Energy standing charges

[SillyLavish]

Just got an email saying my energy prices are changing. The standing charges are going up even higher, as well as the actual rate of energy. I don't know what the average is but for me this will mean almost £7 a week just for standing charges. It seems so unfair that they can put up prices for NOT using energy. You could be destitute and switch everything off and you're still being charged!

AIBU to think any increase in charges should go on each unit of energy rather than standing charges? Especially as it means a single person is paying proportionally more than a couple or houseshare situation.

I agree with you!

Its disgraceful, basically trying to claw back money from people who have reduced their energy usage. Renationalisation of utilities would convince me vote Labour again (despite their misogyny).

SWEB area here, paying by dd and mine are 29.106p and 58.280p so same as you 98p. As a pensioner I'm on restricted income and £365 would pay for my gas heating. It's harder for families on limited income if you think what you can buy for £7 in the way of food.

Especially as it means a single person is paying proportionally more than a couple or houseshare situation.

But the household is still needing the same amount of infrastructure, regardless of occupants. Usage would probably be lower so that’s where the saving comes from.

The way we're charged for energy is a disgrace. You're definitely not being U.

I see your reasoning if you're just including the wires into the property. But infrastructure includes the bits that produce/move/store electricity/gas further up in the system and it must involve more for more usage.

AIBU to think any increase in charges should go on each unit of energy rather than standing charges? Especially as it means a single person is paying proportionally more than a couple or houseshare situation.

They used to. Tariffs used to have a Band A and Band B to incorporate it into the unit prices. You’ll have to raise it with Ofgem why they don’t anymore (because they made the decision).

I agree. Standing charges are 27% of my yearly bill. It's now near impossible to lower it further without going without heating in the winter.

And once the energy bills go up so will food,clothes, service costs - everything.

Sure Sunak will find some hundreds of british taxpayer millions again next week to prolong the war in UKraine.

Standing charges are a bit of a condundrum. As @TheSnowyOwl said they used to be smeared across the first block of units of energy but Ofgem changed that as it was seen as regressive (very low users paid a higher rate for all their energy) and made it difficult to compare deals.

Now it is expressed as a single charge it is easier to compare but it is still regressive as it is a greater proportion of the bill for lower users.

Other ways to do it:

1. Smear the cost if the standing charge on a higher block of units eg everyone gets say, 4 units a day free of standing charge and the higher rate that includes the standing charge kicks in after that. The problem there is it makes lower users undesirable customers as they will not cover the fixed costs of supying them energy and it is regressive for low income, high users who will pay a lot more.

1. Do as they do in some other European countries and issue a second separate quarterly bill just for standing charges. That tends to confuse and enrage customers.

Obviously the real outrage is not so much how they are recovered, but what they are made up of. As well as the fixed costs of supplying energy to your house they also cover costs for green initiatives, social support, costs of failed suppliers.

Stuff, IMO, that should come out of general taxation.

@Ginmonkeyagain Why can't they just incorporate them as a percentage of unit rates so the average user is paying the same as they are currently, lower users less and higher users more? I think it would be about 12% on top of unit rates. Though the percentage would have to go up if the cap came down.

Meter removal and going off grid removes standing charges for gas.

I'm not telling people to remove metres but that may be what people will or may have to do next.

@Irridescantshimmmer it is also highly illegal and exceedingly dangerous. You could blow yourself and your neighbour sky high.

You can get a gas meter properly removed and capped if you decide you no longer want a gas supply.

@Okunevo the problem with that as low users will not cover the fixed costs of supplying tnem.

Remember low users also include second homes, empty homes, holiday properties.

You can have low income high users - older people, people with disabilities.

It wod be an unfair way of recovering the cost.

I wonder if lower users are subsidising higher users on costs related to usage too.

@Ginmonkeyagain Does supply actually cost this much then? Irrespective of usage? It still costs the full gas usage standing charge if someone has turned their boiler off, electric shower, boiling a kettle to wash up, for example.

I work for one of the utilities
the cost of providing and maintaining the infrastructure to get your services to your property is astronomical there is literally an army of manpower involved

it cost us the same to supply service to your property irrespective how much u use

This annoys me too as we have an all electric property, but it came with 2 supply lines, one for the electric heating. I can't change to single supply without losing the economy 7 tariff so we are now up to £1.20 per day standing charges. And we literally don't use a unit of one of the supplies from March to october as I turn off all the storage heaters.

Now that it's gone up again I need to redo my sums. Last time the economy 7 went up (at a far bigger % than single tariff users in Jan - we were 8%!!) it still was worth it to keep (just) but I suspect we are close to a stage where we will be better off to just move to single supply and use the electricity any time we like. Which kind of goes against the incentives there are to limit peak use.

@rwalker If someone has their gas capped, disconnected, do these costs to the utility disappear?

Same. Just as we're being told wholesale energy prices are going down, the standing charge goes up.

What a coincidence 😏

I just don't know what people are meant to do. Our energy bills are 40% of the average, making our usage even lower than that. Even if energy costs come down, every other bill is going up so we need the energy bills to come down, there is no hope of being able to use more heating next winter than the one just gone. We are still getting by, many are in a worse position.

Just checked my app, it's now 80p a day, so £292 a year!

@Okunevo Once a gas supply is disconnected from the grid you have to pay to get it reconnected and it's very expensive. If you're in rented property you can't do it without the LL's permission

The energy companies can afford to cover it. The are absolutely despicable and need to be nationalised. They made so much profit last year while people literally died from poverty. I hate them and don't know how they sleep at night. "In 2022, Shell raked in £32.2billion - the highest in its 115-year history. Rivals BP made profits of £23billion during the same period, up from about £10.7billion in 2021."
.

I'm not thinking of doing it. I was asking if after disconnection, does the £100 a year cost to maintain the connection to a particular house, as covered by the standing charge, disappear?

@Wedoronron umm I thinknyou would be very disapointed. Nationalising energy would not suddenly make the fixed costs of supplying energy disappear.

If anything rising standing charges are a government issue. As noted above a lot of the standing charge is comprsed of things like green initiaitves, social support, costs of underwriting failed suppliers. This was a government choice. They could have chosen to fund this via general taxation, but they didn't. Possibly becuase it is easier for the heat to fall on private companies for these costs.

Also the costs of networks are regulated by Ofgem, a public body, they decide how much can be charged for the fixed costs of supply.