Energy cap price rise

Sickening.

Was paying £147 a month and when our contract ended in January the energy company bless them, wanted to charge me £310 a month to ‘protect me’ against future price rises. It was almost impossible to find their standard tariff on the website. Now Being really energy conscious and on the variable my costs are still £147 a month (in winter) and come April they still won’t be anywhere near £310a month.

£147 a month (in winter) and come April they still won’t be anywhere near £310a month.

No they won’t I don’t think. Our usage is similar and we’re projected to go to around £220 p/m on the new cap prices (winter bills). Come October though when it is reviewed again all bets are off. It could hit those levels quite easily.

But for now they are taking the ****.

Actually with Utility Warehouse seemingly incapable of getting us onto set monthly payments I am quite happy with them just billing us what we use each month. Most expensive month for us was January at £200 which we could easily manage and then through the summer it will be quite a lot less. I would rather just build up my own buffer for the winter.

We were on £75 p/m last year, that’s just crept up to £110 in the last couple of months. Got the email list night with the prediction for the next year were going up to £166 p/m.

Is there any point trying to find a good EV tariff right now, or let things settle down for a bit then look!?

For those with the ability to find the capital, the financials for a solar/battery system are getting much stronger.

For me, a tariff like Octopus Go would mean I use no peak energy, as I can charge the battery by solar for my evening peak, and charge it with night time 5p grid electricity to cover the morning rush. I would also charge my EV with either solar or night time cheap electricity.

It’s the ability to access the 5p rate, whilst avoiding the 30p that makes the system work.

I understand wholesale price rises of gas would increase the price of electricity but don’t understand why the increase is so high when I think less than half of the UKs electric is produced by gas.

Also, how does the price of gas put the daily standing charge up from 26p to 49p?

For those with the ability to find the capital, the financials for a solar/battery system are getting much stronger.

unfortunately so are costs and lead times. I had 4kw installed mid summer last year having been delayed from the original 3 month install plan by a further 6 months . made a massive difference to my bills …. pretty much halfed them in all but december.

@bruneep is struggling to get a survey from the same local company (or infact anyone) due to increase in demand. I might be misquoting him but iirc he said the phone quote without survey was a budgetary near double what i paid – and the time to install would be some time 2023 ……

Lead times on some recycled Tesla battery units were 8 months when i was looking , after living with the solar for 6 months i tried to get a battery fitted but the lead times nearly doubled – costs remained the same though.

I understand wholesale price rises of gas would increase the price of electricity but don’t understand why the increase is so high when I think less than half of the UKs electric is produced by gas.

First, you would have to ask “Why is the price of gas high?”. You would think it was an increase in demand. Yet, demand is similar to pre-pandemic levels, as is supply.

Essentially, they are high because investors (hedge funds) are buying gas at high prices, because they believe they will be higher (or lower) in the future. To some degree, this is self perpetuating as high prices lead to political instability, which leads to higher prices.

The UK gets less than 5% of gas from Russia (around half from the North sea, 40% from Scandi, and some liquified gas from around the world). So the price of gas in the UK should not directly be affected by what is happening in Russia. In practice, prices are set globally for gas and the prices of electricity from other sources is set globally to compete.

Alongside holdings in North sea gas. Shell, BP… have significant holdings in Russian gas from yesterday’s FT:
“BP owns almost a fifth of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft. UK-listed rival Shell controls 27.5 per cent of Gazprom’s huge Sakhalin-2 offshore gas project in Russia’s far east.”

On balance high gas prices probably are a benefit to UK Plc if not the consumer. Hence the weak government response.

But for now they are taking the ****.

Not really. Current wholesale costs are more than the cap so many retailers are making a loss on the standard tariff they’re obliged to offer. That’s why about thirty have ceased trading in the last year.

Energy prices only ever go up.
Greater global population –> more pressure on finite resources –> higher cost of extraction –> higher retail prices.

Energy prices only ever go up.
Greater global population –> more pressure on finite resources –> higher cost of extraction –> higher retail prices.

