Energy news in general

xeny

Better to be honest about it, and the more time to implement demand reduction strategies the better designed they can be. Belgium is talking about 5 to 10 tough years, this isn't going away quickly.

tlcgrantham

On a more positive note following big falls in Gas wholesale prices Octopus Gas tracker customers can enjoy a weekend of the lowest gas prices since June.

NeverendingDMP

tlcgrantham said:

On a more positive note following big falls in Gas wholesale prices Octopus Gas tracker customers can enjoy a weekend of the lowest gas prices since June.

Go on then where's my invite for Sunday tea

Grumpy_chap

Bit if a rant this morning about BBC Breakfast News segment reporting on the electricity bill for a food bank charity that has some fridges and freezers.

The food bank was, apparently, paying £68 per month (£816 per year) for electricity.
The food bank will now be paying £30k per year for electricity to operate the same fridges and freezers.  Needless to say, the food bank said this will stop them operating.

According to the following source, the unit rate would likely have been around 14 pence/kWh pre-COVID:
https://britishbusinessenergy.co.uk/electricity/

Assume they had a "no-standing charge" tariff before, so £816 / £0.14 = 5,800 kWh/year

Assume they will now pay 50 pence per day standing charge = £180 per year
From the £30,000 forecast bill, that means £29,818 for consumption
Divide by 6,000 kWh
That's a unit rate of £5 per kWh

Is that what commercial rates are heading towards, or did the BBC need to do some fact-checking?
The cost of living crisis, which is driven by energy, is a very worrying situation for many people and needs to be highlighted and needs state-level interventions.  However, if this is a scare-mongering story, it also needs to have controls in place to avoid unnecessary and excessive concern.

Sea_Shell

As I understand it from my thread* on the subject of Commercial Tariffs, that might just be a "renewal quote" that they've received before shopping around.  It makes good headlines though!!! 

A bit like your car insurer quoting you £2000, when last year it was £300....you don't usually have to take it, and can usually get it a lot cheaper elsewhere.

If that price IS the best they can do, then every business in the land is going to be in serious trouble!!!

*
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6383045/commercial-energy-what-next-for-businesses-large-and-small

Steve_79_P

I have seen loads of these stories recently and they do not help at all. It seems very unlikely they are true. The only way this can be accurate is if they have had an absolutely meteoric rise as outlined above, or they were on an exceptionally low (ie. Less than 4p kWh) rates previously. Or potentially if they have massively underpaid for several years?

This reinforces what many on here say in that the only useful figures are unit rate, standing charge and customer usage. 

tghe-retford

This is why I like people posting pictures of the actual renewal statements. It's a lot harder to forge and fake. The address on the statement matches the business the poster claimed:

https://twitter.com/CallumMckeefery/status/1564245010471682050

Grumpy_chap

Steve_79_P said:

I have seen loads of these stories recently and they do not help at all.  

I'd go further than to say these stories "do not help".

They can actually be damaging - the whole context of the reporting was the energy rising from £68 per month to £30k per year and it will force the food bank to close.
Already poor reporting as it compares a monthly figure with annual, so the first thing heard is an increase from £68 to £30k, not comparing like-for-like.
Then the potential that this has not been fact-checked, or historical underpayments etc...

Then the conclusion that the food bank will be closed because of this.
There will be people that saw that segment and use that food bank and will just be in greater despair having heard the article that one of their last lifelines will be taken away from them.

Mstty

tghe-retford said:

This is why I like people posting pictures of the actual renewal statements. It's a lot harder to forge and fake. The address on the statement matches the business the poster claimed:

https://twitter.com/CallumMckeefery/status/1564245010471682050

Yep as someone has already mentioned when something comes to an end a lot of people won't shop around and just accept a renewal. Especially given all the media hype they might think 81p kWh is a great deal😥

Recently a business tariff was taken on this forum at 42p kWh so deals to be done.

Planeteer

Spies said:

I found this when searching around for gas data, very interesting graphs and puts things into perspective!

https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/live-dashboard-real-time-statistics-on-germany-s-gas-supplies-a-8c021b20-d3d7-416b-a89e-5d91bdb0849f

Thank you for sharing that article. It's such a great, fact-based article without any of the vacuous melodrama one knows from British media, or politicians.