Energy Suppliers

[MissChief]

Interestingly in the news today, there has been a load of modern stuff built for renewable energy with no capacity on the grid to connect it, Ofgem have recently approved a SC increase (which they say is so small to be felt by customers) to get the capacity increased, some companies have been quoted a waiting time of over 10 years to connect up to the grid.

Short termism I expect led to this situation.

Profit over infrastructure. Such is the way of private companies where profit and dividends are more important than anything else. If its a Utility then it shouldn't be in private hands.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Profit over infrastructure. Such is the way of private companies where profit and dividends are more important than anything else. If its a Utility then it shouldn't be in private hands.

Its not really this its lack of coherent government policy.

 

[theone8181]

Hmm despite giving several reading on octopus go, I've not paid anything for electric since December. I'm hoping they just spilt it as I'd been doing previously which is about a third usage during the day and 2/3rds on a night.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Hmm despite giving several reading on octopus go, I've not paid anything for electric since December. I'm hoping they just spilt it as I'd been doing previously which is about a third usage during the day and 2/3rds on a night.

Odd how did you get onto go since its a smart meter only tariff and always has been from what I can tell.

 

[ChrisD.]

British Gas rang me and asked me why I was leaving and I explained the billing situation. They said they only produce bills for fixed amount direct debits every 6 months and then use account credit to pay it. They then offered £75 credit to my account to stay. I declined, citing that it's difficult to get in touch with them, the live chat sends you on a loop and ringing them takes ages to get through to anyone.

 

[MissChief]

British Gas rang me and asked me why I was leaving and I explained the billing situation. They said they only produce bills for fixed amount direct debits every 6 months and then use account credit to pay it. They then offered £75 credit to my account to stay. I declined, citing that it's difficult to get in touch with them, the live chat sends you on a loop and ringing them takes ages to get through to anyone.

Clearly they’re making more than £75 profit from you, although over what period I can’t say. Probably three months.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

BG have been doing this a bit I have heard.
I suspect they have been losing a lot of customers.

Everyone only seems to move to octopus.

I think the attack on Octopus the big companies tried to make over the Bulb takeover was a sign they are worried.

Octopus are not perfect, but they are less imperfect than the rest of them.

Clearly they’re making more than £75 profit from you, although over what period I can’t say. Probably three months.

Won't be anything like that high.
The retail side makes very low per customer profit. Its IIRC something like £30 per year, not £300 as you suggest.

The main issue is the £75 will be a different budget, it will come from a customer retention and new business marketing type fund.
Just like when you get a cashback payment for switching to a new supplier.
Instead of it going to youswitch or someone who take a cut they are paying it directly to the end customer.

 

[theone8181]

Odd how did you get onto go since its a smart meter only tariff and always has been from what I can tell.

Oh my smart worked to start with with them (and the gas one still sends readings). Not sure why the electric one stopped sending them. Reading by hand is overrated .

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Oh my smart worked to start with with them (and the gas one still sends readings). Not sure why the electric one stopped sending them. Reading by hand is overrated .

Ah that makes sense.
Havent they tried to fix it?

I can see why your not in a rush, a third of usage in that short 4 hour window unless you have house batteries is highly unlikely so your benefitting a lot

 

[theone8181]

Ah that makes sense.
Havent they tried to fix it?

I can see why your not in a rush, a third of usage in that short 4 hour window unless you have house batteries is highly unlikely so your benefitting a lot

Tbh it's 6 hours as it's not the normal go, bug I did manage to shift a lot. It helps that the car uses as much as the house for the year (which takes it to 50/50) then a few other things overnight just pushes it over.

