Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

chrcoluk · 26 Jul 2023

Had to change Octopus back to variable DD as it got changed to fixed on the summer tariff changes. Done via twitter DM again, messaged 7am, and done by 9am, easily the best way of contacting Octopus now in my opinion, seems only need security check on the first DM so after that its just a message.

This got a bill issued, and the cost is extremely close to my last Agile bill in terms of amount vs days covered. Just bit higher due to increase in SC.

Last agile bill for 30 days £39 inc VAT etc. First Tracker £43 for 26 days inc VAT etc. Usage is lower though for the period, 151 vs 168 units. I expect a full 30 days with similar usage would be close to what I predicted with it costing circa £6-7 more due to losing the lower SC, but actually about £9-10 more instead, about £4 for the usage and another £1.70 for SC. I probably did benefit a little as well from Agile's time of use charging.

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On fuse its nice to see a supplier not offering fixed DD. As I do think fixed DD is contributing to the problems in the supplier market. Also itneresting though as I though Ofgem required it to be offered?

pastymuncher · 26 Jul 2023

What a massive difference switching to Octopus's Tracker has made. Last month I was £84.52 for electric and £12.27 for gas. This month is £40.07 for electric and £7.48 for gas. The thing that really gets me is that blasted standing charge. I only used 99p worth of gas this month and the rest was bloody SC!! Even on electricity the SC made up a third of the cost. I know it's the same for everyone but we are told we need to use less energy yet when we do we get hit by fixed standing charges that we can't do anything about.

MatsyLR · 26 Jul 2023

pastymuncher said:
What a massive difference switching to Octopus's Tracker has made. Last month I was £84.52 for electric and £12.27 for gas. This month is £40.07 for electric and £7.48 for gas. The thing that really gets me is that blasted standing charge. I only used 99p worth of gas this month and the rest was bloody SC!! Even on electricity the SC made up a third of the cost. I know it's the same for everyone but we are told we need to use less energy yet when we do we get hit by fixed standing charges that we can't do anything about.

Been on tracker for awhile. I have a similar low gas usage of around a quid with electric around £40. The standing charge grinds my gears on the gas when I see it, I get why but it's still depressing looking at it.

MadMossy · 27 Jul 2023

British Gas report profits up 900% in 6 months.

That's profiteering from an essential market. Of course nothing will be done about it as usual.

woppy101 · 27 Jul 2023

MadMossy said:
British Gas report profits up 900% in 6 months.

That's profiteering from an essential market. Of course nothing will be done about it as usual.

Of course nothing will be done, too many kickbacks will be lost

200sols · 27 Jul 2023

It helps if you read past the first line.

It said the bulk of the growth, however, was not down to any trading windfall from high energy prices but a reduction in debt-related costs.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 27 Jul 2023

Latest cornwall update :

We have released our latest price cap predictions covering the period Oct 2023 to Sept 2024.
For a typical consumer, we are forecasting:
Oct-Dec 23: £1,860 p/a
Jan-Mar 24: £1,958 p/a
Apr-Jun 24: £1,916 p/a
Jul-Sept 24: £1,870 p/a

Uther · 27 Jul 2023

It doesn't matter about the truth of that 900% increase in profits, the headline will be enough to cause outrage, rightly or wrongly.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 27 Jul 2023

Ouch

Standing Charge/Unit Costs forecasts:
Oct-Dec 23SC (£/day): Elec-0.50, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-28.27, Gas-7.06
Jan-Mar 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.50, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-29.46, Gas-7.63
Apr-Jun 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.57, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-27.83, Gas-7.39
Jul-Sept 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.57, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-26.70, Gas-7.25

delta0 · 27 Jul 2023

MadMossy said:
British Gas report profits up 900% in 6 months.

That's profiteering from an essential market. Of course nothing will be done about it as usual.

I hope someone actually digs into the accounts here to determine if more money was actually made from the higher price.

Richie · 27 Jul 2023

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Ouch

Standing Charge/Unit Costs forecasts:
Oct-Dec 23SC (£/day): Elec-0.50, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-28.27, Gas-7.06
Jan-Mar 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.50, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-29.46, Gas-7.63
Apr-Jun 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.57, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-27.83, Gas-7.39
Jul-Sept 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.57, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-26.70, Gas-7.25

Some areas are already paying a lot more in SC than those figures.

SC should be equal throughout the UK just like the unit charges (equal per supplier I mean if course)

b0rn2sk8 · 27 Jul 2023

From BBC:

About half of the profit was due to the changes to the price cap made by the energy regulator.

Ofgem had raised the allowance suppliers can claim from household bills to make up for costs incurred during the pandemic.

