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My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?

zora said:
I just figured out our energy usage (with a slight hiccup before realising that gas units on the meter do not equal kwh...).
A bit shocked to find that our 3 person household used more in 2021 than is quoted as average for a 4-5 person household.

While this equated in my flatshare to £35 per person per month, I didn't really feel the need to consider our energy use much, but now it's obviously different.

I do hope that we can make some fairly easy savings. For the last two years with this usage, one person was either on furlough or permanently wfh during the winter months; and while I was on furlough during that long harsh winter lockdown, having a nice toasty home was one of the few pleasures in life, so the heating was on pretty much round the clock.

From this autumn, we'll all be working outside the home most of the time; my flatmate who is wfh is moving out. She also has a penchant for really long showers and baths (think 1-2 hours of running hot water, per day). And while, as platinumsage says, this amounts to a much smaller fraction compared to heating use than I thought, it should still make a difference.

Also need to have a think about how to keep the heat in. The flat is very poorly insulated, with large single-glazed, rickety-at-the-edges sash windows. A thermal curtain for the especially gappy living room window might be a start.
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You used to be able to get kits for perspex secondary double glazing. Is this still a thing - or are we too rich to bother - until now?
 
If electricity prices are decoupled from gas and your supplier is 100% renewables (eg: Bulb) then prices should come down quite a bit?
 
Don't think so, I think they're tied to the price of gas too for some strange reason, by government edict.
 
It's also measured in therms, or British Thermal Units (BTUs). The metric equivalent is kWh with 1 therm = about 30 kWh. Measuring in kWh also gives a comparison with electrical energy so is useful that way - tells you how many kW delivered over how many hours.
 
magneze said:
If electricity prices are decoupled from gas and your supplier is 100% renewables (eg: Bulb) then prices should come down quite a bit?
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It's not really 100% renewables, it's a kind of jiggery-pokery.

If it was that easy everyone could switch to a 100% renewable tariff and get cheaper electricity, and all the gas and coal power stations could then be permanently closed.
 
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Most suppliers claim renewable energy but only purchase certificates and don't actually generate the energy. Good Energy, Green Energy and Ecotricity are the exceptions I know of.
There are only 3 suppliers in the UK that supply energy which is 100% generated from renewables: these are Ecotricity; Good Energy, and Green Energy UK. These suppliers have a permanent derogation from the Ofgem Cap. To be awarded a derogation the supplier has to demonstrate, inter alia, that:
  • The cost to the licensee of supplying electricity/gas by virtue of the tariff is materially greater than the level of the default tariff cap for reasons that are directly attributable to the support that the tariff provides to renewable energy.
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forums.moneysavingexpert.com

Eon Next - 100% Renewable Energy

Eon state they are 100% Renewable energy so why are my energy bills going up 3 fold from October if they are using Renewable energy.
forums.moneysavingexpert.com forums.moneysavingexpert.com

which is why their prices are higher.
 
Even if go full renewables then you still need to deal with gas (and Britain is a nation that relies heavily on gas boilers for hot water and heating)

It’s one of those things I’m going to have deal with when I actually move into new place… how to swap out the flats gas supply.
 
1qq.jpg

After just over 7 months, and 10 days after ombudsman's deadline, it's finally over!

All SSE bills from when OVO took over, i.e. all of 2020 & 2021, plus all this years bills issued after I was transferred over to the OVO system have been re-issued, and all seem about right, and a final additional credit has been made to my account, so my balance now stands at just over £700, despite the fact that my DD payments have only been £1pm per month recently.

I am so relieved!
 
two sheds said:
Most suppliers claim renewable energy but only purchase certificates and don't actually generate the energy. Good Energy, Green Energy and Ecotricity are the exceptions I know of.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com

Eon Next - 100% Renewable Energy

Eon state they are 100% Renewable energy so why are my energy bills going up 3 fold from October if they are using Renewable energy.
forums.moneysavingexpert.com forums.moneysavingexpert.com

which is why their prices are higher.
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Regardless of what your energy company claim you will get your electricity from the nearest power station regardless of how they produce it. :(
 
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Artaxerxes said:
Even if go full renewables then you still need to deal with gas (and Britain is a nation that relies heavily on gas boilers for hot water and heating)

It’s one of those things I’m going to have deal with when I actually move into new place… how to swap out the flats gas supply.
Click to expand...
Yep, and I think even the suppliers of renewables have to actually buy energy from the grid which is why their prices have gone up, too. Green Energy apparently supplies renewable gas and Ecotricity are soon planning to as well.
 
WTF just checked by gass and electric online dashboard thing and I am 514 in debit???

I have hardly been here for months, and the heating hasn't been on for months. What's going on? I pay 66 a month for a 1 bedroom flat. panciky!
 
BigMoaner said:
WTF just checked by gass and electric online dashboard thing and I am 514 in debit???

