Energy news in general

Robin9

Had my  - Out of Contract - Commercial rates come yesterday  - Elec 50.7p /kWh s/c 0.75/p/day  ; Gas 12.07 p/kWh  s/c £2.03 /day   . They offered renewal rates for 1,2 3 years last week and then withdrew them.  Supplier will not re-quote till January

Sea_Shell

Query regarding Domestic v Commercial tariffs and the "rules".

How should a corner-shop with owner residence attached (behind and above) have their bills organised?   Think Arkwright's!! 😉

Should they (must they) have separate meters and separate tariffs, or if only one set of meters, do they have to be on a commercial tariff?

[Deleted User]

£1.8bn! Nice work if you can get it. And the SoLRs make such a good job of the migrations as well…

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/energy-suppliers-granted-1-8-171359925.html

I also note that because wholesale prices have gone through the roof, bailed out Bulb is losing money hand over fist, at an even faster rate than anticipated. I say Bulb - I mean the taxpayer, of course.

Extract

By far the biggest payment was made to Octopus Energy, which had also taken on the highest number of new customers.

Octopus claimed £681 million to pick up the pieces from failed supplier Avro Energy.

• Octopus Energy - £681 million for 580,000 customers

• Shell Energy - £362 million for 536,000 customers

• British Gas - £361 million for 501,200 customers

• E.On - £215 million for 233,000 customers

• EDF - £168 million for 231,700 customers

• ScottishPower - £44 million for 70,400 customers

• Utilita - £2.6 million for 6,000 customers

• Yu Energy - £142,000 for 2,600 customers

wakeupalarm

What's the reason the 3rd largest supplier Ovo hasn't taken on any customers from failed suppliers.  Do they not have the financial strength?

[Deleted User]

Good question. Perhaps it just doesn’t want the hassle. Didn’t Ovo buy out what was previously SSE retail? 

Flight3287462

One would assume Ovo have carefully hedged their gas for this winter based on the number of customers they have and have said to the powers that be that they can not run their business and remain solvent with anymore customers at the current statutory rate.

I suspect it the prepayments are also a big worry.

[Deleted User]

It seems that there is separate thread on this, that I must have missed. 

bristolleedsfan

Deleted_User said:

Good question. Perhaps it just doesn’t want the hassle. Didn’t Ovo buy out what was previously SSE retail? 

Ovo was reported to have been interested in Bulb  https://www.ft.com/content/6114abb9-31fb-44e7-acf0-d874d4c33112

[Deleted User]

God knows why. Probably for 1.7m customers, at a knockdown price. £1? 

GingerTim

Merry Christmas, one and all!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/23/energy-bills-could-rise-by-50-amid-national-crisis-of-soaring-uk-prices

The trade body Energy UK has called on the government to intervene to help cut the cost of bills as soaring wholesale prices drive dozens of energy companies out of business.

“Domestic energy prices are going to go up 45% to 50% in the spring,” warned Emma Pinchbeck, the chief executive of Energy UK, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday.

“It is looking pretty serious for the spring. This is a system-wide issue now. We are asking for the Treasury in the UK to intervene as others have [in Europe],” Pinchbeck said.

While wholesale prices continue to climb steeply, the UK’s price cap on energy bills stops companies from immediately passing those costs on to their customers. Since 1 October, the price cap, set by the industry regulator, Ofgem, has been set at a record £1,277. It is due to change on 1 April when Ofgem is set to raise the cap significantly, which will in turn result in consumers’ bills rising significantly.

“We have had record-breaking gas prices across Europe since September and over the last couple of weeks prices have spiked again and they are at levels we frankly have not really faced in the industry,” Pinchbeck said. “Particularly not in a winter period, with the UK in the middle of a pandemic, and other cost of living issues and inflation.”

[…]

Nigel Pocklington, the chief executive of London-listed Good Energy, described the situation as a “national crisis”.

“Wholesale gas and power prices have increased to unprecedented levels over the last three weeks, creating an extremely difficult operating environment for every business in the industry,” he told the Financial Times.

EDF, the UK’s fourth biggest energy supplier, said the situation was “critical” and the government must “act now to support energy customers”. Philippe Commaret, the managing director for customers at EDF Energy, said that by next October the UK’s energy price cap “could easily exceed £2,000”.