Octopus Tracker

la531983

Also worth pointing out the price of wholesale gas was double to triple the price in Dec 2022 than it is now, still coming down from the August 2022 peak.

Bendo

Whilst the cold would have played some part, the lack of certainly on supplies and storage would have had a bigger impact. I don't expect we will see such jumps this year. I'd planned to stay on SVR for gas until mid Jan but decided to take the plunge early. Hopefully that will pay off.

Slinky

Telegraph_Sam said:

Slinky said:

Still looking seriously at swapping to Tracker, just had a look back at the past 365 days wholesale prices.  What caused the huge spike last December?

It makes sense IMHO to use the 12 month (averages + totals) as a basis for coming to conclusions between Tracker and other tariffs under consideration. Helps compensate for any oddities like last December.

I agree with this of course, but it still makes sense to educate yourself where you can on what to look out for. I seem to recall there being issues with Australian unions causing some sort of issues with gas pricing (wasn't really paying too much attention at the time as we were on standard variable), was that around that time?

MultiFuelBurner

Slinky said:

Still looking seriously at swapping to Tracker, just had a look back at the past 365 days wholesale prices.  What caused the huge spike last December?

The Russian invasion and subsequent panic that ensued for energy purchasing.

Something that would be solved now with the way everyone avoids buying anything from Russia unless absolutely necessary.

Slinky

MultiFuelBurner said:

Slinky said:

Still looking seriously at swapping to Tracker, just had a look back at the past 365 days wholesale prices.  What caused the huge spike last December?

The Russian invasion and subsequent panic that ensued for energy purchasing.

Something that would be solved now with the way everyone avoids buying anything from Russia unless absolutely necessary.

The Russian invasion was in February 2022. Why would that cause a spike in December 2022?

Telegraph_Sam

Re Australian unions I can remember that and wondering what effect that would have on my (elec) prices. Such hiccoughs are predictable in some form or other. That's where the Law of Large Numbers (12 months figures) can be helpful

The_Green_Hornet

Sun 11 Dec 2022 16.45 GMT

UK power prices hit record high amid cold snap and lack of wind power | Energy industry | The Guardian

Slinky

The_Green_Hornet said:

Sun 11 Dec 2022 16.45 GMT

UK power prices hit record high amid cold snap and lack of wind power | Energy industry | The Guardian

That accounts for it. Thanks. At least I know what there is to be expected in similar circumstances. I've already fixed on the gas, so it's electric I'm looking at. We're low users anyway, and have the solar panels, so a brief spell of high prices isn't going to break the bank.

spot1034

It's probably a couple (or more) factors coming into play at the same time which could cause a big spike in prices. Including prolonged cold settled weather across Europe, unplanned nuclear outages or pipelines being closed unexpectedly for any number of reasons, political instabilities around the world, industrial action affecting shipping of LPG, action by eco-zealots etc etc.

Pat38493

Slinky said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Slinky said:

Still looking seriously at swapping to Tracker, just had a look back at the past 365 days wholesale prices.  What caused the huge spike last December?

The Russian invasion and subsequent panic that ensued for energy purchasing.

Something that would be solved now with the way everyone avoids buying anything from Russia unless absolutely necessary.

The Russian invasion was in February 2022. Why would that cause a spike in December 2022?

There was a lot of concern going into the winter that gas supplies in Europe would not last through the winter.  Pipelines were being sabotaged by either Ukraine or Russia depending who you believe and there was concern that supplies could be further interrupted.  This was combined with forecast of an extreme cold snap.