to shout fucking hell at my emails! Why is my electricity standard charge almost doubling?.

[FrecklesMalone]

In preparation for the huge utility prices in April we've been planning how to massively reduce our usage. We are already financially on a knife edge. However we've just got a email from Bulb energy saying that they are increasing our electricity unit rate from 20.131p to 28.020p per kWh and electricity standing charge from 24.373p to 42.242p per day.
And increasing our gas unit rate from 4.043p to 7.343p per kWh and standing charge from 26.112p to 27.219p per day.
Just in case people don't know what the standing charge is. This is a charge that you have to pay whether or not use any electricity that day and is in no way related to how much electricity you use.
This means that we have absolutely no control over this huge price rise. No matter what electricity we use were still going to have that extra price rise of over £80 a year on standing charge alone. This is feels completely unfair. As it means even if you you are massively reduced your usage, or use alternative energy that you will still be hit by this bill no matter what. Also so when prices do eventually come down I guarantee that the standing charge will remain static or not come down as much. Am I being unreasonable to think that this is is just a way for the energy companies to make more money.

@KindlyKanga

Oh i didnt realise. So really when I move companies I need to look at the standing charge first

As I understand it, for most people the standing charge is not the increase that will make most difference, its the actual cost per kWh.

My bill is going up by £800 a year, but the standing charge has actually increased by £40 year (rudimentary calculations so could be a bit more!).

@raspberrymuffin

Can anyone explain in small words why electricity charges vary so much across the country? I am also with Bulb but I pay more than the OP - my standing charge is going from 27p to 50p for example. Bulb supposedly buys renewables and I am within a few miles of a massive wind farm and loads of small hydro schemes so it's difficult to see why I should be paying more.

The local pricing is apparently a legacy of the old utilities boards system.

I'm with Bulb too. I'm aghast at the price increases, I'm going to go from about £600 a year to about £1100? and because it's mostly on the standing charge the increase is unavoidable. It's a bloody disgrace that the government isn't doing something about it like other European governments have. The impact on lower-income people is going to be massive and will throw even more people into poverty and debt.

@KindlyKanga

Oh i didnt realise. So really when I move companies I need to look at the standing charge first

Not really, you need to look at the cost in ££ it doesn't matter how it's split on the bill but obviously you need to know what it is for when you calculate your costs

@Crunchymum what company are you with if the standing charge is going up £40 per year?

Bulb is going from about 25p per day to 49-50p from what I've seen on Twitter (just electricity) so that's about £90 to £180 p.a for their supposedly renewable electricity

@FrecklesMalone

Surely they shouldn't have nationalised the electricity and gas companies.

This!! Fucking Thatcher sold them off. “ Become a shareholder “ It was never going to end well.

Edit:
Don’t you mean “Shouldn’t have privatised them”?
I thought they WERE nationalised, and Thatcher sold them off?
Hence ongoing price hikes?

We are also moving onto district heating ( from oil), it’s €575 per year aka €1.57 per day standing charge.
The standing charge is what goes into the maintenance and development of the actual infrastructure of the heating system. Ie it’s about 2km from main plant that burns waste wood to heat water and pump at high pressure to our house. It’s taken 5 years so far of digging up roads to lay this and get to us ie the same as when gap pipes where first laid..

Your standing charge goes towards gas or electric pipe and cable maintenance and development. Storage, staff, etc etc.
The actual gas or electric you use is then the cost of those separate

Well companies have assumed that people will cut back but they want more money, it's shameful.

[quote killerofhouseplants]@Crunchymum what company are you with if the standing charge is going up £40 per year?

Bulb is going from about 25p per day to 49-50p from what I've seen on Twitter (just electricity) so that's about £90 to £180 p.a for their supposedly renewable electricity[/quote]
I'm with Shell and looking at it my standing charge, the rise is 10p per day?

It's currently 49.41p per day and going up to 59.36p per day.

When I volunteered with Citizens Advice I found out that there are some people, extremely poor and sometimes with chaotic lives caused by addiction, poor mental health etc, who actually switch their electricity off completely in the summer to save money. Then they switch it on again in the autumn when the nights are getting darker and are immediately hit with debt on their pre pay meter for the standing charges they ran up while not actually using their supply. These people, who have already been fucked by life, are going to be even more fucked by this and I'm sure there will be deaths next autumn as a result.

