Skip to main content

Name your price: how to minimise 10% of your business electricity price this winter

By Helene Thill, Senior Manager of Commercial Development | Posted November 03, 2016

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from 2016 so far, it’s how hard it is to know what the future holds. So when you find something that’s in your control, use it!

Good news - one component of your business electricity bill is firmly within your control. And it accounts for around 10% of your total. Now is the time to do something about it. If you do, your business will benefit for the whole year.

That component is your TNUoS charge.  This stands for Transmission Use of System which is essentially the amount your business pays to National Grid for its use of the transmission network. This charge has risen by an average of 83% since 2010. In other words: it’s worth managing. So here’s how TNUoS works and how you can control (and minimise) it.

How your transmission charge is worked out

  • Your TNUoS rate depends on how much electricity your business used when National Grid calculates its charge for the year. That’s because the TNUoS charge is designed to be proportionate to the amount of demand your business places on the grid.

  • National Grid work out how much demand each business site places on the grid through the Triad system  The Triads are the three highest time periods of national electricity demand each winter. Your electricity consumption during these three periods will determine your TNUos charge for the year.

  • Triads always occur on weekdays between November and February.

  • But they only last for one half hour. So the more you can reduce the amount of electricity your sites use from the grid during the half hour in which national electricity demand peaks, i.e. during each Triad, the lower your future TNUoS charge.

How to spot the Triads

But how do you know when the Triads will occur? We’ve been helping our business customers spot the Triads for over 25 years. We can guide you too.

Sign up to our Triad Alert service (currently free for CCS customers) and you’ll get our forecasts of when we think a Triad could occur. We send you an alert in the morning if we think, based on our analysis of all the factors that affect national demand, there is a risk there could be a Triad that evening. Our alerts also tell you which half hour we forecast it to occur in. Then you can decide whether or not to reduce your electricity use for that half hour. 

Calculate your potential savings - our calculator on Market Insight can show you the potential savings you could make on reducing your energy consumption during peak periods. That’s handy for getting the support of people in your business that’ll need to endorse your goal to reduce power consumption.

Ready to take control of your TNUoS charge? 

Register for Market Insight to get started, or if you’re an EDFE customer, speak to your account manager about demand management today. 

Post a comment

Your email address will not be published.
CAPTCHA

Related articles

November 29, 2022

COP27: Renewed solidarity on climate commitments

COP27 brought together more than 45,000 participants including world leaders, negotiators and mediators along with climate activists and business representatives.

CCS Framework membership benefits

Crown Commercial Service is delivering value for the nation through outstanding commercial capability and quality customer service. EDF Energy is one of the UK's largest energy companies and the largest producer of low-carbon electricity. Together, we're working to help public sector organisations simplify their energy purchasing, understand the market and save time and money. Find out more