Hi I am just wondering does anyone understand the charges for natural gas in a retail premises. We buy gas from Energia for heating and they have a monthly Site Capacity Charge of €422 (€5064 annually) to us as part of their bill. I have tried to understand this charge on the various websites and have spoken to Energia and Bord Gais and it appears to be a charge on maintaining their ability to supply peak consumption. The people I spoke to as part of their helpline couldn't really explain it to my satisfaction. This charge comes in on your bill every month even if you don't use any gas at all (during summer for example). While the unit price for Energia is competitive at 0.03222 per unit the cost rises to double that when you take in this charge. Has anyone out there studied all this and when one takes these charges into account is natural gas the cheapest option.