Model your heat network tariff against Ofgem's fair pricing and cost allocation conditions. Calculate unit rates and standing charges from fuel costs, plant efficiency, and distribution losses. Generate a board-ready PDF aligned to AC A6 and A7 ahead of the 26 January 2027 registration deadline. No registration required, no payment, no usage limits.
The Tariff Calculator builds a heat network tariff up from its component costs — primary fuel (gas, electricity, biomass, or heat pump electricity), plant efficiency, distribution losses, maintenance, operational overhead, and margin. The output is a unit rate (p/kWh) and a standing charge (p/day) with each component fully documented, plus a counterfactual comparison against the cost of supplying the same energy through an individual gas boiler in each consumer's home.
The counterfactual comparison is the canonical fairness test for heat network pricing: under AC A6, charges must be "fair and not disproportionate" — and the most defensible operational interpretation is that consumers should not pay materially more on a heat network than they would on an individual gas boiler. The Calculator quantifies the comparison and documents the result.
Reports are produced as PDFs suitable for board approval, inclusion in the Ofgem authorisation evidence pack, and reference in the operator's Fair Pricing Policy (AC A6) and Cost Allocation Policy (AC A7).
The Tariff Calculator is provided free by Heat Network Compliance as part of the wider platform supporting UK heat network operators preparing for Ofgem authorisation. There is no registration, no payment, no usage limit, and no watermark on the output.
The tool is genuinely free because the platform's commercial focus is the Policy Generator, which produces the full Authorisation Conditions documentation set that sits alongside the tariff methodology. Operators who use the Calculator find that a defensible tariff methodology is one piece of a larger compliance picture — the Policy Generator covers the remaining 28 of the 29 Authorisation Conditions.
Ready to model your tariff? The Calculator takes around 10 minutes to produce a first draft.
Open the Tariff CalculatorHeat network pricing is monopolistic by nature — consumers cannot switch supplier — so the regulatory framework substitutes consumer choice with documented justification. Operators need to demonstrate, on demand, that their tariff methodology produces fair, cost-reflective charges and that no relevant payments (penalties, redress orders, service compensation) are being recovered from consumers.
Most operator pricing methodologies were built before the regulatory framework existed. Common failure modes include cost allocation methodologies that bundle unrecoverable costs into consumer charges, standing charge structures that cannot be justified by fixed cost components, and pricing reviews that happen too infrequently to track fuel cost movements.
The Tariff Calculator addresses all three: cost components are structured separately and documented, the standing charge is built from declared fixed-cost components only, and the methodology supports regular review cycles with documented justifications for any change.
The Calculator's output is designed for direct use as evidence under the following Ofgem Authorisation Conditions:
The statutory duty under A6.1 is that charges imposed on Applicable Consumers must be "fair and not disproportionate". The Calculator's counterfactual comparison against individual gas boiler costs provides the fairness evidence; the structured tariff build-up provides the proportionality evidence.
A7.1 requires charges to be "structured, and attributable to costs, in a way that is consistent with the outcome of charges being fair and not disproportionate". The Calculator's separated fuel/efficiency/distribution/standing-charge structure documents exactly that attribution. The output PDF serves as evidence under A7.
A7.2 presumes that charges attributable to penalties, consumer redress orders, or service-standard compensation are unfair and disproportionate. The Calculator's cost-build-up methodology inherently excludes such pass-through.
Any price increase requires 31 days' prior written notice. The PDF report documents the tariff methodology against which any future price change is measured, supporting both the notification content and the justification.
The Calculator also aligns with CIBSE CP1 (Heat Networks: Code of Practice) tariff methodology recommendations and the Heat Trust voluntary code where applicable.
Used by operators preparing for Ofgem authorisation across the UK.
References available on request.
AC A6.1 of the Heat Networks Authorisation Conditions requires that charges imposed on Applicable Consumers are "fair and not disproportionate" — these are the exact statutory words. The Authority will interpret the condition in accordance with published guidance, but the operational interpretation is that heat network charges should not place consumers in a materially worse position than they would face on an alternative supply (typically an individual gas boiler). The Tariff Calculator quantifies this counterfactual comparison directly.
A6 is about the outcome (charges are fair). A7 is about the method (charges are structured and attributable to costs). They work together: the cost-reflective structure required by A7 is the mechanism by which the fairness required by A6 is achieved and evidenced. A7 also explicitly prohibits the pass-through of "relevant payments" — penalties, redress orders, and service compensation — to consumers.
Yes. No registration is required, there is no payment, there is no usage limit, and the output PDF is not watermarked. The platform's commercial focus is the Policy Generator, which produces the documentation set covering the remaining 28 Authorisation Conditions. The Tariff Calculator is provided as a no-friction entry point and to demonstrate the platform's approach to compliance documentation.
Indirectly, yes. AC B3 requires at least 31 days' prior written notice of any Disadvantageous Unilateral Variation or price increase. The notice itself is a separate document (the Heat Network Compliance Policy Generator produces a B3 contract changes notice template), but the Calculator's PDF report documents the tariff methodology against which any future price change is measured — which is the substantive content the notice references.
The Tariff Calculator covers AC A6 (Fair Pricing) and AC A7 (Cost Allocation) — two of the 29 Authorisation Conditions. The Policy Generator covers the remaining 27 Section A conditions plus all 12 Section B (Supply) and both Section C (Operating) conditions, producing a registration-ready compliance documentation set. The two products are complementary: the Calculator produces the tariff methodology evidence, the Policy Generator produces the policy and procedure evidence.
Open the Tariff Calculator to model your heat network tariff. No registration, no payment, no usage limit — the calculator produces a board-ready PDF aligned to AC A6 and A7 in minutes.
Open the Tariff CalculatorFor the documentation set covering the remaining 27 Authorisation Conditions, see the Heat Network Compliance Policy Generator.
Need to document HIU performance alongside the tariff evidence? Try the HIU Commissioning Tool.