Gas and electricity bills to soar

[Cosmos123]

This is worrying as it will push many into fuel poverty.
Rising food prices and empty shelves.
Is anyone worried?

Everyone is PLANET PLANET.
It’s expensive to not rape the planet, and this is a consequence of it.

Everything is done by computer these days. I can’t imagine how services will continue with insufficient electricity. Whilst I don’t like the idea of nuclear power I’ve thought for many years that it probably is our most realistic option. Maybe just pop a few reactors on the Channel Islands away from most of the population (joke)

Yes I can envisage power rationing.

That is literally the main point about smart meters. You won't pay less - you'll just be allowed much less (and then cut off remotely if you try to get around it), with the price per unit skyrocketing to make your end bill for much less pretty much the same amount.

Smart meters cost £400 per household to fit (as well as, ironically, the high environmental cost of ripping out and decommissioning perfectly functioning meters), but they don't yet pass that cost on to householders. Do people really think that the government/big energy companies have taken a £400 hit per house in an altruistic attempt to get us cheaper bills in the long run?

They know that people will bite once they promise lower prices, but then they never stay that way once the carrots have been taken. We've been told how dirty and disgusting and polluting our petrol and diesel cars are for years and that's supposedly the reason why we're punished for our wretchedness with such a massive tax on it per litre. Now the tide is starting to turn and they're getting in way less road tax, so they're making plans for charging people for every metre driven.

Plus, our assumptions that the electricity needed to charge an electric car would always be far, far less than the equivalent tank of petrol or diesel to make it an obvious financial choice? The current market price movements would appear not to be affirming our confidence in that long term....

Are some of these people with crazy large bills also the same who wash towels and bedding after one use would be interesting.

so they're making plans for charging people for every metre driven.

For every MILE - but then I suppose, mathematically, it'll all proportionally work out the same anyway.

@Againstmachine
Yeah my thoughts exactly. Heating on at night, at least 3 loads of washing every day.

Fuel poverty is real, and it’s shocking and these people who are mainly whingeing and saying it’s the end of the world are not as far as I can see are in fuel poverty,

Perhaps they have large bills because they’ve been forced to work at home? Which has surely pushed energy consumption up

@limejuiceandrum

Yep to use that much they must be using a lot of KWH, and a lot of it will be on high energy things like washers ect.

Perhaps they have large bills because they’ve been forced to work at home? Which has surely pushed energy consumption up

Heating maybe, but computers ect don't use that much energy.

@Autumngoldleaf the restricted supply of electricity is what has caused the price to sky rocket. The scarcity has now been exacerbated by the French line going down.

My friend who works at a power station has been saying for years that our national grid is constantly on a knife edge over winter. We keep narrowly escaping blackouts.

Well our luck is running out now and we’re just waking up to the winter of discontent 2.0

I think it’s going to be more difficult for us than the baby boomers in the 70s because we’re so reliant on technology. We’ll also struggle more financially if we end up on a 3 day week due to the higher cost of housing.

Hopefully it won’t come to this, but we’re in the lap of the gods really.

@BungleandGeorge
That may well be true. I think the whole wfh is an issue for fuel.

But I don’t think a lot of people who go out to work in minimum wage jobs who actually suffer from fuel poverty have that problem,

I think we have become so used to being able to have heating on 24hrs. Washing on multiple times a day. All the tech, everything on standby - charging phones over night etc etc. Alexa on permanently
It all adds up.

@Limejuiceandrum yeah. But at a system level, all those individuals wfh has put pressure on an already overloaded national grid. 4 people working on a bank of desks with 1 strip light and sharing heating with the rest of the office versus 4x detached houses with separate heating/ lighting/ charging systems. It’s not as efficient to wfh at a population level.

@Kara198

I was with People's Energy and in the last half hour just had my welcome email from British Gas who ofgem have switched me to. Play the waiting game now to see what my new rate will be!

They will probably put you on the same one they put those of us who were switched from PFP last week. Price Promise April 2022 it was called, you can check the tariff rates on their website. It's basically around the price cap level and slightly more than the fix I just signed up for with Sainsbury/Eon, if you look at the unit rates.

@Kara198

Peston is somewhat rubbing people's noses in it but unfortunately he does have a point.

Back in May the main reason why People's Energy (PE) was the cheapest deal is that unlike the bigger competitors PE did not put in places hedges (bit like insurance) on energy prices going higher. Maybe because they couldn't afford to or choose not to in order to keep their prices lower and capture you as a customer.

