Will the cost of electricity and gas ever come back down again.

[1457bloom]

Pre Covid, I wouldn’t think twice about putting the heating on, now it seems like a luxury.

Please explain how getting rid of net zero would make an appreciable difference to the UK's energy costs. What would be different? Reopening coal mines and rebuilding coal-fired power stations? Importing more gas for gas-fired power stations? Or what?

Chatgpt tells me the main thing isn't policy costs. It's because the price is set/linked to the price of gas?

I'd like to ask if we have any energy industry professionals here.

It’s unlikely to go down now. I’ve taken to keeping ourselves warm, heavier bedding, wheat bags (don’t feel safe giving the children hot water bottles) and jumpers. We put the heating on during the evening for an hour or so to warm the house before bed, but as our house is old and on the larger size, it is expensive to keep warm!

Net zero is a net boost to the economy (Unless you like paying for flooding).

I can't see the price of food going down any time soon either.

I know about linepack ?

Price of food is a function of the cost of energy.

So getting rid of net zero wouldn't have any impact on our energy costs, because prices are influenced by factors other than net zero. Which is why I asked the question.

I’ve never known it go down. It really started to go up a lot around 2009. But then went mad after Ukraine and Russia

Exactly this!

No

No sadly everything is more expensive

Of course it won’t, there’s no incentive for it to go down. Nowadays, consumers talk about it being ‘cheap’ if the unit price is 25p and the standing charge is 55p a day…that would have been absolutely unthinkable in 2019. These companies make a massive song and dance if they reduce your unit price by 1 pence but it’s never going to get back to what it was pre-Covid. The shareholders wouldn’t like it after all. 🤷‍♀️

It won’t ever go down though I’d like to see all planning permissions for new build have a requirement that they can produce enough via solar to cover at a minimum of 50% of the average house of its size requirements.

Want an extension? You must install
solar.

overall we as a country rely so much on imports food and energy it’s stupid.

Yeah, what a boost. The economy is roaring. Who knew.

You are gullible and naive.

I don’t understand why people knock net zero. I’m not an energy industry professional but we manage commercial energy contracts, so a lot of money rides on the decisions we make. Our commercial solar arrays saved so much each month, I put them on my own house as well. It’s a no brainer if you’ve got a few thousand spare.

I think it's due to policy costs placed on electricity bills. These costs fund environmental policies.

My understanding is that these aren't that much of the total price. The main thing is the price of gas.

If we had an energy industry professional they could educate us

The basics aren’t terribly complex.

The wholesale cost of electricity is pegged to the cost of the most expensive form of feedstock used to generate it - natural gas. The UK relies heavily on gas imports, and the prices on the international markets are both high and volatile. So as a nation we are exposed.

One can see net zero as investment that will make the UK more energy independent / less reliant on imports. Part of the reason that food costs are so stubbornly high is the high energy costs of producing, storing and transporting food.

Thank you for explaining it to me.

It should* come down in price when the Ukraine war ends as that was a big driver of the leap in energy rates, but I wouldn't put it past the greedy energy companies to just keep the prices inflated now.

Nailed it.
What possessed the UK to privatise and sell of so much of its national infra-structure is mind boggleing, rail, energy, steel, housing, wtf were they actually thinking?

Now they wonder about most expensive rail prices in europe, powerstations owned by the French, petrolchemical shut, steels been run to the ground and pretty much gone, house prices through the roof!

It doesn’t help that the standing charges are so high

talk of also adding extra money to bills to allow companies to write off user debts

us footing the bill for new nuclear plants etc which will be added to our energy bills according to the news the other day

My DD works in energy and in renewables. So I asked her yesterday. She basically agreed with what @SumUp said. She doesn't like the Net Zero bashing in the media and by the right. Makes her feel like what she's doing is worthwhile.