Daily standing order - whats all the fuss?

amtrakuk

To get a 3000% increase your usage is negligible. Even with a 50p a day standing charge on the energy in question means you will have to have been using 1.5p of energy A DAY to declare a 3000% increase.

Assuming its gas. If its that bad tell the gas company to come and remove your gas meter and cap your supply then you wont have to pay the 3000% increase.

Nada666

amtrakuk wrote: »

To get a 3000% increase your usage is negligible. Even with a 50p a day standing charge on the energy in question means you will have to have been using 1.5p of energy A DAY to declare a 3000% increase.

Assuming its gas. If its that bad tell the gas company to come and remove your gas meter and cap your supply then you wont have to pay the 3000% increase.

Again you are ignoring the real issue - the pathological cases using a unit or two are not the concern. The concern are those only using a thousand kWhs per year. It is the one and two hundred percent increases that are the problem not the thousand or two thousand percents - they will always have alternative solutions. Those faced with 70 to 200% increases don't.

dude89

What should happen imo is that OFGEM set a standing charge based on the actual cost of supplying a property with gas and electric (national grid costs/dno costs/maintenance costs and emergency call out costs). this should be uniform across all suppliers and should not matter if using 1kwh or 100000 kwh. These should be fixed costs that should everyone with a supply should pay.

As a consequence tariffs would be easier to compare. It means that all companies must improve their efficiency and compete on unit price alone.

Now I understand that low users will be adversely affected but if the standing charge is a fair cost of supplying the energy to a property then I don't see why it shouldn't be paid for if you have that supply.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

dude89 wrote: »

What should happen imo is that OFGEM set a standing charge based on the actual cost of supplying a property with gas and electric (national grid costs/dno costs/maintenance costs and emergency call out costs). this should be uniform across all suppliers and should not matter if using 1kwh or 100000 kwh. These should be fixed costs that should everyone with a supply should pay.

As a consequence tariffs would be easier to compare. It means that all companies must improve their efficiency and compete on unit price alone.

Now I understand that low users will be adversely affected but if the standing charge is a fair cost of supplying the energy to a property then I don't see why it shouldn't be paid for if you have that supply.

Post of the year.

Unfortunately people that use next to no energy but want to maintain supply would complain no end. But more importantly, it would make it far too simple for the consumer to compare prices. The energy companies don't want it, and the parasitic comparison website industry wouldn't want it. And guess what, OFGEM's board (including the interim CEO) is stuffed full with former energy industry bods. Poacher turned gamekeeper?

amtrakuk

Thank dude89.. You see my point. Its people arguing the principle of the standing charge rather than working through the figures.

On the T1/2 system the standing charge was buried in the T1 rate and people didn't like that. The standing charge system just exposes the standing charge making it visible and up front, people don't like that. If its a flat rate with no T1/2 rate or Standing charge would mean unit prices will increase to about 20p a unit and people will be on the street in protest. If you have a land line you have to pay a standing charge called "line rental". If you have a TV you /should/ pay a standing charge called a "TV Licence". Any utility or service has some charge for supply & maintenance, if this isn't paid then there is no maintenance resulting in the infrastructure breaking down.