 

[jpaul]

because we are worth it, national audit report octopus(hiveco sub company) payed £93 referral per bulb customer to tax payer

On 20 December 2022 Octopus paid £113 million for the Bulb customer book, based on £93 for every actively paying dual fuel customer and £46.50 for every single fuel customer. BEIS injected £160 million cash into Bulb to offset its remaining liabilities transferred to HiveCo, including customer credit balances and renewables obligations, to leave HiveCo with net assets of £1
....
On 14 October 2022, Ofgem completed its review of the proposed sale deal to assess whether Octopus had suitable financial and operational capabilities in place to ensure consumers’ interests were protected.21 Ofgem concluded that: • operationally, there was a risk that Octopus’s systems and processes were not robust enough for the scale of new customers; • financially, Octopus needed sufficient capital and reserves to buy energy for Bulb customers, as well as financing its existing entities, but that its rapid growth had resulted in a weaker financial position compared with other large suppliers. Ofgem also identified risks around Octopus’s low levels of investor support, and its over-reliance on customer credit balances for working capital; and • overall, Octopus could manage the operational risks, but that the financial risks were more difficult to assess.

 

[413x]

British Gas rang me and asked me why I was leaving and I explained the billing situation. They said they only produce bills for fixed amount direct debits every 6 months and then use account credit to pay it. They then offered £75 credit to my account to stay. I declined, citing that it's difficult to get in touch with them, the live chat sends you on a loop and ringing them takes ages to get through to anyone.

Lol. Must be due to everyone leaving. Never heard of this before with energy suppliers.

And must be octopus. Internet and in real life I've only heard people switching to octopus. No exceptions

 

[pastymuncher]

What is the point of smart meters if the company doesn't take any notice of the readings? On 25th April our switch to Octopus from Sainsbury's Energy completed and I did what I was asked and supplied matching meter reads to both companies. The gas reading went through and I rapidly got a final bill but Sainsbury's contested the electric read and said it should have been higher. In actual fact it should have been lower as the switch completed a 00.01 am 25/4/23 but not according to them. They can both access the smart meters so why the hell couldn't they get the readings themselves? Not having to do meter readings is the only advantage for me to have a smart meter so why can't they just agree on a figure from the live data?

 

[ChrisD.]

The switch seems to have completed, I can see actual data in my Octopus account including usage as reported by my meters. I can even download it all in csv. Very cool, and leagues ahead of the British Gas approach of only showing you your latest reading and whether you're paying enough or not.

 

[Rainmaker]

I switched to Octopus recently, too. We've had a smart meter for years, and they are literally the first and only company who've shown us an actual usage breakdown. Nice.

 

[TNA]

I switched to Octopus recently, too. We've had a smart meter for years, and they are literally the first and only company who've shown us an actual usage breakdown. Nice.

Yep. I had it installed last year knowing I was going octopus and they are easily the best

 

[kieran_read]

Its not really this its lack of coherent government policy.

A bit of column A and a bit of Colum B I find.

In my local area they are planning on building new Electric Pylons through all the fields as a "temporary" measure as they will remove them and run them under the sea in the future.... well... why not just start running them in the sea in the first place.
Government Policy sucks as they should stop it, company policies suck because they are just doing it as a cost cutting.

 

[reilly]

I had a fixed Octopus Agile contract that will be ending in 30th June. Happy with Agile, Standing Charge was 21p per day, which is going up to 44p if I renew. I assume there is nothing better from Octopus. PS no electric car, battery, solar. house of 2 adults, below average 3000 KWH per a year consumption.

Will most likely take the deal as there is no exit fee, can then reassess if standing charges come down later this year.

 

[chrcoluk]

I had a fixed Octopus Agile contract that will be ending in 30th June. Happy with Agile, Standing Charge was 21p per day, which is going up to 44p if I renew. I assume there is nothing better from Octopus. PS no electric car, battery, solar. house of 2 adults, below average 3000 KWH per a year consumption.

Will most likely take the deal as there is no exit fee, can then reassess if standing charges come down later this year.

Just posted same thing in other, thread, we both one day apart as well.

If it helps, I took the deal, as it will still be much cheaper than SVR, providing dailies dont move upwards too much. Its still penalty free immediate exit if it all goes **** up.

I might try to haggle a renewal of the old terms (as worse they can say is no and I am back on the path i am already on).

 

[theone8181]

I got an email recently saying the rate had dropped (from a random company). Not sure if/when this will get passed on. I'm sure it said the rate was something like 6p for gas.