Except when they go down …

Graph

@goslow

Also, how does the price of gas put the daily standing charge up from 26p to 49p?

Many years ago the standing charge directly corrolated to the cost of running the infrastructure. That is no longer the case. Now standing charge is just part of the pricing package the suppliers offer and should be considered part of the total energy cost.

Energy prices only ever go up.
Greater global population –> more pressure on finite resources –> higher cost of extraction –> higher retail prices.

Current prices have very little to do with the cost of production.

I know it’s only Feb but I fear what will happen in October now Putin has invaded Ukraine. I’ve not read any analysis yet and so far ahead or would be very uncertain, but I could imagine another doubling in wholesale gas prices maybe. People would freeze, or starve, or both.

As Ukraine is major grain exporter and food prices are steadily rising it will not be either freeze or starve for some – it will be both.

So a doubling of bread, pasta and so on prices to. Oouphh!

Just had the price cap email from Shell – the estimated bill has gone up by another £920 a year. Oof!

I know it’s only Feb but I fear what will happen in October now Putin has invaded Ukraine. I’ve not read any analysis yet and so far ahead or would be very uncertain, but I could imagine another doubling in wholesale gas prices maybe. People would freeze, or starve, or both.

Gas futures for March delivery were up by 34% a couple of hours ago.

Just received notification that my monthly electricity payments are increasing from £120 to £160 which at 33% isn’t as bad as some. This is for both power and heating as we’ve got an ASHP. Also have applied for RHI which will give me £600/yr for 7 years, but in order to qualify, I need to instal another electric meter to monitor power consumption on the heat pump but that will cost me £600!

Was with Green Energy at £2000pa, they went bust so Shell variable £2660 … now estimated from April at £3960, and then the next God knows what increase in September.

Stocking up on firewood and blankets I think!

Just had my new tariff email from Shell.

Due to them screwing up the meter readings during the switch over they think my Annual Projection is £28,824 going up £10k to £38,973.

They so far haven’t sent me my first bill or taken any payments so should come down a few pennies when it’s corrected or have just given me the correct prices for October :S

you pay £28 grand a year on energy?

We got booted to Shell Energy after our supplier Pure Planet went pop.

Still haven’t had a bill for months, though supposedly we’re still £800 in credit.

Just had our revised projection through – up from £1950 to £2,950!! £1,000 rise!

Unbelievable. Still, good thing we took back our borders so the UK Gov’t could cut VAT on heating bills, unlike those pesky Europeans. What’s that? We’re not? And the European countries are?

One big mess up on Shell’s me thinks looking at the readings I’ve logged but no idea how they’ve managed to do it.

Same here. Pure Planet customer ended up with Shell. Just had my email and whilst my figures don’t look quite as dramatic as some of those quoted above I’m genuinely worried about how we’ll afford the increase. £50-60 more per month is a huge deal for us. Supposed to be working from home when not in face to face training delivery. I will be back in the office full time I think as I can’t afford the additional energy costs. At least I can commute by bike or walk.

Might be time to re-think expectations of the October price cap change – no, it’s not good news; bear in mind the annual prices in the article are based on unit prices.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60506940

Yeah I’m ex green more shell so have seen the same ~doubling in my bills. Thankfully I have a huge supply of logs from cultivating friendships with several tree surgeons and have not used the gas central heating at all this year. My estimated consumption, (gas for cooking and hot water plus electricity) is to go to just over £2k. If the BBC article is right it will probably be nearly £3.5k by October. I going to put timers on all the lights.

For people on Shell, could someone post up the rates they have been given for April? They’ve sent me E7 rates and want to see if it’s worth switching bit can’t find any details on the website.

Another ex Pure Planet now with Shell and my bill is going up by £808 from £1,367 to £2,175 as of the 1st April.

@longwayup Rates for the Flexible 7 tariff.

Your electricity rates will change from 20.207p to 27.090p per kWh and your standing charge per day will change from 26.46p to 48.91p.

Your gas rates will change from 3.954p to 7.225p per kWh and your standing charge per day will change from 26.11p to 27.22p.

