How can they justify the increase in your electricity bill !?

[JD6400]

Just had a email from E-on to say my yearly bill is going up £81 from £103 - £184.
Now this has got me wondering how they can justify this ---

Firstly it is for a spare feeder pillar in a field that uses 0 kWh per year , so the increase from 19p to 29p per kWh should not effect the end bill.
Added to that , even if It was using power , they make a big song and dance about only supplying 100% renewable , so how does the cost of oil suddenly make this more expensive to produce !???

Then the standing charge has near on doubled from 28p per day to 50p per day . Again how does the cost of oil , effect the cost of twisting a couple of cables together ?
Me thinks someone is taking the pish

 

[Rockingit]

Same here (and for all of us, eventually!). The aspect which gets me is the standing charge - the energy useage itself I can stomach(ish) as that makes sense but our standing charge has also doubled to over 50p a day. And of course....it will never drop back down again. And so the shareholders get richer, the exchequor makes another (.52 x 365 @5%) £8 x say 20 million homes = £1.6B in VAT.....

 

[JD6400]

Like you say ,the energy cost I can actually understand , even though it is 100% renewable.
As we are all in it together. (ish)
But the standing charge is nothing but theft in my opinion that will not come back down again !

For several years now I have started turning a blind eye to the bent meters we come across , as the supply authorities waist so much money on the infrastructure and seem to just make up costs for new connections.

If I was that way inclined I would actually encourage bent meters from now on !

 

[pc1966]

Started with the "dash for gas" and now we import far more than we produce, and Vlad has or balls in the vice. Gas is still very much the means of filling in big gaps in renewables (subsidised) and the declining base supply as older coal and nuclear plants are decommissioned without any sensibly planned replacements. Here is it in a nice little infographic:

Dash for Gas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[timhoward]

It can be interesting to look at the live data that is available:

Electricity Data Summary | BMRS

Also National Grid: Live Status - https://grid.iamkate.com/ which is faster to load!

 

[timhoward]

My personal opinion - time to tax energy companies to divert profits to shareholders into a pot to build the nuclear plant we should have started 20 years ago and pretty obviously need.....

 

[Zerax]

The rise in standing charges will probably be justified by the energy companies covering their "losses" from the period where wholesale energy costs increased but the energy price cap was still in place.

And by losses they mean profits lower than expected.

Totally agree...

The ridiculous price cap that Carrie Symmonds introduced was just crazy... the result of it is that we now have far less competition in the market and the guys that are left in the game have massive losses to recoup !

Margins in the retail energy market are very thin... so they will be actually losses.

 

[littlespark]

The standing charge should pay for the improvements in the infrastructure that we will need once everyone goes EV.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Windfall tax nonsense! all that will do is increase the Government coffers and allow the MP's and Civil Servants to give themselves another pay rise, it will make no difference to the consumer, only by capping the price of energy will the consumer benefit.

 

[7029 dave]

Yup was told my tariff price is going up from 19p to 27p per KWh, the increase dont apply until July as fixed in till then.
Looked around some providers are charging 35p per KWh

 

[Mike Johnson]

Welcome to the brave new world of electric everything. Once these price's go up they never go down no matter what produce's the energy.

 

[Dustydazzler]

My standing charge (BG) for electric will go up from 16p per day when my fixed rate ends to 41 pence per day Gas will go up from 23p per day to 27 per day

Current KWH gas 3.1 , rising to 7.3 & electric 18 , rising to 29.4 pence

That is some serious increases when my fix deal ends this April

My very rough calculations , if my consumption remains similar my annual dual fuel bill will rise by about a grand a year

 

[Zerax]

...only by capping the price of energy will the consumer benefit.

No !!!! That's a massive part of the problem that we have right now !!!

We need to scrap all these silly government interventions and somehow reinstate all those companies that were bankrupted by the energy price cap... to allow more competition ! The free market is the way to go. State intervention in pricing causes all sorts of problems and issues... as is demonstrated right now.

 

[Mike Johnson]

The free market eventually drives price's up, it's OK for a while when they compete with each other, but eventually they combine and away we go with price's going up as they form a .................

 

[OnlQQker]

All I'm trying to design now is a lightening storage/harnessing device that I can then sell the electricity for free!

Till that point I'm now candlemaking!

 

[Zerax]

The free market eventually drives price's up, it's OK for a while when they compete with each other, but eventually they combine and away we go with price's going up as they form a .................

But that isn't what we had with the energy suppliers... we had a myriad of smaller companies offering very good rates for many years... it's only the insane neo-socialist government intervention of 'price capping' that forced them out of the market. Now we have a handful of massive companies, who can easily control the market. Massive government mistake because they pandered rather than told the general public the facts of life.

I think for some customers, it was costing the supplier something like 3x the price they were charging... that is simply unsustainable and wrong.

 

[Diddy]

Added to that , even if It was using power , they make a big song and dance about only supplying 100% renewable ,

Renewables price was subsidised by those who used fossil fuels. Now it is the other way round. End of the day it is a case of all in it together. Where have I heard that before ?

 

[nicebutdim]

Started with the "dash for gas" and now we import far more than we produce, and Vlad has or balls in the vice. Gas is still very much the means of filling in big gaps in renewables (subsidised) and the declining base supply as older coal and nuclear plants are decommissioned without any sensibly planned replacements. Here is it in a nice little infographic:

Dash for Gas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's worth pointing out that, while mainland Europe obtains around 40% of its gas supply from Russia, the UK relies on Russia for approximately 3% of its gas.

Of course those countries that can no longer buy from Russia will drive up prices as the seek to secure alternative sources of supply. I'll keep my thoughts to myself about the recent trend of price increases for all forms of energy.

 

[Mike Johnson]

But that isn't what w we had a myriad of smaller companies offering very good rates for many years...

I don't know how where you get your information, but where do you thing these myriad of smaller companies go there supplies from? They did not have an independent source.

 

[nicebutdim]

I don't know how where you get your information, but where do you thing these myriad of smaller companies go there supplies from? They did not have an independent source.

They bought on the wholesale market, added a margin, and sold to consumers.

Like any commercial enterprise they saw an opportunity to make a profit and perhaps were happy to make lower margins than some other companies. What they were unlikely to have factored into their forecasts was the unexpected development of price capping. I'm not sure why you think price capping is a great idea as it doesn't benefit those who are frugal with their energy use and certainly doesn't encourage energy efficiency. Imagine you're the sort of person who is minded to run gas heating full pelt, 24 hours a day, while leaving windows open on the coldest nights in winter as the house is unbearably hot - a family across the road do exactly that and I guess they see no reason not to, if their gas supplier are unable to charge more than a certain amount.

Edit: In case it isn't apparant, I'll make the point that you pay to heat homes just like the one across the road from me.