MSE News: Government to announce energy crackdown

Cardew

Catapa wrote: »

We simply get our electricity from a 100% renewable supplier, just don't care about the lowest rate.

Which supplier is that please?

tagq2

Cardew wrote: »

However it is illegal for, say, Centrica to subsidise British Gas(who they own of course) by selling them cheaper energy.

But it is not illegal to optimise to suit your own retail arm. Establish the maximum you feel your existing customers will bear taking account of any extra sales you want to make in the period, incorporate other costs and any profit you want your retail arm to make (probably not much), and solve to give a wholesale price.

Cardew

tagq2 wrote: »

But it is not illegal to optimise to suit your own retail arm. Establish the maximum you feel your existing customers will bear taking account of any extra sales you want to make in the period, incorporate other costs and any profit you want your retail arm to make (probably not much), and solve to give a wholesale price.

Quite possibly!
There can be little doubt that the parent firm will not want its retail arm to be disadvantaged;)

Which is why a thorough investigation would not go amiss - for all companies. However that is easy enough for say Centrica, but not so easy with the French and German parent companies.

grahamc2003

Catapa wrote: »

We simply get our electricity from a 100% renewable supplier, just don't care about the lowest rate.

I didn't realise there were any suppliers even claiming to supply a 100% renewable electricity, so I'm genuinely interested to read the blurb from your supplier - could you disclose who it is? (btw, not doubting you, just saying it's an area I haven't looked at much).

As an obvious second point, whoever you pay your bills to and whatever percentage they claim to be from renewables, you still use the same amount of coal, nuclear, oil, gas along with a very small percentage of 'renewable' generated electricity in your home as everyone else.

magyar

grahamc2003 wrote: »

I didn't realise there were any suppliers even claiming to supply a 100% renewable electricity, so I'm genuinely interested to read the blurb from your supplier - could you disclose who it is? (btw, not doubting you, just saying it's an area I haven't looked at much).

As an obvious second point, whoever you pay your bills to and whatever percentage they claim to be from renewables, you still use the same amount of coal, nuclear, oil, gas along with a very small percentage of 'renewable' generated electricity in your home as everyone else.

Good Energy claim to be 100% green and are the only one I know of. They match their supply volume to PPAs from renewable generators. This obviously means they're not very cheap...

undaunted

backfoot wrote: »

How is something like that measured?

With great difficulty at the moment I suspect

Seriously however one means would be when the Regulator talked to both Consumer and supplier rather than at present Consumers being unable to access the Regulator to any useful extent whilst suppliers are "consulted" on everything. (It's akin to suggesting Judges ask thieves what the sentence for their crimes should be in my view)

A dispute between a consumer & Npower which is now heading for the Courts has seen the Energy & Parliamentary Ombudsman & Consumer Focus look at it enroute - but each only looks at the narrow legislation which suits their agenda (even when other legal issues are pointed out to them).

undaunted

Cardew wrote: »

A question!

If BG and any others of the Big 6 were forced to reduce their prices such that they made zero profit(i.e. just broke even) how much do you suggest the UK average gas/electricity bill of approx £1300pa would reduce.

A clue for you. BG made approx £48 per customer per year in their record year in 2010. Before it was under £30 pa.

A further question:

British Gas, by far the biggest Utility company in UK, had a record year with profits up 24% to £742 million.

Tesco's results were disappointing this year and their share price dropped. They only made £3,800 million profit(£3.8 billion).

Whose profits are the most 'obscene'? and why?

But are those figures the entire picture? (Eg where did British Gas get the gas from, Centrica? & how much did Centrica make?)

Whilst I take your other point on Tesco & BG profits in some cases I'd still argue British Gas were more obscene. The reason being that some customers are being forced to stay with British Gas (or other suppliers) because of debt & inability to clear it. They are therefore forced to pay whatever British Gas demand. Tesco (and as far as I know no other company / industry in the country either!) does not have that same "priviledge", the Consumer could go to Asda or wherever for cheaper prices whilst clearing their debt.

Cardew

undaunted wrote: »

But are those figures the entire picture? (Eg where did British Gas get the gas from, Centrica? & how much did Centrica make?)

Whilst I take your other point on Tesco & BG profits in some cases I'd still argue British Gas were more obscene. The reason being that some customers are being forced to stay with British Gas (or other suppliers) because of debt & inability to clear it. They are therefore forced to pay whatever British Gas demand. Tesco (and as far as I know no other company / industry in the country either!) does not have that same "priviledge", the Consumer could go to Asda or wherever for cheaper prices whilst clearing their debt.

Centrica made £1.92billion last year - up 19%. - They operate globally and that reflects the world- wide rise in prices.

If the Utility companies did not insist that customers cleared their debt before switching, and there were no restrictions on them leaving, many of them would switch from company to company leaving a trail of debts; and it would be the rest of us that would pay in higher prices.

Utility companies, in effect, grant customers credit. All companies check credit records of potential customers. Do you think that another Utility company would take on a customer knowing that they owed £hundreds? The current situation is that the losing company stops the transfer, but that saves the 'gaining' company from refusing to supply.


Its not a fair analogy with Tesco, they don't grant their customers credit of £hundreds.

magyar

I was reading an analysts' report yesterday about Chris Huhne's statement, and it said "Whilst we don't think that the Secretary of State's statement is unlikely to have any material effect on the industry, we find rather strange that he is doing so at a time when the country is asking these companies to embark on the largest round of power investment since WWII."

I couldn't agree more.

backfoot

magyar wrote: »

I was reading an analysts' report yesterday about Chris Huhne's statement, and it said "Whilst we don't think that the Secretary of State's statement is unlikely to have any material effect on the industry, we find rather strange that he is doing so at a time when the country is asking these companies to embark on the largest round of power investment since WWII."

I couldn't agree more.

Perhaps CH is actually one of the disgruntled customer's of EDF or NPower and is so !!!!ed off he has gone for the jugular.

Perhaps he has submitted a meter reading into 'my account' and the whole national investment plan has now gone belly up.

Or he switched after a price rise and some idiot has still charged him an exit fee.:D