@longwayup

Economy 7 rates on shell are as follows:

Your Economy 7 electricity rates will change from 25.614p to 33.110p per kWh for your day rate and 10.542p to 18.038p per kWh for your night rate. Your standing charge per day will change from 24.19p to 43.48p.

Former green customer, was paying around 150 a month, now it will be around 350 a month. That’s going to hurt a bit, come October I imagine it will smart a tad more..

Due to them screwing up the meter readings during the switch over they think my Annual Projection is £28,824 going up £10k to £38,973.

Where the hell do you live, Balmoral?

Yet another Pure Planet > Shell customer here, I got my email yesterday too. “Increase in cost: £1,432” 😯 Shit the bed. If my electricity usage is zero it’ll still cost me £150/year just for the privilege of being connected to the grid.

Riddle me this though. Why is my “new Flexible 7 tariff” different from others posted here? Does it cost more to pump electricity uphill* or something?

“Your electricity rates will change from 20.140p to 28.020p per kWh and your standing charge per day will change from 24.38p to 42.24p.

Your gas rates will change from 4.043p to 7.343p per kWh and your standing charge per day will change from 26.11p to 27.22p.”

(* – potentially…)

If my electricity usage is zero it’ll still cost me £150/year just for the privilege of being connected to the grid.

Solar + battery plus off grid!

Wish I did live in Balmoral but I just don’t think Shell know what they are doing. It’s interesting that people are having different tariff amounts being given.

Initially Shell sent over the Flexible 6 tariff in October for Standing charge (per day) of 25.66p
and Unit rate (per kWh) of 21.607p which is different to yours.

The latest from Shell I’ve been given…
Your Economy 7 electricity rates will change from 27.040p to 33.549p per kWh for your day rate and 10.700p to 17.208p per kWh for your night rate. Your standing charge per day will change from 25.75p to 51.70p.

I’ve got a Smart meter being installed next week as they said they can only bill me on a single rate tariff if I have one installed even though Pure Planet was billing for single rate. I’m going to hazard a guess that this will all go wrong, especially when the first bill turns up and it’s something completely different. Any negatives to cancelling the Direct Debit so they can’t take the wrong amount?

Yes, it’ll destroy your credit rating.

I’m assuming I’m not the only one that’s has their Bulb update today. Ours is going from £192 to £241 a month from April.

Actually, thats less than I feared and perhaps maybe due in some small way to some effort to reduce our energy use over the last few months.

I’ve got a Smart meter being installed next week as they said they can only bill me on a single rate tariff if I have one installed even though Pure Planet was billing for single rate

They have targets to meet for installing Smart meters, so saying you have to have one whenever you want something from them is one way of achieving that.

Just had the Bulb email too…

From 1 April, our prices will be increasing

We’re increasing our electricity unit rate from 21.547p to 29.484p per kWh and electricity standing charge from 24.027p to 41.660p per day.

We’re increasing our gas unit rate from 4.052p to 7.319p per kWh and standing charge from 26.112p to 27.219p per day…

…It’s now around four times higher than it was a year ago.

To say I’m mightily pi55ed off paying a 300% hike over prices 12 months ago is an understatement.

I feel very sorry for those who can’t afford it and have to choose between eating, heating etc. Sad times.

To say I’m mightily pi55ed off paying a 300% hike over prices 12 months is an understatement.

Aren’t we all, it isn’t Bulbs fault though.

I’m assuming I’m not the only one that’s has their Bulb update today. Ours is going from £192 to £241 a month from April.

Actually, thats less than I feared and perhaps maybe due in some small way to some effort to reduce our energy use over the last few months.

Well I think I can beat that.

On 6 April we will increase your monthly payments from £127.00 to £215.74

Ouch.

A quick look at octopus and the unit rate was about 20% more than the bulb email. British gas wouldn’t even give me a price.

Yet another Pure Planet > Shell customer here

me too 0 £1256 increase n April and surely more to come. One thing I do like about shell is the hourly graph of usage (you need a smart meter and to sign into half hourly readings for this to work), but seeing the cost per day of each utility live is an incentive to switch off some stuff.