Energy news in general

Alnat1

Octopus have been paying 15p for a couple of months now but you need to have supply with them too to get that rate.

markin

New record of 87.2% set for share of electricity on grid coming from renewables and nuclear

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/03/uk-sets-new-record-for-turbine-power-generation-after-period-of-low-wind

GingerTim

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64270157

Mr Opedal said it was doubtful that gas and electricity bills would return to a time when the typical UK household was paying around £1,300 a year. The typical annual bill for homes is currently around £2,500 which includes help from the UK government.

Mr Opedal said there is "a kind of re-wiring of the whole energy system in Europe particularly after the gas from Russia was taken away". He said huge investment in renewables was needed, including using more hydrogen for example.

tghe-retford

GingerTim said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64270157

Mr Opedal said it was doubtful that gas and electricity bills would return to a time when the typical UK household was paying around £1,300 a year. The typical annual bill for homes is currently around £2,500 which includes help from the UK government.

Mr Opedal said there is "a kind of re-wiring of the whole energy system in Europe particularly after the gas from Russia was taken away". He said huge investment in renewables was needed, including using more hydrogen for example.

When your company has increased its net income by 286.71% to over £20bn, you too may also have an incentive to keep bills high.

michaels

Meanwhile gas prices today are down sharply (15%) for immediate delivery but basically at least 5% lower for most of the rest of the year.

My question is - are we close to the point where suppliers could launch new fixes below the current EPG or at the very least the EPG from April?!

[As an aside, if people were to switch to fixes, might that leave suppliers in a difficult position of having hedged gas at the price cap level and not have customers for it?!]

markin

Has the save 0000's thread been deleted?

How much money does putting on a jumper REALLY save on your energy bills? We put it to the thermometer test       

''Most Britons seem to prefer being slightly on the warmer side of the 18C to 21C range, however. A study by Uswitch previously found an estimated 17million homes in the UK set their thermostat above 20C - that's around 70 per cent of all households.''

''If you sit in a 15C room wearing a t-shirt, the average person is likely to feel cold after a short while.

But if you add a light wool jumper, this traps extra warm air near your skin, helping you feel warmer.

To find out how much warmth is generated we used a thermometer, and found a light jumper increased your temperature by 2C. 

This means the room now feels like 17C, getting close to the target temperature of 18C.

However, wearing the same t-shirt with a thicker wool jumper on top added 4C to the wearer's temperature and left them feeling very warm indeed. 

Energy-saving tips that work 

• Draught-proof gaps around windows, doors and floorboards by fitting foam strips, plastic seals or brushes. 
• Reduce your combination boiler flow rate to 60C could save you more than £100 a year. 
•  Only use appliances when they are full
•  Fit thermostatic radiator valves, which can knock 40 per cent off your energy bills
•  Insulate your property - if you can afford to

 

Mstty

@markin

Have a search you can even search users like @HertsLad and find it that way👍

GingerTim

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64352962

In his speech. Mr Brearley will also say that cheaper social tariffs for vulnerable households should be considered as a long-term option for tackling unaffordable bills.

"We are calling for a serious assessment of a social tariff," Mr Brearley will say. "If it can be made to work, this could tackle the root cause of this issue and the distress that many customers are in this winter."

In theory, the cost of providing such a discount would either be paid for by suppliers - by increasing the bills of everyone else - or by the government through taxation.

If adopted, it would mark a significant shake-up in the way millions of households are charged for energy.

In other social tariff schemes, people qualify if they receive certain means-tested benefits. 

MattMattMattUK

GingerTim said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64352962

In his speech. Mr Brearley will also say that cheaper social tariffs for vulnerable households should be considered as a long-term option for tackling unaffordable bills.

"We are calling for a serious assessment of a social tariff," Mr Brearley will say. "If it can be made to work, this could tackle the root cause of this issue and the distress that many customers are in this winter."

In theory, the cost of providing such a discount would either be paid for by suppliers - by increasing the bills of everyone else - or by the government through taxation.

If adopted, it would mark a significant shake-up in the way millions of households are charged for energy.

In other social tariff schemes, people qualify if they receive certain means-tested benefits. 

This has been pushed for some time and personally I think social tariffs are awful ideas wherever they are implemented. Where benefits are below the level required to live then they should be raised, but multiple subsidies across different areas, with different eligibility criteria and different methods of funding are messy and market distorting. Some benefits in the UK are too low, particularly disability benefits, others are too high (in work benefits) and the qualifying criteria cause issues (16 hours to get a bunch of benefits, but no need to work more). Social tariffs also create a cliff edge threshold where when one rises above the qualifying criteria, or stop claiming a particular benefit because you just go over the UC threshold for example, then suddenly a whole bunch of costs rocket as that person is no longer eligible for the social tariffs. I suspect that the government would make this a cost on other energy users than on general taxation just as the WHD and broadband social tariffs are born by the billpayer.

markin

More than a million British homes will be PAID to cut their electricity tonight as National Grid prepares to roll out its emergency scheme for the first time to avoid blackouts amid plunging temperatures         

''More than a million households will be paid to cut back their electricity tonight as part of an emergency scheme to prevent blackouts on one of the coldest days of the year.

 The National Grid will reward those participating in the Demand Flexibility Service who voluntarily reduce their usage between 5pm and 6pm, preventing the nation's supply from being overstretched.

 It is the first time National Grid has implemented its DFS scheme since it was announced last November, the Times reports, as the UK prepares for freezing temperatures this week.

 In a further sign of the squeeze on supply, the Grid is preparing to use its back-up coal plants at the Drax power station in North Yorkshire and West Burton in Nottinghamshire today.''

'This does not mean electricity supplies are at risk and people should not be worried. These are precautionary measures to maintain the buffer of spare capacity we need.

It comes as temperatures plunged to -8C overnight and 'freezing fog' is set to remain into next week amid a yellow weather warning - as parts of the UK woke to bitter frost. 

Twenty-six of the UK's energy suppliers are taking part in the DFS scheme including British Gas, EoN, Octopus Energy and EDF. The project sees households who have signed up earn around £3 (kilowatt per hour) for every unit they save by keeping their electricity switched off during peak times.