I'm aghast at the price increases, I'm going to go from about £600 a year to about £1100? and because it's mostly on the standing charge the increase is unavoidable

It's not though (if in the UK).

If your standing charge has doubled to 50p a day then you're now paying an additional £7 odd a month standing charge. That's it.

The price rises of real concern is the unit charge - that's what's going to push people bills up by hundreds and hundreds a year.

The standing charge is a drop in the ocean.

A 50p/day standing charge would be £182.50 for a year so only about £15.21 per month. Its not the standing charge that is causing the huge bills.

Look at price per kWh rather than the standing charge

I'm with Scottish Power and mine is increasing by almost £1400 a year. I'm on a pay as you go meter and paying off debt at £10 per week they originally wanted to take £40 per week. Genuinely have no idea how I'm going to survive.

Mines gone from around 90 (Last year) slipped up to 120, forecast just under 200. Eek.

Oil price has jumped too.

The electricity standing charge cap has increased markedly, but unless you're using a minute amount of electricity the extra eighty odd quid a year will be the least of your problems.

I saw my Mum's letter from Eon about price rises yesterday. The actual rise in KWh and the gas measurement wasn't too bad, and the rise in the gas standing charge was a penny. The standing charge for electricity had gone from 25p per day to almost 52p!

My gas and electric are doubling and my standing charge for both will come in at £30 a month in April. It's less than 15 currently. With this and food/ petrol, it's going to get really bad for us

I fixed for 2 years at 1% over the new April price cap this week. Goodness knows if I've made the right decision - my bills will go up by about a third - but won't increase in October if the price cap goes up again.
I've spent the week scribbling calculations on bits of paper! My electricity standing charge will be nearly 52p and it really bothered me. However, when I did a quick comparison based on actual daily usage, I found it was cheaper to go with the higher standing charge and lower unit rate than to opt for a lower standing charge.
I just hope I've done the right thing...

I'm with Ovo and too right standing charges matter, in addition to the price per unit used.
My daily standing charge for electricity alone is going up by 23p per day, so around £85 per year, from 25p to 48p per day. That's just electric standing charge.

Time to re evaluate the whole winter fuel allowance, means test it and redistribute it based on actual financial need, not solely on age. Very many people receiving it who never even need to dip into it.

However, when I did a quick comparison based on actual daily usage, I found it was cheaper to go with the higher standing charge and lower unit rate than to opt for a lower standing charge.

This is what I don't really get, though. If the standing charge is the basic money that they need for maintaining the infrastructure - with the cost of the gas/electricity separate from that - why do some of the companies use the standing charge as a bargaining chip when they set their prices? Surely the infrastructure can't cost one supplier twice as much as a different supplier?

But then, why are the standing charges going up at all when we're told it's the price of the fuel that's rocketed? How can international market forces possibly be impacting the costs of running the existing pipes and cables underground in the UK?

Time to re evaluate the whole winter fuel allowance, means test it and redistribute it based on actual financial need, not solely on age. Very many people receiving it who never even need to dip into it.

Is it one of those things that was set a long time ago and has never been increased in line with inflation? Like the 25p a week that over-80s get in their pensions?

The name suggests that it's there to massively cushion the blow over 3 or 4 very expensive months - but £140 probably won't even cover the heating for one month now.

Means-testing is not straightforward, hence why it's been given to all older folk - but that only really makes sense if it means that the poor get the help they need and the wealthier just get an extra bonus. When you're at the point where it's only a bonus for the better-off who don't need it, but not enough to touch the sides for the poor, what's the point of it at all?

Just to add that nearly 30 energy and gas suppliers have gone bankrupt in the last year or so. The rise in wholesale prices meant that they were selling energy at a loss to people on fixed rate contracts and some variable rates before the price cap was increased.

They're not putting up the standing charge to make huge profits, they're trying to pass on the higher costs they're charged by their suppliers. That's not to say that it's the perfect scenario in terms of effective economic markets. But it's not profiteering either at the moment, it's more about financial survival.

Sorry, meant to say electricity and gas suppliers

The result of an unregulated utilities market and a government who does not care about regular people.

Welcome to Tory Britain