EDF daily standing charge up 28.6%!

redpola

Just received a letter about increased charges from EDF. Was expecting 10%, on the basis of fuel used across the board. Here are the actual increases in percentages (the letter does not show percentages, only absolute prices).

Standard Metered Electricity
Daily standing charge 14.70p to 18.90p, UP 28.6%!
Unit charge 12.86p to 13.97p, UP 8.6%

Standard Metered Gas
Daily standing charge 23.10p to 26.25p, UP 13.6%!
Unit charge 3.848p to 4.244p, UP 10.3%

This price increase has mostly been blamed on wholesale fuel prices, so why is the standing charge affected?

28.6% is an astonishing amount before I even buy any electricity. I'm amazed.

Neil.

Bark01

The increases have not mostly been blamed on wholesale fuel prices. Taken from the press release:
The company acknowledged the price rise would be unwelcome but said that the combination of
significant extra costs in the use of gas and electricity networks, mandatory energy efficiency and
social schemes, plus the rising price of wholesale energy

Significant extra costs in the use of gas and electricity networks and mandatory energy efficiency are why the standing charges have increased.

The 10% increase referes to:
National average dual fuel direct debit annual bills at typical consumption. The figures are based on a typicalconsumption (3,300 kWh standard electricity and 16,500 kWh standard gas per annum)

yangptangkipperbang

redpola wrote: »

I'm amazed.

I'm not ! This is a standard ploy. In the last round of increases my higher rate units went up by over 20%, the lower rate units went up by 7%.

boatman

My daily rate didn't change.. economy 10.

thor

Bark01 wrote: »

The increases have not mostly been blamed on wholesale fuel prices. Taken from the press release:
The company acknowledged the price rise would be unwelcome but said that the combination of
significant extra costs in the use of gas and electricity networks, mandatory energy efficiency and
social schemes, plus the rising price of wholesale energy

Significant extra costs in the use of gas and electricity networks and mandatory energy efficiency are why the standing charges have increased.

The Utility companies are quick to blame 'significant extra costs' and I have heard hundreds of billions of pounds being bandied about but have any of these companies come out with accurate figures for their own businesses or is it just an exercise in hand waving? Certainly their apologists have been out in force over the last few years defending them.

Bark01

thor wrote: »

The Utility companies are quick to blame 'significant extra costs' and I have heard hundreds of billions of pounds being bandied about but have any of these companies come out with accurate figures for their own businesses or is it just an exercise in hand waving? Certainly their apologists have been out in force over the last few years defending them.

there are some figures in here which show 2007 vs 2011:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/utilities/2012/10/british-gas-boss-why-i-put-your-prices-up

The big change in the mandatory energy efficiency is the goverment removing CERT / CESP and introducing ECO / Green deal in October 2012. This is expected to add ~£40 to bills by the end of 2013. http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/the-green-deal-and-energy-company-obligation-which-response-277262.pdf