UEL spends roughly £1.4 million on electricity annually. The charges on our electricity bill fall into two main categories: 'energy' and 'non-energy' costs.

• Energy costs, which make up about 45 per cent of the bill, are directly related to our electricity consumption, measured in kilowatt-hours.
• Non-energy costs make up the majority of the bill and include things like transmission, distribution, and other fixed charges.

One of these fixed costs is the maximum import capacity charge. This is the amount of electricity the national grid guarantees it can supply to our buildings. We found that this capacity was often set too high, meaning we were paying for more power than we actually used.

To address this, our sustainability team worked with the Distribution Network Operators to reduce the maximum import capacity on 13 of our electricity accounts. By "giving back" the unused capacity, we've secured a savings of £40,034.73 in the first year alone.