Double bill for electicity :-/

inchy · Post by **inchy** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:32 pm

heello,
I am living in rented appartment from 01.09.2014. and when i moved in I signed contract with Vantaan energia. Next month (02.10.2014) in Espoo infront of Sello, there were some guys who were asking people to sign contract for "Loiste" (Sähkönmyynti), I sign contract and get the bill next month from "Loiste" . Today I got bill from Vantaan energia for period 09.10.'14-01.02.'15

What I have to do to stop double electricity bills???

Tnx for any answer.

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network_engineer · Post by **network_engineer** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:19 pm

Power has two parts for billing purposes in Finland, there is the

- fixed part from the network distributor (some call it the connection fee, i.e. for maintaining the distribution network and grid to your house).
- the consumption, this varies. They send you a regular minimum based on estimates, e.g. when making a contract, they ask you about likely consumptions. At regular intervals, they will take a reading and send you the invoice for the difference. If you would like a regular update, then send them the readings on your own. Most providers allow you to update the reading, e.g. over the Internet.

So, if you distributor and the provider are different you will get two separate bills. However, you also need to inform the previous company of the change, when you switch to a new contract, so they will no longer charge you for the consumption. In all likelihood, they might ask you for the exact date of change, and that should be visible from your new service provider's contract.

Kind regards!

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:38 pm

Your lines are still Vantaan Energia. They charge the "transfer fee" . Then you get a bill from whom you buy the power from. To avoid double bills, buy fom Vantaan Energia

So, if you now found out your electricity bill isn't actually cheaper due to the transfer fees, next time someone sells you a "good deal"

, understand what you do before you sign anything.

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 9:12 am

network_engineer wrote:Most providers allow you to update the reading, e.g. over the Internet.

Electric utilities have been busy installing smart meters in the recent years. The meters communicate the consumption back to the mothership automatically, usually on hourly basis.

Fortum, for instance, maintains an online service where you can follow your hourly consumption almost in real time, and even download the meter logs in the CSV format for plotting your own graphs, or for other monitoring and accounting purposes.

It appears the OP’s distributor, Vantaan Energia, might have something similar in their online self-service portal. However, they claim they’re still only getting monthly readings from their meters, for the time being. Go figure. With smart meters there should be no practical restriction to hourly metering so I’m not sure why they would maintain that kind of an artificial limitation.

network_engineer wrote:So, if you distributor and the provider are different you will get two separate bills. However, you also need to inform the previous company of the change, when you switch to a new contract, so they will no longer charge you for the consumption. In all likelihood, they might ask you for the exact date of change, and that should be visible from your new service provider's contract.

Typically, the new company will terminate the old contract on your behalf — much the same way as phone companies do if you want to move your existing number to a new contract, even if the old contract were from another company.

The OP might also want to check out this comparison site:

http://www.sahkonhinta.fi/

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 10:33 am

network_engineer wrote:Power has two parts for billing purposes in Finland, there is the

- fixed part from the network distributor (some call it the connection fee, i.e. for maintaining the distribution network and grid to your house).

Fixed and fixed... you pay for transmission, the more you need electricity transferred in their lines, the more you pay. It is fixed as you don't get to change who transfers your electricity, companies are local monopolies.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:18 pm

I don't really see a normal flat getting much if any benefit in changing providers, if you grow pot and have 3000watt bulbs or have a house and heat on electricity, then maybe.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:26 pm

Pursuivant wrote:I don't really see a normal flat getting much if any benefit in changing providers, if you grow pot and have 3000watt bulbs or have a house and heat on electricity, then maybe.

If you have total electricity bill of a few hundred euros annually of which about half you have no power to change anything (except by switching of the lights), it seems unlikely there can be that much difference between a usual and a very good deal. Things are of course different if you have an actual house and an annual electricity bill with four digits.

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