How do gas companies know w when you’ve changed provider?
So I’m moving house and am switching provider for pretty much all of my utilities etc. So how do they, my new provider, start supplying my house the gas instead of my previous provider. I’m assuming they use the same pipe but it’ll contain the whole areas gas and smaller pipes would branch off up streets and eventually into houses wouldn’t they? How do they direct only British Gas gas into my house instead of Scottish Power gas?
I’m stoned so please excuse me if this makes zero sense
In: Engineering
Each house has a gas meter. They read the meter once a month and charge you for how much the meter says you used.
That’s not how it works. There’s a distributor who actually provides gas to your home (and everyone else’s in your area), and they use one set of pipes. At the end of the pipe that goes into your house is a gas meter that tracks how much gas you use.
The distributor gets gas from all sorts of suppliers, and when you choose a supplier, then the distributor adds your usage to all the other customers who purchase from that supplier as well, and the distributor obtains that amount of gas (more or less) from that supplier. And they do the same with all the other suppliers who provide gas to the distributor for distribution to the end users.
I will preface this with saying I’m in the US, and I don’t know if it works differently in the UK.
Consumers of natural gas here have a meter where the gas line enters the building (home, store, apartment building, restaurant, whatever). The gas company has a person who comes by and takes note of the readings periodically and they send you a bill for the difference between the current reading and the last reading. It’s just like measuring power at the meter where power comes in. Both are more automated these days and it can be done remotely/electronically so nobody needs to physically come around.
As far as them knowing you changed providers, you need to let them know by either signing up online or by phone so they can bill you accordingly. The previous residents should have informed the utility they were moving. Sometimes they will come and put a lock on the valve and it will be removed when there are new residents and the account is set up.
The gas companies all use the same pipe, but they have their agreements about how they all pay the bigger company they buy their gas from. Sort of like roommates dividing up the bills. They just concern themselves with your billing and then they settle up with whomever bills them. They keep the difference as profit.
Your house has a flow meter on the pipe that feeds gas into your home. When you switch companies the only meaningful change to you is who reads the meter. You are still getting the same gas from the same source.
Utility companies that share infrastructure have deals worked out between each other to balance out the money without involving you. Otherwise you’d need a lot of very complex switching or duplicated piping. Its far easier to just have one system and move money around.
They don’t.
Your area will have one distributor (called a Gas Distribution Network) who will source their gas from National Gas (you can google “Gas Distribution Network” if you’re interested to see who your distributor is). These are the people actually in charge of the pipes/getting the gas to you.
Your supplier can tell how much gas you have used by reading your meter, and they pay the distribution network x amount for the gas you have used.
It’s all the same gas, there aren’t separate pipes for Scottish Power/British Gas etc. All UK gas is piped through the Gas Distribution Networks, which themselves get it from National Gas.
This is also why if you ever have a problem, there’s a very high chance that the engineer who shows up won’t work for your supplier, they will work for whoever is in charge of the network in your area.
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