British Gas: Anger as energy bill change leads to record profits https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66315117

reef · 27 Jul 2023

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Ouch

Standing Charge/Unit Costs forecasts:
Oct-Dec 23SC (£/day): Elec-0.50, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-28.27, Gas-7.06
Jan-Mar 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.50, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-29.46, Gas-7.63
Apr-Jun 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.57, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-27.83, Gas-7.39
Jul-Sept 24SC (£/day): Elec-0.57, Gas-0.29UC (p/kWh): Elec-26.70, Gas-7.25

Still almost 50% higher than Winter 2021/22. This despite wholesale gas prices being about the same level (sub-£1/therm since April). Its never going back is it?

The standing charges are criminal now aswell. £300 a year before you even use anything.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 27 Jul 2023

Richie said:
Some areas are already paying a lot more in SC than those figures.

SC should be equal throughout the UK just like the unit charges (equal per supplier I mean if course)

I assume they are the average SC

I agree on SCs, although its a difficult one because clearly the infra costs in a dense area are far less than the wilds of Scotland for example.
Gas for example is not the same across the UK, it also varies by region

Simon · 27 Jul 2023

People pay £7 a month for apple backup /Netflix/YouTube then get upset to pay the same for gas delivery to their house ?

Richie · 27 Jul 2023

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
I assume they are the average SC

I agree on SCs, although its a difficult one because clearly the infra costs in a dense area are far less than the wilds of Scotland for example.
Gas for example is not the same across the UK, it also varies by region

I appreciate the additional costs involved with some areas but, in your example of Scotland, these same areas produce so much electricity that they are considered net exporters to the rest of the UK yet have to then pay more to have electric supplied.

SC should be the same throughout the UK... I know others will disagree

What makes me chuckle a little is that I have been mentioning exorbitant SC charges for a while now and the general response on this forum was to "suck it up buttercup, its not that bad".... Fast forward to today and, now that more people are seeing the same level of SC as I was complaining about (circa 45-50p/day), its now a problem. Hey, suck it up buttercups :cry:

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 27 Jul 2023

Richie said:
I appreciate the additional costs involved with some areas but, in your example of Scotland, these same areas produce so much electricity that they are considered net exporters to the rest of the UK yet have to then pay more to have electric supplied.

SC should be the same throughout the UK... I know others will disagree

What makes me chuckle a little is that I have been mentioning exorbitant SC charges for a while now and the general response on this forum was to "suck it up buttercup, its not that bad".... Fast forward to today and, now that more people are seeing the same level of SC as I was complaining about (circa 45-50p/day), its now a problem. Hey, suck it up buttercups

Im in pretty much the same situation as you, East coast so lots of offshore and also a nuke in my patch

I am not against SC. I don't believe structural costs should be recovered via units.
I do however think that the SC should be limited to only genuine structural costs.

I know some say its not a lot per consumer but the recovery of the bailout monies or security of customer deposits should probably have been split 50/50 between SC and unit costs.
Or really, just taken to government debt in general.

Richie · 27 Jul 2023

Simon said:
People pay £7 a month for apple backup /Netflix/YouTube then get upset to pay the same for gas delivery to their house ?

Why choose just gas when not everyone has Gas. Everyone has elec which is a lot more than £7/month.

For some people with both Gas and Elec, the charges are almost £30/month

Richie · 27 Jul 2023

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Im in pretty much the same situation as you, East coast so lots of offshore and also a nuke in my patch

I am not against SC. I don't believe structural costs should be recovered via units.
I do however think that the SC should be limited to only genuine structural costs.

Agreed but I'll extend that to the SC being the same throughout the UK. Differing regions should not be paying more than other regions for a vital service.

darkgen · 27 Jul 2023

Richie said:
Some areas are already paying a lot more in SC than those figures.

SC should be equal throughout the UK just like the unit charges (equal per supplier I mean if course)

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
I assume they are the average SC

I agree on SCs, although its a difficult one because clearly the infra costs in a dense area are far less than the wilds of Scotland for example.
Gas for example is not the same across the UK, it also varies by region

I had a bee in my bonnet earlier in the thread with SC and proposing a quasi-consolidation into UC but conceded that for fairness it needed to remain for households who were net contributors to the grid via solar.

I can see the argument that rural areas could cost more to maintain than urban but then surely the volume density of customers in urban cities centres would subsidise these additional costs for rural. SC should be universal across the entire country, irrespective of location and equalised to maintain that universal cost.

I am somewhat agog at what the SC charge includes these days, whether it be for infrastructure maintenance, previous failed suppliers, green levies, another cheeky contractual protection steal for the producers or simply another blag for tax.