Energy bill price cap predicted to go to £3850 - 3 x what it was a year ago

[cakeorwine]

There is an AIBU here - but really it's posting for traffic

Russia is having 'maintainance issues' so has reduced the gas flow to Europe to a low level.

Gas prices have soared again.

Price cap prediction - £3850 - about 3 x what it was a year ago.

This is going to affect all of us

www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/27/uk-energy-bills-forecast-to-hit-3850-pounds-russia-cuts-gas-supply-further-europe-pipeline

@RB68 on the nose! American who has always lived in modern houses. We live in a large 4 bed house here and use a fraction of the energy we used to heat our 2 bed Edwardian flat, even counting that we have AC in the summer a lot. Similar climate, just warmer in summer. Our windows are all triple glazed, properly insulated, sealed doors etc. British houses are so shoddily built and old houses are lovely but insanely inefficient.

I think part of the problem is that we don't have sufficient gas storage. We've been warned about this in the past. It leaves us open to higher prices. Our largest storage "Rough" was closed 4 years ago.

This article is nearly a year old so pre the most recent invasion of Ukraine.

In the midst of a global energy crisis Europe is preparing to enter the winter with its lowest reserves of gas in at least 10 years. For the UK, which has some of the continent’s lowest gas storage capacity, the drawing in of colder months has left households even more vulnerable to the risk of shortages.
The UK’s stores hold enough gas to meet the demand of four to five winter days, or just 1% of Europe’s total available storage. The Netherlands has capacity more than nine times the UK’s, while Germany’s is 16 times the size.
Britain’s continental neighbours also have lower gas market prices."

"But critics warned that the shutdown of the North Sea site would leave the UK exposed to the volatility of the global gas market, and forced to compete with other nations to attract imports with sky-high prices.
Charles Hendry, then a Tory MP, warned before the Rough shutdown that the UK should be paying to build more gas storage facilities after coming within hours of running out of gas, and said the country was relying “on luck” to avoid the gas grid running dry.
It was a matter of months after the closure of the Rough site that the UK’s energy operator, National Grid, issued a formal warning that the country did not have enough gas to meet demand during the freezing “beast from the east” storm which battered the UK in March 2018."

amp.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/24/how-uk-energy-policies-have-left-britain-exposed-to-winter-gas-price-hikes

We end up paying more.

Not squandering millions and millions of pounds of taxpayer's money on failed test & trace programmes and handing overblown PPE contracts to their shyster mates would have been good.

Not continuing to bullshit us about the true cost of leaving the EU would also be nice.

But what should they do NOW hindsight is wonderful but it's not helpful

Around our way thieves used to steal oil from the tanks. Now they'll be on the lookout for log stores and coal bunkers.

Absolutely. They think that conjuring money out of thin air will work forever. It won't.
I absolutely think there will be riots
And people just not paying on a huge scale

Frankly, I can't see why anyone would want to be PM. I just don't think they understand the severity of the problems. If they do, even partially, presumably their levels of arrogance are far higher than their intelligence.

I’m in a fixed rate with Scottish Power for £45 a month for Gas. It ends in May 2023

they just sent me some spam to look at new deals. Their best “like for like” tariff is £127 a month 😭

I just can’t imagine how people are going to cope.

In April my gas and electric went up by around 33% so less than what was predicted. I am on the variable capped rate.

All this means is that the energy provider has your money instead of you. You aren’t pre-buying the energy. You’re better off sticking the money in savings.

Tories really have done a job on you all. All intentional and can be stopped just like that. Stop believing everything you read in the press, they are gaslighting you

Well we are fucked we can't generate enough energy from green sources. The only thing I can thing that would make us energy independent is nuclear power stations , but many people won't want them.

I believe what the price of gas is and what the price cap is

We absolutely can generate enough energy from green sources. Don't you realise that everything is kinetic energy? Our waste is energy etc

Yep, dh and I were discussing this earlier and said that we'd have to turn off the hearing in the mornings and layer up. It's such a bloody depressing thought!! Our price cap ended at the end of June and then Scottish gas instantly doubled our Direct debit to £340 per month, we're only in a 3 bed semi. I'm really worried about our bills in October, so much so that I may have to look for a different job to bring in more money.

Last Nov (2021) I was passed to EDF GAS by the Ombudsman when Utility Point went into administration and was put on EDF's SV tariff of 27.22pd/7.149ppu until Oct 2022. When the Oct pricing was talked about and Martin Lewis gave his opinions, I decided not to wait around as the prices would disappear which they did. I managed to move to a fixed EDF tariff until July 31st 2024. 27.22pd/11.4ppu. That tariff was pulled the next day. It was MSE who pointed out that EDF were offering the first 50k of their customers who swapped from an SV tariff to one of their fixed tariffs, a £150 credit on their account 46 days after opening the new account IF you used the link and input 150EXCLUSIVE in the offer code box online.
This offer closes in August (I forget which date)
My GAS DD which was £22pm is now set at £30pm but I only pay for what I use as long as I give monthly readings (whole amount DD) which gives you a lower kilowatt rate)
My electricity is with EDF too but on a small business rate which is 25ppd standing charge (I only pay half that) and 17.3ppkWh.
It gives peace of mind to swap now as today's prices are only going to disappear and replaced by much higher ones.
I might add that EDF's 2 July tariffs will be replaced by 2 new tariffs in August and they'll certainly be higher. They only plan to offer two each month.

This is why I pay monthly with a variable DD. I don't want a company predicting my usage and then taking a ridiculous amount of money - I am capable of predicting and reducing my usage and in saving up for the more expensive months.

The increase in cost of energy will be far more than just your homes energy bill, it will affect labour and also your pump price indirectly.

Personally, I think the war in Russia should be a catalyst for us to accelerate our own self sufficiency. We have become far too reliant on others for so long, it’s time to build British and to get the masses out there on benefits into real trades to support it.

The media is quoting numbers for an AVERAGE family (whatever that is)
Is it still 2 parents and 2.4 children in a 3 bed house?
IMO there is no average family so the numbers don't necessarily allude to your situation.

We are fortunate to be on a really low electricity tariff until next summer and we have the capability to use the car battery (EV) to power the house, so we will draw cheap electricity overnight to the car and then when at home, use the car to power the house during the day. We don’t have gas but will be trying to use as little heating oil as possible as that will likely be extortionate.
We will eventually switch to a heat pump
but until then it is going to be tricky. Our current spend is about £150pm
joint for electricity and oil including charging 2 electric cars. We can afford a bit of an increase but not a lot and we are on moderate household income (£70k).
It is very worrying for those that don’t have the options we do for managing their usage. Something big is coming, I can feel
it. Not sure what it will look like but it’s change in some guise.

It is certainly not rosy elsewhere in Europe though, MIL is a pensioner and in Berlin the apartments include heating and there is a central boiler for the block, everyone pays for the heating with their rent. But the hike is so big they have collectively agreed to turn their boiler off so they will not have heating and hot water, instead they will boil kettles and run individual heaters. Berlin winters are no joke so this seems madness but that’s the reality over there too.

It's typical energy consumption.

Some people use less. Some use more

Why is gas supposed to be going up to this extent,to my knowledge we only get 3% of our gas from Russia,or am I just imagining it all?

European gas market - the price of gas in Europe has gone up (and elsewhere) Reduced supply and large demand.

We also rely a lot on gas to generate our electricity - so that affects the price of electricity as well