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Energy and competition
Comments
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err nope but I do know the right wing press are scaring folk into believing that smart meters are the devil.
How can knowing how much you spend each day on fuel be bad? What about no more estimated bills?
Don't be so lead by what the Mail tells you to think
Knowing how much energy one uses each period can indeed be very useful which is why I have just opted to have a smart meter installed in my home.
That doesn't change the observation that the big winners here will be the utility companies and their profits. How simply wonderful to be able hike up price while all the time claiming they are saving the planet.
And do you work in PR for a utility?0 -
Knowing how much energy one uses each period can indeed be very useful which is why I have just opted to have a smart meter installed in my home.
That doesn't change the observation that the big winners here will be the utility companies and their profits. How simply wonderful to be able hike up price while all the time claiming they are saving the planet.
And do you work in PR for a utility?
Errr No I don't (again) lol,
where are you getting the hiking the price up from? Are you talking about smart meters doing this? or are we taking about the £125 profit per household? If it's the latter I will go back to my original comment which is taking off £125 would still leave you with an average bill of over £1200!!! The same bill a few years ago was £950 so taking off a lower profit say £75. Can you see the big gap? lol
This has NOTHING to do with profit and everything to do with a 7 billion population who all want power. Half of India still has no electric power, how long do you think it will be before they demand it? We all need to get used to rising bill whinging about 9% profit is not going to help when your bill climbs further in the next few years.0 -
Errr No I don't (again) lol,
where are you getting the hiking the price up from? Are you talking about smart meters doing this?
This has NOTHING to do with profit and everything to do with a 7 billion population who all want power. Half of India still has no electric power, how long do you think it will be before they demand it? We all need to get used to rising bill whinging about 9% profit is not going to help when your bill climbs further in the next few years.
Rather than ration power by ability to pay why don't we just have have power blackouts for say 4 or 6 hours at a time. Obviuosly we need to keep key services going like Hospitals.
It could be done on variable post code and time to share the hardship around so we can all be in it together.
Seriously though - I don't need the press to scare me on smart meters. I know exactly what I use already and am fully aware where it goes too. What I believe will happen is that you will have multiple tariffs that will be difficult to actually budget easily for, they will shift the peak slots to suit them and rather than a monthly DDR I am sure a real time debiting will ensue. Perhaps not in the first couple of years but it will happen."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
So what do we really want?
I understood the 10 to be% clear profit after operating costs and the cost of the "gas/electric". I wonder what profit is made on the wholesale bit?
I don't know but I surmise that the actual cost of the commodity itself is relatively low in relation to the average £13/14 00 bill. that is the reason we don't see the price following the wholesale "swings".
What we also pay for is the green costs, the FIT subsidies:mad:, and investment in future generation & infrastructure, insulation grants oh nearly forgot about £100 a time in wasted admin costs each time I switch supplier each year:mad::mad::mad: and £50 in VAT.
I would certainly prefer the amount we spend on FIT going into strategic generation solutions.
I certainly believe the tariffs need to be sorted out but I guess the suppliers will still run rings round the regulator as they largely fund them.
Perhaps wholesale and retail should be completely split with no cross ownership allowed?
At the end of the day it is the same commodity being delivered through the same pipes and plugs. At least with groceries for instance you can select a degree of quality or service.
Perhaps having multiple providers isn't the best way? Maybe placing tit back in government control and replacing profit with inefficiency (same thing for the consumer) may be a better system of control for what is a key commodity of life?
A bit like council tax, large increases were made for 10 years or so and they are now being held down, the fuel companies have maxed out their take over the last 5/6 years and may be it is time, politically, for a period of price stability?
All I want is a fair understandable price that I don't feel I have to change supplier every 12/18 months to attain."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
The trouble is that there are over 400 different tarriffs to trawl through and the greedy Barstewards count on people giving up before they have got through the whole list.
Thats what you get for foreign cartels being allowed to control all of our utilities including water :mad:Blessed are the cracked for they are the ones that let in the light
C.R.A.P R.O.L.L.Z. Member #35 Butterfly Brain + OH - Foraging Fixers
Not Buying it 2015!0 -
Or it could be an option you could choose. You get your electricity cheaper if you don't mind being near the front of the queue for a power cut.grizzly1911 wrote: »It could be done on variable post code and time to share the hardship around so we can all be in it together."It will take, five, 10, 15 years to get back to where we need to be. But it's no longer the individual banks that are in the wrong, it's the banking industry as a whole." - Steven Cooper, head of personal and business banking at Barclays, talking to Martin Lewis0 -
Well we aren't going to meet the targets for reducing energy consumption if we aren't going to ask questions about what temperatures we need to maintain in rooms that aren't used much.
Why exactly should anyone in the UK be looking towards energy reduction when the likes of the US, the Far East, India etc refuse to comply with the emissions regulations.
So much emphasis is put on reducing emissions, but due to our small size compared to the US etc, we're not making any difference to the emissions being produced, yet are paying hand over fist for it through our energy/fuel bills.
Stop all this energy/emissions reduction talk until EVERY country agrees to it.[SIZE=-1]To equate judgement and wisdom with occupation is at best . . . insulting.
[/SIZE]0 -
But what is "fair"? For a long time now, the economics of electricity generation have been hidden behind a totally opaque pricing structure that had no relation to actual costs - because in terms of costs, all units are not the same. So nobody's been paying for what they use in any real sense.grizzly1911 wrote: »All I want is a fair understandable price that I don't feel I have to change supplier every 12/18 months to attain.
This massive hidden cross-subsidy was affordable in the days of "cheap energy", but may not be sustainable now. Moreover, we have this political obsession with "competition", but there's no real competition until retailers can sell cheap what they can buy cheap.
That would mean, of course, that the market would decide - on entirely short-term considerations - whether it wants its electricity from gas or wind or nuclear, and any kind of strategic planning would disappear straight up the cooling tower."It will take, five, 10, 15 years to get back to where we need to be. But it's no longer the individual banks that are in the wrong, it's the banking industry as a whole." - Steven Cooper, head of personal and business banking at Barclays, talking to Martin Lewis0 -
RE-NATIONALISE THE INDUSTRY
1 tariff for all, whether that be prepay or normal meter.
ummm, re-nationalise and have public sector workers back in there! More strikes, more greedy unions wanting the bloke who who reads the meter to be on the same as a qualified engineer? More stupid pension arrangements (hey instead of taking it from your tax they could simply add it to your bill!), more inefficiency, more days sick? less investment and yes more power cuts?
Errrr no thanks
oh and as everyone (inc the one's who need spoon feeding), on one tariff so we all pay more?
again no thanks0
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