU tariffs so I think there's a need to know trends before opting for it. E7 works for me and it suits my lifestyle but it wouldn't if I didn't know when the cheap 7 hours were going to be until the day before.

[geoffers]

@Andy65 - totally agree, which is why I wanted to do some analysis of trends over the previous year.

If my calculations are correct (haven't got a clue how E.On are actually going to do) it looks like the tariff is cheaper than their other offerings if you do nothing with your personal load shifting.

However in reality there's very little savings to be made by load switching on this tariff, other than for instance choosing to do your washing tomorrow if it's going to be windy but is calm today.

You can't put off boiling your kettle for a cuppa tomorrow because the electricity is going to be cheaper 🤣

[meldrewreborn]

@geoffers

for me, the time shifting appliances would be washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer, vacuum cleaner (2.1 kW!). The first is currently AM, the second is late evening, the third is noon to PM, and the last anytime. Only the dishwasher at weekends sometimes, as it goes on when full. I somehow suspect changing the habits of many years would be difficult, especially if the savings were minimal.