Your Bill Explained

How is my bill calculated
Questions about my bill
Bill Frequently Asked Questions

How is my bill calculated

Your consumption charge for electricity is calculated by multiplying the units you’ve used by the unit rate, specified as part of your tariff

For gas, the calculation is more detailed.

Multiply the number of gas units used by the Calorific Value and then the Volume Correction
Divide the answer to step 1 by 3.6 to covert into gas kilowatts used

Please note: If you have an imperial gas meter, you’ll need to multiply the gas units by 2.83 to convert imperial units to metric units before conducting the above calculation. To find out if you have an imperial meter, take a look at the meter reading guide section of our website. The Calorific Value and Volume Correction figures can be found on your bill.

Once your consumption charge has been calculated, the standing charge is added for each fuel (gas and electricity). This is a daily charge for each day of the bill period.

What does KWH stand for

kWh stands for kilowatt hour. It's a measure of the amount of energy used in one hour. For example, if you have a 1,000 watt heater and you keep it on for one hour, you'll use 1kWh

What are standing charges?

Standing charges are fixed costs of supplying customers with gas or electricity – these are costs that don’t vary with energy consumption.

Standing charges include the costs of providing and maintaining meters in customers’ homes, and customer support, along with some of the charges we pay for distributing and transporting energy.

For most customers, the standing charge is a daily rate on your bill. However, if you’re a Pay As You Go customer, the standing charge will be collected as a fixed weekly amount from your meter. To ensure tariffs are comparable across the energy market, Ofgem, the energy market regulator, requires all tariffs to have a unit rate and standing charge component

What is a bill period?

The bill period is the period of time (usually in days) covered by a particular bill. On the front of your bill you’ll find the start and end dates of the period it covers.

What is a Calorific Value?

Calorific Value (CV) is a measure of the energy contained in the gas that's provided to your home. The CV can vary in different parts of the country, due to the different sources of gas. National Grid provide us with a daily value and, from this, we work out an average for the period covered by your bill.

Questions about my bill

What should I do if I think my bill is too high or wrong?

If your bill is unexpectedly high, we recommend that you check your current and previous bills to see if any meter readings have been estimated. The front page of your bill displays whether it is based on actual or estimated readings.
It's possible that your previous bills were based on estimated meter readings that were too low and that your current bill has been calculated using actual meter readings, so it's higher than you expected.
If your previous and current bills have been calculated using actual meter readings, please check the meter readings shown on your bills and Contact Us if they’re not in line with previous readings
If the meter readings look right, it's likely that your energy use has increased over the billing period. This could be due to seasonal change.
It's also worth considering whether your circumstances have changed or have used any new or different appliances during the billing period, as these factors may account for any increase in usage.

Why have I received a bill with an estimated meter reading?

If you've received an estimated bill, it's probably because we haven’t received an actual meter reading. You may have been out when our meter reader called, or we have not received your actual meter readings in time.

For help on how to provide accurate meter readings, please visit our meter reading page

Can I get a copy of or print my bill?

You can access and print out bills from the last 14 months in your online account. Once you have logged in, please click on the section ‘View your bills and payments’ section. Here you’ll find a summary of the dates and amounts of previous bills, as well as the payments you've made. Just find the bill you’d like view and then select the ‘Download Full PDF’ option.

You can also request a copy of your bills by contacting us on 0345 270 0700 Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm

Why does my bill only show gas or electricity?

If we supply your gas and electricity and you have a dual fuel account, you’ll receive one combined bill from us.
If you have two separate accounts (which could be the case if you’ve chosen different tariffs or payment methods for each fuel) you’ll receive a separate bill for gas and electricity.
For Pay As You Go customers, it’s normal to receive a bill for your gas and electricity usage separately.

Where can I find details of the most recent transactions on my account?

In your online account you can access details of your most recent transactions by selecting ‘View your bills and payments’.

