A frugal life is an easy life!

British gas are charging customers differently, depending which area of the UK customers live in.

Billing and meter staff admit to this without exception, british gas' own website states this when a customer checks individual tariff charges. So why does nobody at british gas know exactly how they get to the price they are charging?

Is the area charge decided by the way each unit (kWh) is calculated?
Definately not.

Each customer is charged for gas based on a kilowatt hour (kWh) - the formula for working this out contains four variables, that only differs week to week, on a national average:
M3 (1 metric unit on your meter) x 1.02264 (VCF) x Calorific value (CV) divided by 3.6 = kWh

M3 - This is one unit on your meter and does not vary.
VCF - The volume conversion factor, is an industry constant, to allow for temperature and pressure of gas differing at each household's meter. The figure used in the kWh formula does not change.
CV - The calorific value is worked out by taking two readings each week, from two testing stations, one near Middlesbrough, one near Birmingham.
The lowest reading from either of the two stations is used, added to the previous 12 lowest readings (from the testing stations) and a 13 week average CV is calculated.
I have checked with friends in various areas of the UK, that their calorific value is the same as mine - option 16 on your smart meter - and it is constant, there can be no difference in area here.

Is the different area charge arrived at by different tariff/tier prices?
Definately not!

A third level british gas billing manager attempted to explain that the tier price (a customer's unit price minus VAT) will be different, depending on which area of the country they live in.
With the help of friends, I have checked this also and found it to be constant throughout the UK.
To check this, the billing manager entered his own postcode into british gas' pricing system and was shocked to find that the tier price in Scotland, is the same tier price as Lancashire, is the same price as London, etc, for each tariff.
The only difference in price was obviously for differing tariffs - online only, prepayment, standard billing, etc. - He admitted that he now had absolutely no idea how different charges were arrived at by british gas!

British gas charging different prices depending on areas, is not being calculated in the per unit (kWh) formula, nor is it being calculated in the tier price/tariff pricing structure, so how exactly do british gas arrive at different charges for different areas of the country?

I asked the third level billing manager, could it be the case that british gas don't always charge different prices to people in different areas of the country?
He was adamant that different prices are ALWAYS charged to british gas customers in different areas of the country.
It was suggested by other british gas billing staff that they can only enter a postcode and their computer systems automatically calculate charges for different areas of the UK.

So, if british gas staff and british gas' website are to be believed, energy customers are paying a price for energy that cannot be worked out, is being deliberately hidden from customer's bills and statements and is not being monitored by OFGEM and other so called energy regulators.

I cannot name one other product or business that is allowed to charge a price that cannot be known or calculated, which is hidden from the customer. This is a clear misrepresentation at the point of sale.
We could be paying £40 more than another area of the UK, we could be paying £200 more, we will never know. British gas staff don't know.

This joke of a situation cannot be allowed to continue!

UPDATE:
British gas via twitter, have now released their own data, showing what gas/electricity is used per town/city - the first energy company to do so!

It is posted via the Guardian's website: British gas map of customers and energy supplied (Link opens a new browser window)

Sadly this is still not an answer to the question we asked, which is, how does british gas calculate it's different prices per area?