Findhorn Wind Park (FWP) price increases

Electricity Price increases and advance notice regarding the November 2011 bills.

Findhorn Wind Park (FWP) Ltd have advised NFD that there will be a price increase of approximately 16% applied to our electricity bill from November 2011. This will see the 'Standard' rate increase from around 9.5p to 10.8p per unit.
(With the ‘Standard’ rate increasing by 15.09% and the ‘Day’ & ‘Night’ rate increasing by 17.06%, the average increase to consumers is 16.09%).

Findhorn Wind Park (FWP) Ltd have also notified us of an increase in the availability charge,
although this will not be implemented until January 2012. We’ve been advised this increase will be in line with the inflation rate (based on national RPI).

In the mean time, as FWP’s bill cannot be issued to us any earlier than 30th November, there will be a slight delay (in comparison to the regular timing) in issuing NFD’s bill to you. As a result of this, you will not receive November’s bill until after the first week of December 2011. We will of course issue them as soon as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience and
understanding.

FWP statement on Park Electricity Price Rises: 
The unit price of electricity is only one element of the total charge. This is the first unit price rise since November 2008. The price charged by FWP to NFD is based on Scottish and Southern Energy's (SSE) domestic tariffs and these have recently gone up, hence this increase. SSE have announced this will now be fixed for about a year.

When the wind does not blow strongly enough to generate all the power required for the Park, FWP imports the balance from the grid. FWP has always exported more than it imports. Even so, over half the power used by the Park last year was purchased from SSE. The cost to FWP of this import electricity has also risen and has sometimes been higher than FWP charges NFD.

Why do we, FWP, need this extra income anyway? The answer is that whilst we have repaid a significant amount of the loan taken out to build the turbines there is still over £300,000 of the community's money invested in the project. This needs to be repaid over time. Not only do hourly rates for turbine maintenance continue to rise, but as the turbines age more repairs are needed. If all is well, in five of six years there will be a surplus and some choices to make. These could include reducing electricity prices, investing in a new and upgraded set of turbines, etc. For now there is not much leeway.
Finally, the availability charge increase referred to in Paul's note is an agreed annual increase based on domestic inflation. It will add something like £25 per month to the cost of electricity for the entire Park from the beginning of 2012.

I apologise for the short notice of the price rise. In future FWP will work to provide as much warning as possible.
Duncan Easter, Findhorn Wind Park 01309 692388