Crunch time......

[macliam]

We all knew it was coming...... but

I am with Bulb, which went into "special administration".

I have just had notification of their charges, after April 1st....

Electricity up from 20.860p to 29.239p per kWh a 40% increase!
Standing charge from 24.007p to 37.918p per day a 58% increase!!

Gas up from 4.055p to 7.344p per kWh an 81% increase !!!
Standing charge from 26.112p to 27.219p per day a 4% increase

I understand the energy price jump.... but what the heck is the standing charge increase all about???

[blythburgh]

Snap we are Bulb customers as well. Standing charge because we must line the pockets of the administrators I guess

[Chadwick]

They're just spreading the costs out to make the increases look lower and to make sure they're guaranteed to get some money even if you don't use as much fuel.

[Richard Frost]

My guess would be that they need to make some money to recoup what they are losing on the gas they are buying at high prices and then having to sell at a lower price because of the OFCOM price cap. One thing is for certain it has not yet reached its peak.

[Chadwick]

My guess would be that they need to make some money to recoup what they are losing on the gas they are buying at high prices and then having to sell at a lower price because of the OFCOM price cap. One thing is for certain it has not yet reached its peak.

Which raises the question of whether it's worth getting a fixed rate now. I understand there are no fixed rates below the current cap, but my supplier is offering one at the cap.

[Richard Frost]

The general opinion at the moment seem to be not to fix as the fix prices are extremely high. If you can get a fix at the current price cap then it would seem sense to me to fix it as the price cap is going to go up in April and unless OFGEM changes the method of working it out it again in October. (But I would check the small print quite closely as any company fixing at the current cap, WILL lose money and they would have to have a very good reason for justifying doing this to their shareholders.

There is also the fact that the current government wants to change the methodology of working out the cost of payments for new nuclear. At the moment finance for this is raised on the money market incurring interest by the operator (which is why their are very few players and then paid back as a higher rate per generated therm to the operator on your bill. What this government would like to do is put a levy on the bill before building therefore avoiding the interest. This will in effect be a double whammy as consumers will be paying back the money already borrowed as well as providing (in effect a deposit) money for future new builds of nuclear power stations. This will further increase bills substantially.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/re ... ber%202021.

The other issue is of course the very idea of nuclear. Whilst it is proven to be very safe there is still no real long lasting solution to the disposal of the waste. At the moment it is all being stored in underground bunkers in Cumbria. The cost of that is currently partly being met by the government (personally I think the generating companies should meet the cost)

Costs are currently around £3 billion annually. Approximately two-thirds is met by the government and the remainder from revenue earned through the NDA’s commercial activities. This includes contracts with UK and overseas customers for the reprocessing and management of spent nuclear fuels.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ear-legacy

[macliam]

There is no doubt that energy costs in the UK are far more complex than any linkage to world prices might suggest. An obvious proof of this is the difference between the increases for Gas and Electricity... the Gas price has nearly doubled, whilst the electricity price has increased by less than 50%. Some of this is due to the "mix" of production methods for Electricity..... although it is still highly dependent on Gas and we are told that there have been issues with the amount delivered by "green" sources. It's hard to believe that there isn't significant loading on these prices - and, at a time of crisis, I think Ofgem should enforce transparency.

We all know that we are being asked to pay a green levy, a nuclear levy, etc., etc. - but suppliers should be forced to provide a cost by cost breakdown for the charges they propose - and then we can judge the good guys. I would like to see my unit charge, for both fuels, broken down by raw fuel cost, plus the additional loadings, fully exploded.

I also think the time has come to stop the "standing charge" ripoff and recover infrastructure costs from the unit price..... without penalizing the consumer. My responsibility, as a consumer, is not to guarantee the supplier a fixed basic cost for their services.... I don't do it for supermarkets or petrol stations, why should I do it for an energy company?

[blythburgh]

We are with Bulb and our monthly DD will go up 70% on 1st April.

Luckily we can use Lidl more and put less into savings. But what about the people who get the stuff we put in the food bank every week? What about those who do not need a food bank but still find it hard to put much into savings each month?

And do not forget if the people who are going to struggle are working then they will have to pay more in NI even if their earnings are so low they do not pay income tax.

But if you are in the lucky group who pay higher rate income tax your NI will not be so badly affected. Some of your NI will be at a very low rate and because your income is so large you will not notice the NI increase.

[Richard Frost]

I understand the energy price jump.... but what the heck is the standing charge increase all about???

"Lots of people have been asking me why the standing charge is going up by so much, so I asked the regulator Ofgem, which said it reflects the big increases in fixed charges, which are being put into the standing charge. So, for example, about half the cost of moving people whose supplier went bust to suppliers of last resort is going into the standing charge.

"There are fixed network costs, there are policy increases in the cost of the green levy (so the cost of supplying green energy even if you don't have green energy yourself) and the cost of the Warm Home Discount. So when you see the letter from your energy company, and you see the massive rise in the standing charge, that's because the price cap standing charge for electricity has gone up so much.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... me-to-fix/

[macliam]

Don't care, my previous comment applies.... why should I treat an energy company from any other?