Energy news in general

blueste

Deleted_User said:

Charity Citizen’s Advice not at all impressed with Ofgem, and gives it a right towelling in a recent report. I tend to agree.

https://www.yourmoney.com/household-bills/ofgem-failed-to-act-against-unfit-energy-suppliers/ 

"Long before this year’s crisis, there was evidence of financial weakness, with a number of suppliers reliant on customer credit balances for working capital. Ofgem’s own analysis showed suppliers held a total of £1.4bn in surplus credit in 2018.

Analysis suggests some consumer balances were excessive. People who contacted Citizens Advice for support, after their supplier failed, had average credit balances of £353, with some customers saying their energy supplier was holding more than £1,000 of their money. According to Ofgem, an average bill payer needs only £150 in credit to cover typical winter usage."

I have personal experience of this from being with Utility Point where I had a large credit balance. I approached the company for a refund and it became very quickly apparent that they were not going to issue one. I then found a FB group where 100's of customers were in the same situation (in a lot of cases the credit had built up by UP increasing their DD payment to way beyond their usage!). I phoned OFGEM and explained that their rule of "suppliers having to return credit balances in a timely manner" was being abused, I gave them a link for the FB page but they were completely uninterested. As a result when UP went bust they owed customers ££££, a sum that will now have to be paid by all energy consumers!

If the surplus was £1.4bn in 2018, I dread to think what it was in the middle of this year!

[Deleted User]

Interesting revelation about the FB group. Others have mentioned FB support groups on various topics, but FB is something that I have never subscribed to.

To be perfectly honest, I think Ofgem is part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. Certainly in my case it has ceased to respond to correspondence. There is also a deafening silence from the Business Secretary, apart from personally criticising Northern Powergrid for its repairs efforts during the recent storms. To me, this is what happens when shareholders are put before customers.

I dread to think of the effect on general inflation these massive energy price increases are going to have, not to mention the effect on the general well-being of the populace, both physical and mental. 

gt94sss2

blueste said:

"Long before this year’s crisis, there was evidence of financial weakness, with a number of suppliers reliant on customer credit balances for working capital. Ofgem’s own analysis showed suppliers held a total of £1.4bn in surplus credit in 2018.

A business using customers funds for working Capital is normal business practice.

£1.4bn isn't much. Assuming that are 27m households, that works out to about £50 a household.

Gerry1

gt94sss2 said:

£1.4bn isn't much. Assuming that are 27m households, that works out to about £50 a household.

Citizens Advice and MSE put the figure at £94 per household.  That's quite a hit for a lot of people, especially after the price increases for gas, electricity, petrol and diesel.  And if you've been on furlough or been made redundant...

gt94sss2

Gerry1 said:

gt94sss2 said:

£1.4bn isn't much. Assuming that are 27m households, that works out to about £50 a household.

Citizens Advice and MSE put the figure at £94 per household.  That's quite a hit for a lot of people, especially after the price increases for gas, electricity, petrol and diesel.  And if you've been on furlough or been made redundant...

The Citizens Advice figure you link too is an estimate of how much the levy may have to increase on average due to suppliers failing.

The £1.4bn figure is how much suppliers held as surplus credit in 2018.

They are not the same thing.

[Deleted User]

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has confirmed an inquiry into the energy market and pricing. They will look at the role of Ofgem and what regulatory requirements energy suppliers must meet to be a UK energy supplier.

https://www.choose.co.uk/news/2021/inquiry-energy-market-announced-committee-mps/ 

UnclaimedEnergy

Gerry1 said:

gt94sss2 said:

£1.4bn isn't much. Assuming that are 27m households, that works out to about £50 a household.

Citizens Advice and MSE put the figure at £94 per household.  That's quite a hit for a lot of people, especially after the price increases for gas, electricity, petrol and diesel.  And if you've been on furlough or been made redundant...

That's the potential cost of suppliers who have taken on SoLR claiming for the wholesale cost of the gas/elec for those customers up until 31st March 2021.

The figure doesn't actually include any credit balances as they can't claim that unless already applied to accounts at the time of the claim submission.... so that number should be relatively low (the overall number for that is much lower than the wholesale cost anyway)

UnclaimedEnergy

Deleted_User said:

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has confirmed an inquiry into the energy market and pricing. They will look at the role of Ofgem and what regulatory requirements energy suppliers must meet to be a UK energy supplier.

https://www.choose.co.uk/news/2021/inquiry-energy-market-announced-committee-mps/ 

The fact it's taken them to nearly 2022 to do even do an inquiry is ridiculous and just show's how BEIS don't have a clue on how the energy market has been run for the past 8 years or so.

This should had been done at least back in 2018 when we first saw a lot of suppliers failing at once to have any chance of avoiding what's happened in the last few months.

[Deleted User]

UK energy regulator Ofgem is inviting bids to bring forward billions of pounds of investment in new electricity interconnectors to help boost energy security, hit the country’s climate goals, and save money for energy consumers.

https://renews.biz/74288/ofgem-invites-uk-interconnector-bids/

wine-ed

Can anyone help? My electricity-only fixed rate ran out at start of Nov and I didn't renew a fixed rate so I'm on the cap now and my bill has jumped from £46 to £72 per month which is hard enough. They are sending me options to go on a fixed rate at £89/mth min up to £100+/mth depending on length of contract. I'm so worried about what will happen over winter to April, do I stick with variable rate but face my monthly rate continually increase and probably double again or do I take a fixed rate now at double what my rate was until last month? I'm on oil heating and this has doubled too. This is making me ill.