Interesting reading on one idea to sort some of this out.
Prices didn’t rise suddenly. You could see it coming a mile off!
Looks pretty sudden to me....
The companies behind this are still making huge profits and it’s pretty indefensible when you get right down to it.
You need to separate the supply companies from the generators. The generators who own gas fields will benefit, suppliers who just resell energy are just caught in the middle, buy at inflated prices and have to sell at capped prices....
suppliers who just resell energy are just caught in the middle, buy at inflated prices and have to sell at capped prices….
AIUI that's not absolutely true, in the UK at least. The government has been topping up the amount the suppliers get (and not just by the £400 paid 'direct' to consumers), also by covering the diff between EPG and the OfGem cap
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64748135
AIUI that’s not absolutely true, in the UK at least. The government has been topping up the amount the suppliers get (and not just by the £400 paid ‘direct’ to consumers), also by covering the diff between EPG and the OfGem cap
Not quite so simple though.
You buy a unit from your supplier. They charge you x which is capped by the EPG.
The government tops up x to whatever the Offgem price cap is. They set this as a expected 2% profit margin across the industry.
Your supplier still has to buy that unit from somewhere at the market rate, which is partially what they negotiate with suppliers directly and, and partially what the government (and the national grid) do on their behalf.
yes. But the point is that they are not being squeezed down to the EPG level - I know it's all this fictitious average house and actual usage varies but up until recently the EPG was £2500, and the Ofgem price cap was £4279, so for the average house the Gov was topping up by up to £1729 (could have been less if supplier actual cost was less - but recently that's unlikely)
Then in addition they were giving us all £400 towards our bill, so of the £2500 we only actually paid £2100. Gov has been paying half the average bill, suppliers haven't had to suck that up.
Now the EPG is reset to £3000 and we have to pay it all (no £400 giveaways), and in addition the Ofgem is £3280. So while Gov has talked about continuing to support, the reality is that the level of support has dropped substantially. Especially as most of us won't be using close to the actual capped rate through summer.
I know I can alter the DD and likely will. This isn’t mentioned in the email I received from my supplier. This will lead to a lot of people just accepting price rises.
You can’t reject a price rise.
You need to separate what you pay by DD from what your actual prices are.
Also, if the energy supply companies made zero profit on consumer bills, how much exactly do you think they would go down by?
