MSE News: Energy price cuts, Npower is latest

unclepotter

MoneyMiser wrote: »

Exactly!!

Now that they have raked it in over the winter period, albeit not as much as they had hoped due to the milder winter we had, this is nothing more than a positive PR stunt.

MM

This is nothing more than a 'sweetner' for when they post their massive profits late February :mad:

starsailor123uk

British Gas managing director of energy Ian Peters says: "This price reduction means British Gas is once again offering the cheapest standard electricity, on average, of any major supplier."

That's like saying that you are least worse of the worlds dictators. A pointless statement reduced in clarity by the terms ( standard and major). The market needs to be made more competitive

Shaun

The fastest runner in the UK*

* on a specific street between two lampposts on a leap day in February 2008

SnowMan

callum9999 wrote: »

Doesn't seem weak to me - just not what you want to hear. They are separate companies and have separate arrangements and strategies in how they buy their gas and electric

The obvious conclusion would then be that British Gas only buy gas when wholesale prices are high and avoid buying when wholesale prices are low. :rotfl:

There is no mention in the British Gas press release of whether they have purchased gas at the recent lower wholesale prices and at what point those lower wholesale prices get passed on, their press release possibly implies never given it only talks about past purchases at high wholesale prices and higher wholesale spot prices at the end of the year.

EDF have reduced gas prices by 5% and SSE by 3.8% and British Gas by 0%.

As I am not a British Gas customer and haven't been for years, I think I can comment independently, albeit I have a healthy skepticism for press releases as do most people, it is hardly independent comment is it. We haven't had announcements from the other companies but it could transpire that British Gas are the only major company not to reduce gas prices.

bob_bank_spanker

SnowMan wrote: »

As I am not a British Gas customer and haven't been for years, I think I can comment independently, albeit I have a healthy skepticism for press releases as do most people, it is hardly independent comment is it. We haven't had announcements from the other companies but it could transpire that British Gas are the only major company not to reduce gas prices.

And it could also transpire that they are the only major company to reduce electricity prices, could it not?

Esoog

SEE; (directs here too)

Despite being in credit with these pirates they sent us a letter before Christmas saying they were going to put or DD up by £10 if we didn't ring them within a timeline. Since it was christmas time - and the last time my gf had to argue till blue in the face that there was no justification for putting our dd up since massively in credit - we didn't ring, they then sent us a letter saying "thanks for contacting us about your DD, we've increased it to XX"-

except, they've doubled it! Not just added £10, more like £50. Morons.

We just cancelled it and are going to pay "cash" now, sod the !!!!!! discount. And we'll be after the positive balance money too

SnowMan

The British Gas electricity reduction of 5% does not apply to all British Gas electricity variable rate customers

a) it doesn't include economy 7 customers who get no decrease (as already mentioned and made clear in their press release)
b) there is a lower than 5% reduction for websaver 10,11,12 and 13, essentials and price promise customers. I don't know enough about these tarriffs to comment further.

See this British Gas page


As the MSE news item for the SSE reduction makes clear the 4.5% reduction is actually less than 4.5% because it doesn't apply to the standing charge.

penrhyn

Now the prices are up on Energy Helpline, it would appear that the price of my Websaver 11 electricity is the same as for the On-Line saver based on around 2000 kwh.

Dave_save

If, as British Gas seem to be saying, that we're at the mercy of the wholesale market, then why on earth do we need any sort of 'competition'? Just who are these 'price negotiators' that BG employ to obtain the lowest possible wholesale price? Seems to me they're an incompetent bunch.

shadowspy24

It seems now would be a good time for all the companies to buy a years worth of gas and electricity but they won't do that. It seems as though when prices are high they buy a years worth of energy and when prices are low they buy a weeks worth of energy.

The companies all say they are competing with each other but surely if you were competing with each other, you wouldn't copy each other. One company starts a pattern of cutting either gas or electricity and others follow blindly. I bet the remaining 3 companies also announce a cut of either gas or electricity but not both. Surely if you were in true competition, one company would cut both at the same time and a higher percentage than the previous company after seeing what announcements they have made but I'm guessing since one company has set the pattern the rest won't deviate from that pattern.

alexlyne

I'm confused by two things that contradict.

One, UK gas reserves are 14 days or something ridiculously low - there's not enough storage basically. Now do suppliers buy from these reserves, which means that they can only buy a few weeks in advance, which means what they pay will always go up and down?

Two, Energy Cos buy on the futures market - buy up months in advance. If this is the case, why not buy as much as they can when wholesale prices are in a dip? Which they are now - buy up 12 months worth.

I assume two... but it's not exactly rocket science for someone to think 'why not buy now as prices are cheap'. or is it?

Still, we all know that prices will go up 15-20% again just in time for winter 2012.