I have hardly been here for months, and the heating hasn't been on for months. What's going on? I pay 66 a month for a 1 bedroom flat. panciky!
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Are you with OVO by any chance? :D

Being serious, you need to check your actual usage compared to what they are charging you.
 
The press seems to have been briefed to expect a energy price freeze, which would seem the most logical thing to do.

Senior Tories lined up for appointments in Truss’s cabinet have been told “in no uncertain terms” not to scorn the idea that energy bills could be frozen.

Industry sources said that a price freeze for consumers was “the only conversation that anyone was having with the government”, including discussions involving Kwasi Kwarteng, who is expected to be Truss’s chancellor.

“The plan is to introduce some kind of artificial price cap for consumers combined with a mechanism for reimbursing suppliers,” one source said. “Plans are reasonably well advanced and involve not just civil servants but also ministers lined up for jobs by Truss.”
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The level of the price cap has not been set and businesses, particularly hospitality and retail, would need separate support, the source added.
One senior government figure said the scale of the package being looked at would “at least” be in the region of the £69 billion cost of furlough scheme and “could be more”. “No one has come up with any option to do it for less,” the source said.
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That could easily be paid for by the forecasted £170bn excess profits that energy producers are expected to make over the next two years.

Times paywall busted link - archive.ph
 
cupid_stunt said:
That could easily be paid for by the forecasted £170bn excess profits that energy producers are expected to make over the next two years.
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Is that £170bn excess profit all related to business transacted in the UK? If not, there isn’t any mechanism for taxing it without ripping up all the agreements on how international trade is taxed, which (a) no government would ever do, and (b) could well hurt us more than help us, as (for example) the US could do tit-for-tat in respect of all US-domiciled companies doing business in the UK.
 
kabbes said:
Is that £170bn excess profit all related to business transacted in the UK? If not, there isn’t any mechanism for taxing it without ripping up all the agreements on how international trade is taxed, which (a) no government would ever do, and (b) could well hurt us more than help us, as (for example) the US could do tit-for-tat in respect of all US-domiciled companies doing business in the UK.
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I'm sure it will be some fudge presented as a triumph, but in reality we all end up paying for over the next 20 years or so. Or something like that.
 
kabbes said:
Is that £170bn excess profit all related to business transacted in the UK? If not, there isn’t any mechanism for taxing it without ripping up all the agreements on how international trade is taxed, which (a) no government would ever do, and (b) could well hurt us more than help us, as (for example) the US could do tit-for-tat in respect of all US-domiciled companies doing business in the UK.
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Good question, and it's not very clear from this article, but it implies it would be on UK operations. Clearly with that level of excess profits the treasury will be getting a massive boost in revenue from taxes, including the existing windfall tax, anyway.

UK gas producers and electricity generators may make excess profits totaling as much as £170 billion ($199 billion) over the next two years, according to Treasury estimates that lay bare the revenue-raising potential of a windfall tax.

Treasury officials will deliver the assessment to the next prime minister when they take office on Sept. 6, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing internal calculations.

The prediction is likely to fuel further calls for increasing the existing windfall tax on oil and gas production in the UK, and extending it to power generators that have so far been exempt. Tax at the current windfall rate of 25% could generate tens of billions of pounds if the excess profits for 2023 and 2024 come in at the top of the Treasury forecast.
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The government considered and rejected extending the windfall tax to electricity generators profiting because rising gas prices have also pushed up the price of power those generators can charge. Some of those companies have reported rising profits even in cases where they have produced less energy.
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www.bloomberg.com

UK Sees Up to £170 Billion Excess Profits for Energy Firms

UK gas producers and electricity generators may make excess profits totaling as much as £170 billion ($199 billion) over the next two years, according to Treasury estimates that lay bare the revenue-raising potential of a windfall tax.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com
 
Worth noting that:

The Treasury analysis suggests about two fifths of the £170 billion in excess profits would be attributable to power producers, suggesting extension of the windfall tax could be lucrative for the government coffers.
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so that £170bn does include excess profits made by wind/solar/hydro/nuclear whose costs have not increased but whose income has risen in line with the rise in cost of gas generation, although the government decided not to include them in the current windfall tax.
 
kabbes said:
Is that £170bn excess profit all related to business transacted in the UK? If not, there isn’t any mechanism for taxing it without ripping up all the agreements on how international trade is taxed, which (a) no government would ever do, and (b) could well hurt us more than help us, as (for example) the US could do tit-for-tat in respect of all US-domiciled companies doing business in the UK.
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the set of 'things no government would ever do' is much smaller now than it was a few years ago. and it may become smaller yet.
 
BigTom said:
Worth noting that:



so that £170bn does include excess profits made by wind/solar/hydro/nuclear whose costs have not increased but whose income has risen in line with the rise in cost of gas generation, although the government decided not to include them in the current windfall tax.
Click to expand...

Surely in a competitive capitalist system the costs from different sources should be decoupled. If renewables are cheaper market forces should act to make them more popular.
 
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