Energy news in general

tifo

The_Green_Hornet said:

British Gas boss says all UK households should be fitted with smart meters

Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, says mandatory installation programme would cut cost of creating a smart grid

The boss of British Gas has called for households to face mandatory smart meter installations weeks after government figures showed that almost 4m meters are not working.

Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of the British Gas owner Centrica, told a committee of MPs that smart meters should be installed in all homes through a “street by street” programme, in order to cut the costs of creating a smart grid.

British Gas boss says all UK households should be fitted with smart meters | Gas | The Guardian

Is he also going to make sure they work properly, because a lot of them don't ..... It's the technology rather than British Gas but why impose a problem technology on people rather than get the background tech fixed?

I've heard from many people that after having a smart meter installed their bills have gone up .... my experience is the same but different to dual fuel credit.

Smart meters seem to be a way of making things easier for suppliers with little customer benefit, the supplier doesn't have to pay a third party to read meters for billing and can send remote codes to make changes thus saving their engineer visits. They can even force people onto prepayment from credit (and vice versa though not often). Other than than the money savings for customers are small.

I've had nothing but issues with mine.

BarelySentientAI

tifo said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

British Gas boss says all UK households should be fitted with smart meters

Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, says mandatory installation programme would cut cost of creating a smart grid

The boss of British Gas has called for households to face mandatory smart meter installations weeks after government figures showed that almost 4m meters are not working.

Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of the British Gas owner Centrica, told a committee of MPs that smart meters should be installed in all homes through a “street by street” programme, in order to cut the costs of creating a smart grid.

British Gas boss says all UK households should be fitted with smart meters | Gas | The Guardian

Is he also going to make sure they work properly, because a lot of them don't ..... It's the technology rather than British Gas but why impose a problem technology on people rather than get the background tech fixed?

And i've heard from many people that after having a smart meter installed their bills have gone up .... my experience is the same but different to dual fuel credit.

Smart meters seem to be a way of making things easier for suppliers with little customer benefit, the supplier doesn't have to pay a third party to read meters for billing and can send remote codes to make changes thus saving their engineer visits. Other than than the money savings for customers are small.

Because then the energy and money presently wasted chasing refusniks could be more usefully channelled into fixing the occasional issue with the system.

There are a vanishingly small number of occasions where there has actually been a problem causing bills to go up after a meter change.

Access to better tariffs is a huge benefit for customers and can result in huge savings if they engage with the process.

Scot_39

Switch to save was a disaster for the market and a disaster for the majority who did not - including the million or so who simply could not benefit - those like me on legacy tariffs.

But who all paid when the market failed via SoLR on electric SC and gas unit rates.

Ofgem risks repeating these failings - to learn from past - as it trumpets its next great TOU mantra.

Just as it's current standing charge pricing alienates many posters here, and the subsidy of debtors and prepayment risks alienating the majority paying the price.

michaels

BarelySentientAI said:

tifo said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

British Gas boss says all UK households should be fitted with smart meters

Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, says mandatory installation programme would cut cost of creating a smart grid

The boss of British Gas has called for households to face mandatory smart meter installations weeks after government figures showed that almost 4m meters are not working.

Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of the British Gas owner Centrica, told a committee of MPs that smart meters should be installed in all homes through a “street by street” programme, in order to cut the costs of creating a smart grid.

British Gas boss says all UK households should be fitted with smart meters | Gas | The Guardian

Is he also going to make sure they work properly, because a lot of them don't ..... It's the technology rather than British Gas but why impose a problem technology on people rather than get the background tech fixed?

And i've heard from many people that after having a smart meter installed their bills have gone up .... my experience is the same but different to dual fuel credit.

Smart meters seem to be a way of making things easier for suppliers with little customer benefit, the supplier doesn't have to pay a third party to read meters for billing and can send remote codes to make changes thus saving their engineer visits. Other than than the money savings for customers are small.

Because then the energy and money presently wasted chasing refusniks could be more usefully channelled into fixing the occasional issue with the system.

There are a vanishingly small number of occasions where there has actually been a problem causing bills to go up after a meter change.

Access to better tariffs is a huge benefit for customers and can result in huge savings if they engage with the process.

MY parents would love to go on a TOU tariff but are unable too because they have no mobile signal at the property and the smart meter system an only communicate with the correct towers, no piggybacking on internet for example.

Seems unfair that they are denied the best tariffs due to a technical limitation in the programme for which there seems to be no plan for a fix or work around.

Netexporter

no piggybacking on internet for example

The Octopus Home Mini effectively does that but I guess the problem with using it to deliver readings is that DCC have got to be convinced of its security.

mmmmikey

Scot_39 said:

Switch to save was a disaster for the market and a disaster for the majority who did not - including the million or so who simply could not benefit - those like me on legacy tariffs.

