Shropshire households cut back on gas use

Shropshire households are using less gas than they were five years ago, according to latest figures.

The data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change shows domestic consumers in the county are using less than they were in the past. However, the figures show bigger discrepancies between commercial and industrial customers in the region with some actually buying more units of gas than previously.

The latest figures available for comparison in the report are from 2008.

It shows that commercial and industrial businesses in the Bridgnorth area accounted for more than a million kWh in sales per consumer on average, compared to 863,232kWh in 2005.

Supply

The Telford & Wrekin area also shows an increase of 130,861kWh of sales per consumer on average for commercial and industrial use to 872,770kWh and Oswestry an increase of 65,179kWh.

The Shrewsbury and Atcham area saw a reduction from 702,497kWh in 2005 to 628,327kWh while north and south Shropshire have also seen a decrease in gas use.

But in terms of supply to homes all areas of the county are consuming less than they were five years ago.

The biggest fall has been in the north Shropshire area of 2,318kWh in sales per consumer for average domestic consumption. This is followed by customers in south Shropshire, a drop of 2,239kWh, and Bridgnorth with a reduction of 2,199kWh compared to 2005.

A report by the department, created by the Government in 2008, says: "Over the last six years, extensive developmental work has taken place as part of the regional energy project to produce new sub national energy datasets.

"One of the major drawbacks of the data is the lack of a reliable domestic industrial/commercial sector split for consumers with a low gas consumption. This is because the gas industry uses a crude 73,200kWh level as the cut off point for defining customers as domestic or commercial/ industrial.

"The implication of this is that only around half a million businesses are allocated to the industrial/commercial sector, with around two million small and medium businesses allocated incorrectly to the domestic sector.

"DECC is currently looking at improving the allocation of businesses to the industrial/commercial sector by using information from the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR)."