Many of you will have noticed that the standard rate unit price for power on your recent bills from NFD went down from 29.13p to 24.13p. This reduction is because power prices within the community are closely linked to the cost of importing power from the grid when we are not generating enough on site. FWP recently signed a new import contract from a national grid supplier at a lower cost than the previous annual contract. This new price is therefore – with minor variations based on the level of demand in any given month – likely to stay in place for the coming year, which should be very welcome news for everyone living and working on site.

You may be wondering how this is possible, given that a rise in national retail power prices is expected this Spring. Well, we are wondering too – if commercial rates for power have gone down, why would retail prices increase – especially as most of Scotland’s electricity is produced from renewable sources? The answer is that retail power prices are based not on the cost of production for electricity but on the price of gas! The paradoxes this creates have not gone unnoticed and, for example, Greg Jackson the CEO of Octopus Energy has recently “stressed Scotland’s potential for Europe’s cheapest power” if the system were to change. However, this is all beyond our control; we have to work within the existing system.

In summary, FWP power prices have been a bit higher than retail power prices in the local area in recent months, but they are now expected to be a bit lower for the next year. FWP will of course continue to monitor the situation as best we can and attempt to secure similarly good deals for the Community in future.