But who all paid when the market failed via SoLR on electric SC and gas unit rates.

Ofgem risks repeating these failings - to learn from past - as it trumpets its next great TOU mantra.

Just as it's current standing charge pricing alienates many posters here, and the subsidy of debtors and prepayment risks alienating the majority paying the price.

Hi @Scot_39 - could you elaborate on "Switch to Save was a disaster for the market" please? These are strong words and I'm genuinely interested to know why you're saying this, I'm not trying to pick a fight or score points. Is this your opinion and if so how have you formed it? And/or is this reflected in some kind of official reporting? Thanks, Mike

BarelySentientAI

mmmmikey said:

Scot_39 said:

Switch to save was a disaster for the market and a disaster for the majority who did not - including the million or so who simply could not benefit - those like me on legacy tariffs.

But who all paid when the market failed via SoLR on electric SC and gas unit rates.

Ofgem risks repeating these failings - to learn from past - as it trumpets its next great TOU mantra.

Just as it's current standing charge pricing alienates many posters here, and the subsidy of debtors and prepayment risks alienating the majority paying the price.

Hi @Scot_39 - could you elaborate on "Switch to Save was a disaster for the market" please? These are strong words and I'm genuinely interested to know why you're saying this, I'm not trying to pick a fight or score points. Is this your opinion and if so how have you formed it? And/or is this reflected in some kind of official reporting? Thanks, Mike

I'm assuming that it's incorrectly conflating suppliers going bust when being forced to trade at a loss with the existence of those suppliers in the first place.

As you say, good for Scot_39 to elaborate though.

Scot_39

mmmmikey said:

Scot_39 said:

Switch to save was a disaster for the market and a disaster for the majority who did not - including the million or so who simply could not benefit - those like me on legacy tariffs.

But who all paid when the market failed via SoLR on electric SC and gas unit rates.

Ofgem risks repeating these failings - to learn from past - as it trumpets its next great TOU mantra.

Just as it's current standing charge pricing alienates many posters here, and the subsidy of debtors and prepayment risks alienating the majority paying the price.

Hi @Scot_39 - could you elaborate on "Switch to Save was a disaster for the market" please? These are strong words and I'm genuinely interested to know why you're saying this, I'm not trying to pick a fight or score points. Is this your opinion and if so how have you formed it? And/or is this reflected in some kind of official reporting? Thanks, Mike

It may be an erroneous leap on my part - but basicaly it is to do with the operational - and financial resource - requirements Ofgem placed on new entrants to the supplier market - which I believe was in a direct attempt to further the competition available - in order to break the monoploy of the big 6 - to get low prices for people to swap too.

My view is that the new companies were set up and allowed to operate on a deliberately weak capitalisation so little resiliance, to avoid financing costs and to operate with unreasonable levels of unhedged supply - and arguably deliberately by Ofgem - to provide a cheaper price - to support switch to save. 

To play into the switch to save mantra.

Levels which were unrealistically low for a potentially volatile energy market - 2021/2 was not the first example of market volatility.  

A model that proved unsustainable as soon as prices started to rise.

Other Ofgem actions - like the energy price cap itself - was also obvioulsy another contributory factor with suppliers who werent adequately hedged - which again has recieved criticism in post failure analysis.

In reality a simple earlier introduction of a cap itself - could have achieved lower prices for all from the big 6 - not just the few.  Did the big 6 really respond by dropping prices for all customers - I suspect not.
But then if done without regard to hedging - potentially equally as likely to fail.

And the link between Ofgem regulation and failures - in many areas is covered by the National Audit Office report -and others into the failures.  The NAO was quite critical of Ofgem in several areas for the new suppliers -

financial resielence / capitalisation

hedging requirement - iirc none at all in early days

insufficent monitoring of operations / finances whilst trading to detect weaknesses before collapses

https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-energy-supplier-market-Summary.pdf

"By allowing many suppliers to enter the market and operate with weak financial resilience, and
by failing to imagine a scenario in which there could be sustained volatility in energy
prices, it allowed a market to develop that was vulnerable to large-scale shocks
and where the risk largely rested with consumers, who would pick up the costs in
the event of failure."

We did / are via SoLR and likely taxes for the likes of Bulb - although in theory Octopus / HiveCo is paying that back in future according to other NAO reports into the SAR process.

oldagetraveller1

"refusniks" Would your solution be sending them to Siberia?

Scot_39

Press full of news re new CI price cap - lower prices in Jluy - but the first google link to CI - still has Mar figures - press quoting £1574 - CI link I have 

https://www.cornwall-insight.com/predictions-and-insights-into-the-default-tariff-cap/

£1559.61 DF DD.

So a new release that's £15 higher than Mar.  And Mar was higher than Feb iirc.

Anyone got the link including SC and unit rates breakdowns and including the next 2 quarters (do I need a twitter link or something ?)