Bills and payments

Do I have to pay by Direct Debit?

Yes - this is the only payment scheme we offer for new customers. It keeps costs to a minimum therefore enabling us to offer the most competitive prices. There is no need to pay a set monthly amount as we only bill you for what you actually use and you only pay us for what you use. Please note that because we only bill you for what you use, each month's Direct Debit will be variable (not a fixed amount).

What happens if I cancel my Direct Debit?

If you cancel your Direct Debit instruction and fail to inform us of this action before we pull the amount due you will be charged £10.

What will my bill look like?

Your monthly bill has been designed to be clear and easy to read. It shows your previous month's balance and the payment made, as well as the amount due this month.

If you have a smart meter, details of the month's electricity and gas usage (by day, night, evening and weekend) and costs are broken down for you. Your bill will also show your electricity and gas consumption and spend over the last four months, four weeks and by hour. This is to help you understand when you are using most energy, so you can reduce usage and costs.

View a sample smart meter bill

Can I have a paper bill?

All of our customers receive a copy of their monthly bill via their online account. If you would prefer to receive a paper bill there will be a charge of £1 per month for this service.

Can I set up a payment plan?

Energy supply with first:utility is based on accurate usage and therefore you only pay for what you actually use. There is currently no option to set up a payment plan.

How do you calculate my carbon footprint?

If you have a smart meter then each month we will tell you how much you have reduced (or increased) your C02 emissions.
Once we have two complete months worth of data from your smart meter, you will receive bills from us which contain graphs illustrating your usage trends. Click here to see a sample smart meter bill.
On the same page as the graphs is an image which tells you how much you have reduced your CO2 emissions (carbon footprint) compared to the previous month.
The reduction in your carbon footprint is the same as your reduction in kWhs (units). Basically, using less energy means you have reduced your carbon footprint. We work out the percentage of this as follows:
Example:
If units used last month were 240.400
and units used this month are 234.344
This is a 6.056 difference in units of energy consumed this month compared to last month.
The calculation for working out the percentage is:
234.344 divided by 240.400 times by 100 = 97.48 (round up to 97.50) minus 97.50 from 100 and you get your percentage which is 2.5%. We would then round this up to 3% on your bill (because we use single figures and not decimal places).

I have a smart meter, why I am receiving estimated bills?

There are rare occasions when we have to use an estimated read to work out your monthly bill. For example, when your supply start date occurs before the installation of your smart meter. If this happens then you will receive estimated bills until your smart meter is up and running.

How do you estimate my electricity usage?

We don’t just pluck a figure out of the air, we base our calculations on two key considerations:

1. The Estimated Annual Consumption (EAC)
This information is held in a centralised industry database. The EAC is calculated based on the electricity your property has used over the last year. This is generally updated a couple of times a year depending on how often your previous supplier submitted meter readings to this centralised database. This consumption is estimated at kilo Watts per hour (kWh). A typical EAC for an average home in the UK is 3300 kWh each year.

2. Seasonality change or as the industry calls it Profile Coefficients
This is how the industry adjusts estimated consumption due to seasonality. How much electricity do you think you consume in June compared with December? Using this data we can tell you that on average a domestic customer uses 6.38% of their EAC in June and 10.76% of their EAC in December. So, if we were to estimate your consumption for June we would take your EAC of 3300, apply the coefficients of 6.38% and charge you for 210.54 kWh usage.

Please be aware there are 2 different profile coefficients for domestic customers and 6 profile coefficients for business customers. The example given above is for the most common domestic profile coefficient.

How do you estimate my gas usage?

The same principle is applied to gas, only this time the names are different to reflect the energy you are using. Calculations are based on 2 key considerations:

1. Annualised Quantity (AQ)
AQ is held on a centralised industry database. Like electricity it is updated a couple of times a year depending on how often your existing supplier submitted your meter readings into the central database. A typical domestic AQ is 20,500, meaning that a typical domestic customer would consume 20,500 kWh each year.

2. Annualised Load Profile (ALP)
ALP is how the industry adjusts the estimated usage based on seasonality. Using this data we can tell you that on average a domestic customer uses 3.17% of their ALP in June and 14.38% of their ALP in December. If we were to estimate your consumption for June we’ll take your AQ of 20,500 kWh, apply the ALP of 3.17% and charge you 649.85 kWh usage.

Please be aware there is 1 ALP for domestic customers which is used in the example above and a further 8 ALP for business customers.