Market prices are based on the prices for individual hours determined by the Day-Ahead Market for the UK on the EPEX Spot electricity market. In addition, there's a balancing cost of 3%. You can view the relevant market price in cent/kWh for individual hours of the following day from 2pm onwards on the aWATTar website or on www.epexspot.com, or you can enquire through the aWATTar API.

The grid usage fees, taxes, levies and duties charged by your grid operator are passed along to you at a 1:1 ratio. An additional 1.785 cent/kWh gross is charged as a procurement cost for green electricity certificates, along with other procurement costs. These procurement costs are part of the energy price (see tariff page).

Operating an intelligent metering system (IMS, certified under law (known as a smart meter) is a prerequisite for using our Hourly Tariff. You can order a smart meter from your energy supplier - in most cases, this will be your local grid operator or a local utility company. All further information about smart meters can be found here. If you don't yet have a smart meter installed or your data transmission isn't configured correctly, aWATTar will put you on our Monthly Tariff, which adjusts every month based on the average level of market prices. See here for further details about the Monthly Tariff. We'll always switch you over to the Hourly Tariff on the first of the month.

You're only contractually bound to aWATTar for a month.

Shortly after you start using the service and subsequently always at the start of the month, aWATTar will take a down payment from your account to purchase your energy from the energy market during the month and supply it to you. By transmitting your exact hourly usage, we can then bill you accurately at the beginning of the next month for what you used. The bill will also show your average price per kWh. The amount charged will be offset against the down payment you've already made and a down payment for the upcoming month will be added. The balance will then be automatically deducted from your account via your SEPA direct debit. We initially calculate your down payment monthly based on the annual usage forecast provided by your grid operator. This annual consumption figure is initially divided across the individual months based on information you provided when concluding your contract. This means we'll take into consideration the appliances connected to the respective metering point (normal household appliances, heating, electric cars and/or solar panel systems), as well as appropriate standard profiles. aWATTar requires at least three months after you commission their services to estimate your annual consumption and monthly distribution based on your actual usage data. If you would like to be categorised differently, we will take this into consideration as appropriate. In terms of price, the down payment is based on the aWATTar Monthly Tariff. You can find further details about the calculation method and the current Monthly prices here. Upon terminating your contract, your current down payment will be offset against all outstanding bills and any credit remaining will be paid out with a final settlement based on your smart meter data.