To think they are lying? ... electricity prices won't be going up by 50% in April ...

[Shouldbeworkingnotreadingtalk]

Keep reading that electricity prices are going to sky rocket by "upto 50%"... so I worked mine out whilst doing some house admin . . I'm shocked at the actual figures ...

We currently pay 21p per KWh of energy used. (Viable rate.) . Predictions once the price cap ends are for unit prices in April is anywhere between 40-48p per unit. . (From googling / Martin Lewis ), I could be reading this wrong ...

Or

I can fix a rate today with my current supply eon for 38p.

Is this maths right? (Well, I know it is!)

Say hypothetically we use a slightly higher than average 9,000 unit a year:

21p x 9000 = £1,890 (£157pm)
48p x 9000= £4,320 (£360pm)

Doesn't include standing charge or vat on those prices either!

That feels like a crazy hike, more like 120% increase (?) - so why aren't we being warned a bit more .... We are a ridiculously heavy user, (big house, tumble drier happy, old inefficient freezers in garage etc, no gas so everything electric,,) so this week I've condensed some freezer space, losing a big old girl that leaked ice, and ordered x2 airers for the washing.....
I'm still looking at many other ways to lower my kilowatt useage - (I've warned the fish their pond pump may have to go on timer ... ).

But my AIBU is that I'm miffed at 50%, surely it's much, much more and we are in for a huge shock?
VERY HAPPY (relieved) to be told I've got it wrong and IABU.

If I were cynical I would wonder whether the government hopes it will force those WFH back into the offices... And all those that cant escape to the office will be left to freeze. Just like those that couldn't work from home were forced to face covid...

It's terrifying. My fixed rate contract ran out in November and I couldn't find a new deal anywhere - the price comparison sites have effectively shut down. My monthly bill has doubled from £44 to £90, and that's just electricity. We're on LPG (rural area, no mains gas) and I dread to think how much my next gas delivery is going to cost.

A sizeable proportion of our electricity comes from gas-fired power stations.

Maybe I'm being thick but I was totally under the impression we were 100% renewable electricity.

Or is that just Scotland and not the whole UK?

Or have I completely misunderstood this

I don’t even know what we pay as we’re still waiting to be moved over to EON from Utility Point, I’d anyone else still in this situation?

*is

These are GLOBAL prices. That means that the UK has to pay. So either it will be the UK taxpayer or the UK consumer or UK businesses or all of the above. Arguing about where or how the pain falls is useful but ultimately the government can’t ‘protect’ us because it will be direct pricing, taxes or costs on goods.

There are two reasons for the price hikes in April, one is due to the fact that since Sep/Oct, gas prices have soared - quadrupled at times. When the price cap was increased in Oct, it did not take account of these rises, they will be included in the April rise.

The second point is that the costs of the failed suppliers will also be included in the price cap. These costs are enormous. failed suppliers promised customers cheap tariffs and didn’t hedge their forward volumes (buy the required gas/power in advance). Then they went bust, leaving bigger energy firms to pick up the customers and having to pay the quadrupled market price to supply them.

The government could defer the second element, or spread it over a longer period, so rather than pass the failed supplier costs through over a short period (a year say), they could spread them which would slightly lower the price cap increase.

The fault here is with smaller suppliers who ran terrible business models - customers got used to unsustainably low prices which were exposed to market price increases, but nothing was hedged.

People may complain about big suppliers ripping customers off, but because they hedge their volumes, they don’t go bust, can continue supplying customer at the promised tariff and are generally responsible. Unfortunately when prices fall, Big Energy companies can’t reduce their prices as much, because they are hedged - hence they look like a rip off. No big energy firm makes much money on energy since the price cap was introduced, margins are wafer thin for energy supply.

The April tariff will definitely see a big increase, but over the summer consumption is lower and hopefully the market will have normalised (although maybe not completely) by next Winter.

The best thing the government could do is regulate small suppliers better, and spread the cost of failed suppliers over a longer term.

In terms of gas supply, the government could support maintaining better gas storage capacity - as they effectively withdrew support a few years ago. Harder to mitigate against other factors (lack of Wind, increased post-Covid demand, Russian politics etc).

It's terrifying for those reliant on benefits.

Disability benefits were frozen for nearly a decade from 2010/11.

These rises in fuel / council tax / NI will also eat up any rises in the minimum wage in recent years.

How do they expect people to survive??

I wonder if we will see another spate of suppliers going bust. I am with Bristol Energy on a fixed rate until 2023. I am well in credit and my usage has not gone up, but they keep wanting to increase the direct debit. It makes me suspicious that they are in trouble and are trying to claw in extra cash from customers to prop themselves up for a while longer.

There has been no investment in future-proofing our electricity supply as it is not profitable to private investors.

The UK has known since the late 1990s that it needed to start preparing for the future including the closure of both the coal power plants and the AGRs.

Not a single plant has been built.

Not only that but in previous years there were many "mothballed" power plants around the country (some coal, some oil) that could be called upon as a back-up within hours. Many of these have been demolished over the past few years.

Our electricity supply security is more vulnerable now than at any other time since the National Grid was set up.