This is especially important on a fixed price tariff for example if they agree to sell to you at say £100 (pls other costs and profit), they should then hedge this at £100. If they don't hedge and future prices go to £150 they still sell to you at £100 but go bust but if future prices drop to say £50 they still sell to you at £100 and get rich.

The problem with People's Energy is now that British Gas have taken on the customers, BG will pay more for the energy than it can charge to these ex PE customers. Taking on PE customers will cost BG about £200 million.

BG will then look to recover this £200 million by charging where it can from its existing customers more.

To summarise you got a cheap deal back in May because PE (and other small suppliers) was flying by the seat of their pants. That eventually caught up with PE and they went bust. The cost of clearing this particular mess up is then paid by British Gas customers who maybe paid more than you did in May this year but did so because they wanted the security of a larger and safer supplier.

Sadly these BG customers will now even have to pay more to continue the supply to PE customers .

[quote Limejuiceandrum]@BungleandGeorge
That may well be true. I think the whole wfh is an issue for fuel.

But I don’t think a lot of people who go out to work in minimum wage jobs who actually suffer from fuel poverty have that problem,

I think we have become so used to being able to have heating on 24hrs. Washing on multiple times a day. All the tech, everything on standby - charging phones over night etc etc. Alexa on permanently
It all adds up.[/quote]
I don’t think you need to be on minimum wage to experience fuel poverty. It depends on your outgoings, what benefits you are entitled to, how many wage earners in the house etc. There’s also lots of low paid admin/ call centre jobs which have been wfh. I personally found that wfh plus home schooling was an absolute disaster for energy bills. When you’re sitting static working you get that much colder than if you’re moving around, below about 17/ 18 degrees I’d find my concentration waining.

I find it all very worrying due a baby in November so not having the heating on won't be an option over winter. The prices of everything is shooting up, my partner is disabled and I will be on maternity pay from October. We won't be entitled to any extra help from govt (waiting to hear if we qualify for warm home discount) and our universal credit that tops my wages up will be cut too very scary.

@the80sweregreat

Yes, it is a worry and even the daily Mail are reporting this today and being negative ( it's not good news at all :( I'm not sure how people will manage.

"Even the DM are being negative"

What?! That well known, positive, optimistic & life affirming publication is being negative? Surely not! 🤯

@Etherel

Why are some companies so much cheaper?

I have just signed up to an estimated £73pcm dual fuel deal, fixed for 2 years (although I can cancel anytime). Was offered to me by a big company while I was doing my weekly shop and is about £20pcm cheaper than I am currently paying.

What's the company @Etherel ???

@Etherel

Why are some companies so much cheaper?

I have just signed up to an estimated £73pcm dual fuel deal, fixed for 2 years (although I can cancel anytime). Was offered to me by a big company while I was doing my weekly shop and is about £20pcm cheaper than I am currently paying.

What's the company @Etherel ???

I made the switch from SSE (forced on me a few months back when Spark went under) to Scottish Power.

Better in every way, but especially financially.

@SpindleWhorl

Yes I can envisage power rationing.

I’m glad I have a log burner even if the govt have now decided they’re dirty, polluting things. At least I can always keep a room warm and even boil water on top of it if needed. My one regret is not getting one which connects up to the radiators and heats the whole house.

Has anyone else seen this?

Best to avoid Sainsburys then if switching?



Sorry....here it is......

Anyone getting camping stoves just in case, there is a camping gas shortage according to DH so check you can get a cylinder before buying, Trangias use meths and we have a Colemans stove which uses petrol.

@Aurea

Has anyone else seen this?

Best to avoid Sainsburys then if switching?



And Bulb on the 'amber list' (where have we heard that before ) are asking the government for a bailout due to debts/funding problems and they're thought to have too many customers to fail as in they'd put a huge strain on whichever of the big six took them on.

Seems to answer my question about whether Sainsbury's Energy etc are stable, that graphic suggests not. I suppose if margins are tight, there's no sense in adding an extra layer of admin and costs in Nectar points, compared with their parent company just supplying directly.

But OTOH, both Sainsburys and M&S Energy brands are agressively chasing customers at the moment, Sainsburys are riding high in the comparison charts, and lots on this thread say they have switched to them, and I almost got chased out of M&S the other day by an energy salesman who wanted me to switch to them. He didn't seem particularly appreciative of my comment that I was on a cheap fix for another six months and I was sticking to it.