Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

Hagar said:
We have some of the highest tidal ranges in the world between the Severn estuary and Morecambe Bay. I would have loved to design a barrage in either of those locations providing a transport crossing and power generation.
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That would forward thinking and planning, an anathema to any politician whose horizon stretches no further than the next election result.
 
Chris Wilson said:
I was busy earlier but was going to post that there will soon be those annoyed they've locked themselves into a needlessly expensive scheme. Being old school I have refused all the pressure Scottish Power have brought to bear on me to go direct debit, so have total control over how much I pay, and indeed, when I pay. People do indeed moan, some are truly professional in the art... :)
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Fixed tariff I was offered came with zero exit fee. As I'd been holding off on whether to go for it or wait and see what Liz comes up with.
 
Seems the strongest rumour now is £2500 cap whilst keeping the £400, but unknown length of time.

That would be roughly 33-34p unit rate for electric and 9p for gas, so I (me personally as my agile is 35p with half price SC) would keep Agile if they do that but ditch gas tracker.
 
So with the cap freeze. It'll have to be paid back at some point. Either in taxes or in energy prices in the future. I wonder what alternatives exist?

Regardless of the decision it'll have to be paid back at some point.

Unless we can find an innovative way of lowering the cost of energy that doesn't lead to price gouging in the future not sure what else can be done.

The concept of sustainable energy was underpinned by cheaper prices, but for some reason it's not translating that way at the moment.

I guess if nothing happens people will have to either pay through the roof and some will get cut off. Or we ration, but that seems pretty bleak. Or we have an energy mortgage that we repay over time. Any other options? I guess if you include a windfall tax on top it just buys us time.

The standing charge rates I believe was to cover the companies that went bust over the last few years. So they're not going to disappear some even if you become 50% reliant on solar or alternate energy generation you'll still be paying significant charges.

It's a bit of a mess. I'm not clever enough to think of something bold that the government can do that doesn't screw some people over.

I just hope we get some visionary leadership that will seek innovative solutions even if not successful actually trying to create a more equitable future and energy generation has to be the focus!?
 
squerble said:
So Liz's energy plan is to add £130bn of debt to freeze energy prices. Nice.
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To be fair thats vastly better than sticking it on SC.

We do have a very anti government debt stance in this country much more than other nations, nations with much higher debt than us are still doing ok.

The loan idea the suppliers had would have eventually moved to government debt anyway as its unlikely they would have been able to pay it back.
 
Blackjack Davy said:
That would forward thinking and planning, an anathema to any politician whose horizon stretches no further than the next election result.
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Absolutely this. Despite tidal barrage generators likely to have a lifespan of 120 years and pay for themselves many times over, thinking only in 4 or 5 year election cycles means no Government will pony up the financial support to build the things. Tidal isn't suitable everywhere in the world but the UK is one of the few places it is viable because the generation potential is impactful and can be located close to the demand and we have the second strongest tides n the world after Canada.
 
Agree with the previous poster, we need a two tier cap. First X at a certain rate with the following uncapped or with less subsidy.
What were going to end up with is the government subsidies going mostly to help heavy users with the stated PR goal of helping the needy. What that will do is reduce the incentives to insulate homes, install solar, etc etc while helping the rich.
Whether you believe that's the political goal or not is interesting
 
cfletch said:
Agree with the previous poster, we need a two tier cap. First X at a certain rate with the following uncapped or with less subsidy.
What were going to end up with is the government subsidies going mostly to help heavy users with the stated PR goal of helping the needy. What that will do is reduce the incentives to insulate homes, install solar, etc etc while helping the rich.
Whether you believe that's the political goal or not is interesting
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Its the way to go, but we seem to always go for simple as possible remedies.

Billing would be easy to change to support it, Octopus are already capable of adjusting unit price per hour on their trackers.

With tiered unit pricing that 130billion would probably be at least down 1/3 minimum.
 
cfletch said:
Agree with the previous poster, we need a two tier cap. First X at a certain rate with the following uncapped or with less subsidy.
What were going to end up with is the government subsidies going mostly to help heavy users with the stated PR goal of helping the needy. What that will do is reduce the incentives to insulate homes, install solar, etc etc while helping the rich.
Whether you believe that's the political goal or not is interesting
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Higher usage doesn't equal rich.

Plenty of rich people have low usage as they can afford well insulated modern homes with solar panels, home battery storage and other gizmos.

Plenty of less well off people are stuck in a rut of paying for high usage as they can't afford to improve their home so end up wasting energy to keep the property warm.

You then have higher usage due to people being at home more (WFH, carers etc), pensioners use more as you feel the cold as you get older, families that are already struggling with living costs but still need their kids to have a shower etc etc

Its not as simple as people make out and the government needs to act quickly what with the wasted summer. Long-term it could be feasible, alongside funding to help people improve their home energy efficiency.
 
My flat has a communal heating system which is regarded as commercial and therefore there is no price cap for it, no ofgem intervention at all. Unit rate for heating is 30p per KWH, over 3x domestic. Yep, we get no help from the government at all.

There's many many flats like this by the way. All communal systems / heat networks are regarded as commercial.
 
Goodie said:
I think it starts at 3% and increases with how long you've been with them. I've been with them for 15 months and I get 4%, 5% should come in the third year.
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I get, 5% in the past they used to like you to keep credit below £1000 but now I'm not sure?

I used to over pay all year and pull it out at Xmas.
 
If they are freezing the price cap does that mean those who took out a fix will end up paying more or will fixed tariffs be included?
 
chrcoluk said:
Seems the strongest rumour now is £2500 cap whilst keeping the £400, but unknown length of time.

That would be roughly 33-34p unit rate for electric and 9p for gas, so I (me personally as my agile is 35p with half price SC) would keep Agile if they do that but ditch gas tracker.
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This somewhat seems like the worst option given we've had to give £1,200 in support to some people for this year with the ~2K cap.
 
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