Yet again ofgem aiding and abetting and nothing done by the government. No doubt news headlines of record profits soon to follow...
Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)
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Soldato
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yeah thats the whole issue, people struggle to pay it, whist the companys make profit, its a necessity you cannot live without
I think we're approaching the tipping point for people on fixed incomes.
Labour is a disaster so far. It's done nothing what it said it was going to in this area.
The bean counters are only interested in numbers on a balance sheet. They don't care about the people and the real world consequences of price rises.
www.pressandjournal.co.uk
Starmer is a liar. I remember watching a parliamentary committee about GB Energy with the guy in charge. When asked how he's going to cut bills he said he didn't know. That wasn't how GB Energy was setup.
Labour is a disaster so far. It's done nothing what it said it was going to in this area.
The bean counters are only interested in numbers on a balance sheet. They don't care about the people and the real world consequences of price rises.
Keir Starmer FAILS to repeat pledge that Aberdeen-based GB Energy will cut bills by £500
The prime minister refused to repeat Labour's pre-election pledge but insisted it would stabilise prices.
www.pressandjournal.co.uk
Starmer is a liar. I remember watching a parliamentary committee about GB Energy with the guy in charge. When asked how he's going to cut bills he said he didn't know. That wasn't how GB Energy was setup.
Soldato
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Its unfair to say such a thing, the government are doing plenty, what they are doing is causing energy to go up.
Don't ask the government to do anything, ask instead that they ***** off.
I need to look at mine also. I'm on the old tracker rates which finish in a few days - I imagine it will be close these days.
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Just use less power poor people
This is a pretty simple explanation that only takes a couple of minutes to read.
If the UK has lots of renewables, why do electricity prices follow gas prices?
Electricity prices are set by the most expensive source that needs to be ‘turned on’ at any given time – that’s usually gas.www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com
You have to bear in mind that most people are on fixed or standard billing so the energy cos have to make assumptions on pricing.
If you move to a TOU (tiem of use) tariff such as octopus agile you will see lower bills generally as its tied to the half hourly pricing.
Or a daily priced one such as Octopus Tracker that is same price for the whole day, but varies by day.
Both the above though come with a risk of high or very high unit costs should there be low wind, low solar and high demand. (Such as overcast, still, cold winter days)
Especially for the peaks (morning breakfast and the biggest peak, evening meal time)
In many free markets all generators are paid the price that the most recent generation that came on is paid, so if renewable can't fill peak demand they have to turn on gas or coal then the renewable gets paid the same. It's kinda stupid but if they didn't then they'd be picking winners and losers. Adding more renewable generation makes supply more peaky and less stable (because solar doesn't generate at night, the wind doesn't always blow and batteries are too expensive), leading to higher peak prices and therefore your cost becomes more tied to generation that can be turned on quickly at peak times, like gas
The only way to overcome this volatility in prices is to overbuild baseload, build a few massive hydro dams. But you'll never get private investors to go for this, because it will lower the ROI for all generators, only the government can get a project like this off the ground
Free markets in electricity tend to all be heading in the same direction - power prices going up because when your generation is built solely based on the return on investment, the only generation that will get built is the type that is most expensive and gets the best prices (higher) for investors and not customers
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It's just an example of baseload, there are others - such as nuclear, geothermal etc
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The entire system we are pursuing doesnt work. It could work with the gas generators owned and run by the government but they wont do that for ideological reasons. The current plan is literally baking in expensive energy and as we add more renewables the price gas plants need to charge to be profitable becomes more and more expensive.
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Severn estuary, Humber estuary.
Those are not hydro plants, they would be tidal plants which are ultimately untested and experimental which was the reason those plans were canned originally.
I’m not saying they are a bad idea, just very risky in that they may not work.
I’d also love to know where you think we can build geothermal in the U.K.
Nuclear costs £megaLOL and always has, not just now but also for tens of thousands of years while the waste deteriorates to the point it becomes harmless. Oh yes the power station and the waste has to be protected by armed guards because it’s a gigantic security risk.
As @200sols points out though, the current market economics doesn’t work and is going to make less and less sense moving forward. Gas power stations are running for less time, and that means the capital deployed needs to be recovered from less energy produced so it gets more and more expensive the less it runs.
That said, all the wind farms (and Nuclear stations) that have been built recently and all those under construction operate on a strike price, if the wholesale price moves above the strike price, the wind farm pays back the difference so they don’t benefit from the peak pricing. However it does me we don’t benefit so much if it’s extremely windy and the price goes through the floor.
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The Thames could be used as a test bed as there is already the barrier.
As raising sea levels continue more tidal barriers will be required - they should be built to harness tidal.
Is that a serious comment? The Themes tidal barrier and the proposed tidal lagoon near Swansea are literally are nothing alike.
The only similarity is literally (by its correct definition) the word tidal in the name.
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