Rather than have the 25% "buffer" of spare capacity that we did in the past, many days now we have a "buffer" of just 2%.

www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Sorry AGRs = nuclear plants

These are GLOBAL prices. That means that the UK has to pay

All our money is going somewhere though. Does anyone wonder where? Russian oligarchs, mostly. Just because it's global doesn't mean our government is not at fault or that people shouldn't question where their money is going, why prices are so high and how on earth people are expected to pay.

hopefully the market will have normalised (although maybe not completely) by next Winter.

As I understand it, normalised just means that it won't increase greatly (I've read that October may see a 20% increase but surely that's crystal ball territory) it won't do anything to insulate people from the hikes in April, especially if the won't be putting money aside for the ramp up in consumption required in winter.

Customers who are further north who see colder and darker days in the winter will get hammered.

Check the standing charge as well. Ovo's fixed rate not only charges 35.57p per kWh, but their standing charge goes up from 22.96p per day to 28.71p for which I see no justification

Also extremely worried about this. We have a large older house, 6 of us living here and me and DH both WFH.

A year ago our gas & electric was £217. Already pretty high but ok we used it. It's now £360. If it goes up anymore we'll be screwed. I'm really trying to cut down but not sure my efforts are doing any good.

We've been Bulb customers at home and at work.

Our home DD has gone up by well over £80 which seemed bad enough.

We had our 1st work bill in yesterday, and it ws £589 for one month of gas and electricity. It's usually around £200......... and I've read the meters this morning, they've estimated the right usage. I'm in shock.

Just checked and since yesterday the plan has changed to Electricity
Unit rate: 31.89p/kWh Standing charge: 39.98p/day

In an all electric house, the biggest suckers of electricity for me are the oven, the induction, tumble dryer and electric radiators or convector heaters. I run the dishwasher and the immersion on E7 and have a heated airer (pennies to run), a slow cooker (pennies again) and a heated blanket (same coat as a lightbulb) to avoid putting on my electric heaters. I do put the blow heater on for a quick blast first thing in the morning but it warms the bedroom very quickly and goes off as soon as it’s done.

Those three things have made a big difference to my energy consumption and costs. We’re not uncomfortably cold ever. I don’t need heating on overnight and I have a log burner in the evenings for when it’s very cold and for power blackouts.

It would help low-income households far more if their benefits went up significantly than if VAT on energy was reduced. I can't see why millionaires in mansions should pay less for heating their swimming pools though, which reducing VAT would do.

But there are many of us who aren't quite low income but aren't millionaires. Our take home pay combined is about £22,000 (down £4,000 on pre-covid as DH was made redundant, current job pays less). Our direct debit for energy has already been increased by nearly 50%, our council is considering a 7% council tax rise, food prices are increasing. We already cut back when DH was made redundant - I won't put the immersion heater on, so no hot water, as I'm WFH I've stopped having a shower every day as it's so expensive to run, heating is on the bare minimum amount (and only if the temperature in the house goes below 17 and DS is home) and I'm working now in a jacket and with a duvet over me. I already bought the vast majority of my clothes from charity shops, have my hair cut less than once a year.

Yes it's primarily a government failing

the uk should have invested more , much more , in tidal, off shore wind , giga batteries , making itself self sufficient in electricity at least and ideally with power to sell into the global market

And the more electricity you have the more easily you can wean off gas - a process the government have delayed over and over again

And whilst I am at it, they also should have been helping people get properly insulated homes

The price hikes have been a concern of mine for over 10 years - they would come but no one knew quite when

Whilst the press, government and opposition are arguing about who did or didn't decide it was ok to break covid rules May 20th 2020, then can you take any of these other issues seriously?

The future energy supply for the UK needs seriously addressing. So does the production of food in this country.
If we are not self-reliant, then we are creating future issues that will really hurt.

This idea of re-wilding UK farmland because we can then import food from other places that then can not re-wild themselves, isn't a plan. It's just stupid.

@BoodleBug51

We've been Bulb customers at home and at work.

Our home DD has gone up by well over £80 which seemed bad enough.

We had our 1st work bill in yesterday, and it ws £589 for one month of gas and electricity. It's usually around £200......... and I've read the meters this morning, they've estimated the right usage. I'm in shock.

£589 omfg that’s not even my bill and that’s shocked me

Heated airers really take the edge of cold out of a room as well.

I agree, it’s all frightening. A straight talking competent government instead of this shower of corrupt fools would be good .

OP, your electricity usage, if you really are clocking up 14000kwhs per annum, is exceptionally high.

According to Ovo (and other sources) the average electricity usage per household in the UK is 3,700kwh — and they mention that that is probably on the high side, driven up by all the people who run hot tubs etc:

www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/how-much-electricity-does-a-home-use

As far as I'm aware electricity caps still stand for a lot of people. Here's a link to the Ofgem site which explains it:

www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-if-energy-price-cap-affects-you

At Christmas I visited relatives who have a smart meter with a readout that sits on the kitchen windowsill. Five adults in a 1980s house (double glazing, standard insulation level) two large-screen TVs, two electric ovens in use, dishwasher twice a day, lots of lights and fairy lights, hair driers and, most expensive of all, electric underfloor heating in a conservatory. The meter showed that we were using £10 a day for electricity. If we'd switched the underfloor heating off it would have been around £6 a day.

Don't want to put more of a downer on it but all these prices increases will increase inflation. The Bank of England will want to control the rate of inflation..... oh dear! Interest rate rises are also likely to follow soon so be mindful your mortgage and credit payments will increase too.
It's going to be a big squeeze unfortunately.