Distribution Network Operators
The company that is responsible for the distribution of electricity from the national transmission grid to your home or business is the Distribution Network Operator, or DNO. These are the people you should call if there is a power cut, as they are responsible for the network of towers, transformers, poles, cables and meters that deliver power to your home.
In Great Britain there are 14 different DNO regions.
You can find out yours by doing a simple postcode search on either of these pages.
https://www.energynetworks.org/info/faqs/who-is-my-network-operator.html
https://www.ssen.co.uk/whoismynetworkoperator/
Why is it important to know who my DNO is?
Electricity prices vary between the different DNO. It’s only subtle changes, but there are differences.
This site https://www.torse.co.uk/electricity-regional-price-variation/, does a good job explaining the regional pricing differences along with a map showing the boundaries.
The pricing differences can be seen first hand when you look at the Agile page on this site summarising daily pricing from all 14 DNOs in one graph.
https://staging.energy-stats.uk/octopus-agile/
What is my Area Code?
If you visit https://octopus.energy/dashboard/new/accounts/personal-details/api-access
You will see your DNO letter just before the unit rate section.
Ie, the M here indicates than I’m in Yorkshire.
Getting the different pricing data via the Octopus API
Via the Octopus Energy API, each different DNO uses an individual identifier code as listed below.
- A – Eastern England
- B – East Midlands
- C – London
- D – Merseyside and Northern Wales
- E – West Midlands
- F – North Eastern England
- G – North Western England
- H – Southern England
- J – South Eastern England
- K – Southern Wales
- L – South Western England
- M – Yorkshire
- N – Southern Scotland
- P – Northern Scotland
So for example, if you want to get the latest Agile pricing for Yorkshire, you would use the following: https://api.octopus.energy/v1/products/AGILE-18-02-21/electricity-tariffs/E-1R-AGILE-18-02-21-M/standard-unit-rates/
See that “M” just before standard unit rates? That indicates this is Yorkshire pricing.
But if you wanted to see London, you’d amend the URL and replace the M (before standard-unit-rates) with a C, like this: https://api.octopus.energy/v1/products/AGILE-18-02-21/electricity-tariffs/E-1R-AGILE-18-02-21-C/standard-unit-rates/
That’s how easy it is get different pricing data from the Agile API.
If you find this information useful and are thinking of joining Octopus Energy, please consider using my referral code or ‘buy me a coffee’ to help support running costs of the website.
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We can also be found on Twitter, please follow us @energystatsuk for daily Agile tariff pricing graphs and summaries.
Also, be sure to check out our Dashboard, Download Historical Data and OctoChargeCalc features to help you decide whether these tariffs are the right fit for you.
Note: The past performance of energy pricing is not necessarily a guide to the future.
