Force electricity consumption 59/2026

FOI Reference: 59/2026

Request:

Please provide the following information for all Police Force owned and operated buildings in your area:

1. The total number of separately metered buildings as of the most recent date available for the calendar year 2025:
2. The aggregate annual electricity standing charges paid for all buildings.
3. The total electricity consumption, in kilowatt-hours (kWh), across all buildings.
4. The aggregate cost of the electricity consumed (excluding standing charges).
5. The aggregate cost of Climate Change Levies. 

Response 1:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

68

Response 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however, exception Regulation 12(5)(e) applies. Please see the end of the document for an explanation of the applied exception.

Response 3:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

4,658,333.4 kWh

Response 4:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however, exception Regulation 12(5)(e) applies. Please see the end of the document for an explanation of the applied exception.

Response 5:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

£34960.95

Explanation of the applied exception:

Regulation 12(5)(e) provides that a public authority may refuse to disclose information to

the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect the confidentiality of commercial or

industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate

economic interest.

In Dyfed-Powys Police’s view, questions 2 and 4 engage this exception.

In reaching this conclusion, Dyfed-Powys Police have taken into account the four-stage test included in the Information Commissioner’s guidance on this exception.

• The information is commercial.
• Confidentiality is provided by law - The Information Commissioner’s guidance advises that, in this context, this will include confidentiality imposed on any person by the common law of confidence, contractual obligation or statute.
• The confidentiality is protecting a legitimate economic interest as each utility provider has a legitimate economic interest to provide the competitive commodity to each customer.
• The disclosure could adversely affect the confidentiality as this would disclose confidential pricing of each element of each commodity to potential competitors.

As set out in the Information Commissioner’s guidance, once the first three elements are established, the Commissioner considers it is inevitable that this element will be satisfied.

Assessment of the public interest

Considerations Favouring Disclosure:

There is a requirement to provide to the general public a better understanding of how public funds are spent. There is a significant public interest in openness and transparency. In this case, there is a public interest in the consumption and cost of Dyfed-Powys Police’s electricity usage.

Considerations Favouring Non-disclosure:

The public interest against disclosure is in preventing harm to utility provider’s legitimate economic interests from the disclosure of confidential and commercially sensitive information provided to Dyfed-Powys Police. Disclosure would provide potential commercial counterparties and competitors with valuable information that could be used to advance a proposal, which would damage the commercial position of the current utility provider through that information being used by those third parties to their own advantage.

Furthermore, there is also a public interest in not enabling commercially sensitive

information to be shared between actual or potential competitors and which is reflected in

competition law. Undermining this through the application of the EIR would be significantly

contrary to the public interest.

As a result, the utility supplier could sue Dyfed-Powys Police for disclosure of commercially sensitive information, which would result in an additional cost burden upon the taxpayer, which is contrary to the public’s interest.

Balancing Test:

When balancing the public interest test, we have to consider whether the information should be released into the public domain. Advantages and disadvantages of disclosure need to be weighed against each other. In this case there is the use of public funds favouring disclosure which needs to be weighed against the damage that would occur to any ongoing or future tender process and the commercial interests of third parties.

By releasing the requested information, the commercial interests of a business and individuals may be compromised including that of Dyfed-Powys Police, along with the relationship that Dyfed-Powys Police have with that company/supplier or persons. Therefore, the factor favouring non-disclosure, which is damage would occur to any future tender process, and the commercial interests of third parties outweighs the factor favouring disclosure, which is better understanding of how public funds are spent.

As such, the public interest favours non-disclosure of the information at this time. Therefore, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.                                             

(This is a response under the Environmental Information Regulations Act 2004 and disclosed on 09/02/2026)