Alternatively, you can call our 24-hour automated service on 0800 001 5115. Select the ‘recent transactions’ option and enter your ScottishPower account number, which you’ll find on your bill.

Why am I still receiving bills from ScottishPower after leaving?

This may be because the switch to your new supplier has not completed yet. Switching supplier can take between 5 and 28 days after you’ve applied to transfer. Therefore, your normal billing cycle with ScottishPower will continue up until this point.

After your switch is complete, it can take up to 6 weeks for us to send you a final bill.

Why have you sent me an adjusted bill?

An adjusted bill is provided when the bills we’ve sent you previously have been based on estimated meter readings and we’ve now received your actual meter readings. We use these to recalculate your charges and give you an adjusted bill to reflect the energy you’ve used.

For more information, take a look at our Amended and Adjusted Bill video.

I haven't had a bill for a while. Is anything wrong?

The frequency of your bills depends on your current payment method.

Online direct debit customer’s will receive a bill every 90 days.
Offline direct debit customers will receive a bill a minimum one per year however direct debit is continually reviewed.
Quarterly cash customers are billed every 3 months.
Monthly cash customers are billed every 30 days.

Bill Frequently Asked Questions

In order to help you make informed choices about your tariff and energy costs, the energy regulator, Ofgem, requires suppliers to provide you with information to let you know if you are on the cheapest tariff available to you through your supplier. Therefore, we’ll show you a comparison of your current tariff with our cheapest similar tariff and cheapest overall tariff.

Our 'cheapest similar tariff' means our cheapest available tariff compatible with the meters at your property. When displaying our cheapest similar tariff, we will show tariffs reflecting similar features to your current account management arrangement and tariff type. So, for example, if you’re currently on a fixed online tariff and pay by Direct Debit, we’ll show you a tariff based on the same factors (where available).

Our 'cheapest overall tariff' is the cheapest possible tariff currently available from ScottishPower. If you have a credit meter, we will show you tariffs compatible with credit meters. If you have a prepayment meter, we will show you the cheapest tariffs compatible with any meter that could be installed at your property. Moving to this tariff might mean you have to change aspects of your account such as payment method, account management or meter type. If applicable, we will let you know that you are already on our cheapest tariff.

A multi rate electricity tariff is one where you pay a different price for electricity at different times of the day - for example, a cheaper rate during the night. To have a multi-rate electricity tariff, you need to have a multi-rate meter that records when energy is consumed.

A 'single rate for multi-rate tariff' is where you have a multi-rate meter but you pay the same price for electricity at all times. For example, you pay the same during the night as during the day. This might benefit you if you have a multi-rate meter but don’t tend to use your electricity at off peak times (e.g. during the night) or you use main gas central heating.

We have a range of tariffs for multi-rate meter customers that are available without having to replace your meter, or incur any costs associated with keeping your existing meter. Also, as a ScottishPower customer, you have the flexibility to move between our tariffs at any time without paying exit fees.

Your annual consumption is the amount of energy you've used over the last 12 months. You’ll find it displayed within the ‘About your Tariff’ section of your bill.

Your annual consumption is based on actual meter readings, if you’ve submitted them. If we don’t have actual meter readings covering the previous 12 months, we’ll estimate your energy use using the best available information we have for you and your property, taking account of any actual meter readings that we do have.

If you have an online account, you can view your consumption in an easy-to-follow graph and table format, which is broken down into previous bill periods. Just log in to your online account and select ‘My Energy Usage’.

Your estimated annual costs (personal projection) is an estimate of your energy costs for the next 12 months. It’s based on:

your energy usage over the past 12 months
your tariff prices
VAT at the applicable rate

If we don't have up-to-date actual meter readings covering the previous 12 months, we’ll estimate your energy use using the best available information we have for you and your property, taking account of any actual meter readings that we do have.

Your Bill Explained

Contents

How is my bill calculated

Questions about my bill

Bill Frequently Asked Questions

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