MSE News: Guest Comment - Why are energy prices increasing?

gazjoneswales

bengasman wrote: »

During the the height of the recession, the profits went up by 58% in one year, whilst the man in the street was suffering.

If that is not profiteering, I really don't know what is.

Dont you also realise that these 2 years of profit growth come on the back of two exceptionally cold winters. If people use more of something then ofcourse levels of profits will increase.

bengasman

gazjoneswales wrote: »

Dont you also realise that these 2 years of profit growth come on the back of two exceptionally cold winters. If people use more of something then ofcourse levels of profits will increase.

True as that may be, BG had MASSIVE price increases during this period.
For obvious reasons, they make as much noise as possible when they lower the price around the time the whole country has switched the heating off, and are as quiet as they can when they up the price.

It's profiteering all right.

gazjoneswales

bengasman wrote: »

True as that may be, BG had MASSIVE price increases during this period.
For obvious reasons, they make as much noise as possible when they lower the price around the time the whole country has switched the heating off, and are as quiet as they can when they up the price.

It's profiteering all right.

I dont think bg can ever be quiet when they put the prices up. Its all over the news, papers and internet

Skymist

With regards to price hikes/rises/ripoffs, this makes me REALLY angry!!!


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8573885/Wind-turbines-switched-off-on-38-days-every-year.html

and

http://www.ecoincubation.co.uk/2011/firms-paid-to-shut-down-wind-farms-when-the-wind-is-blowing/

Energy companies "have to" use "x" %age of renewable energy, and to do so, it costs loads to power down the national grid, which is subsidised by .....US!!!

What an we expect when it's in the hands of a plonker like this....?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7087828/huhne-poohpoohs-rising-energy-bills-as-nonsense.thtml

S

mech_2

JSR wrote: »

These are British gas profits since five years ago. The figures in brackets are inflation adjusted (link).

2006 £640m (£758m)
2007 £571m -11% (£649m)
2008 £379m -34% (£414m)
2009 £598m +58% (£652m)
2010 £742m +24% (£742m)

It does not look like a company that is profiteering. The profits are just volatile. Large gains but also large falls. The real terms profit from five years ago are more than this year's despite the unusually cold winter.

British Gas? Not Centrica? You know... the parent company who has gas producing capacity and whose profits from that side of the business would therefore have gone up since 2006/2007 following higher wholesale prices? Surely concentrating solely on the British Gas subsidiary is misleading?

posh*spice

Skymist wrote: »

With regards to price hikes/rises/ripoffs, this makes me REALLY angry!!!


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8573885/Wind-turbines-switched-off-on-38-days-every-year.html

and

http://www.ecoincubation.co.uk/2011/firms-paid-to-shut-down-wind-farms-when-the-wind-is-blowing/

Energy companies "have to" use "x" %age of renewable energy, and to do so, it costs loads to power down the national grid, which is subsidised by .....US!!!

What an we expect when it's in the hands of a plonker like this....?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7087828/huhne-poohpoohs-rising-energy-bills-as-nonsense.thtml

S

So you're a global warming/ resource depletion denier are you?

CotswoldRambler

Thought provoking though it is this article makes no comment about the major reason we all complain about energy prices.

Thanks to the competitive nature of our energy market we are subject to far greater volatility in prices than we would have if the suppliers had not been privatised. Yes they do make profits but we should remember what the alternative would be.

When the idea of privatising the state run monopolies was first raised I met some electricity workers as they installed a sub-station. I asked what they thought of the idea of privatisation - expecting them to have the standard outraged response. Extraordinarily for a workforce with a very strong union who usually did anything they could to prevent management making sensible changes to very wasteful working practices they loved the idea of privatisation. When I asked what it would mean they said it was the best thing that could happen and that whilst there would be initial price rises whilst the idea of profits were established costs would then reduce and prices would fall lower and lower.

Rather than being outraged at the cost of energy we should be grateful that the cost is a much lower percentage of our income than it would be if the market was still a monopoly. Sudden price hikes are the penalty we pay for having a competitive market with low initial prices.

Rather than complaining we should take control of our energy usage and take steps to stop wasting so much. We set our heating far higher than we used to so we can sit around in our underwear and eat too much.

grahamc2003

CotswoldRambler wrote: »

Thought provoking though it is this article makes no comment about the major reason we all complain about energy prices.

Thanks to the competitive nature of our energy market we are subject to far greater volatility in prices than we would have if the suppliers had not been privatised. Yes they do make profits but we should remember what the alternative would be.

When the idea of privatising the state run monopolies was first raised I met some electricity workers as they installed a sub-station. I asked what they thought of the idea of privatisation - expecting them to have the standard outraged response. Extraordinarily for a workforce with a very strong union who usually did anything they could to prevent management making sensible changes to very wasteful working practices they loved the idea of privatisation. When I asked what it would mean they said it was the best thing that could happen and that whilst there would be initial price rises whilst the idea of profits were established costs would then reduce and prices would fall lower and lower.

Rather than being outraged at the cost of energy we should be grateful that the cost is a much lower percentage of our income than it would be if the market was still a monopoly. Sudden price hikes are the penalty we pay for having a competitive market with low initial prices.

Rather than complaining we should take control of our energy usage and take steps to stop wasting so much. We set our heating far higher than we used to so we can sit around in our underwear and eat too much.

Not sure why you think that.(the bold bit).

I worked in the industry for many years throughout the various stages of privatisation and helped to concieve many of the additional processes the market participants now have to do which previously didn't exist. Hundreds of consultants worked for over a decade inventing and impementing these things.

My opinion today is that bills today are much higher than they would be if the cegb still existed, and the ideals of competition ensuring a lean, mean and efficient electrical supply industry have failed spectacularly.

bengasman

posh*spice wrote: »

So you're a global warming/ resource depletion denier are you?

I most certainly am, at least the nonsense about global warming being anthropogenic.
The climate has being warming up slowly for the past 400 years at virtually the same rate. How much gas/oil production was there 400 years ago?

fannyvart

bengasman wrote: »

True as that may be, BG had MASSIVE price increases during this period.
For obvious reasons, they make as much noise as possible when they lower the price around the time the whole country has switched the heating off, and are as quiet as they can when they up the price.

It's profiteering all right.

You can call it profiteering as much as you like. But maybe one day you'll actually look at the facts people are putting down in front of you, and wake up and realise you are, in fact, 100% wrong.