British Gas Standing Charge Increase

Ultrasonic

Phones4Chris said:

@Ultrasonic I didn't say put it all on the unit price, I said more proportionately. Low users are going to be clobbered by the massive daily charge increases.

For context I am a low energy user* who would personally benefit if the SOLR costs were not all put onto the standing charge. I don't see sharing the cost of the SOLR process equally across all energy company customers as unreasonable though. Everyone benefits from the SOLR protection (as I did personally actually).

*Typically 1500 kWh of electricity per year and 4000 kWh of gas.

Phones4Chris

Ultrasonic said:

Phones4Chris said:

@Ultrasonic I didn't say put it all on the unit price, I said more proportionately. Low users are going to be clobbered by the massive daily charge increases.

For context I am a low energy user* who would personally benefit if the SOLR costs were not all put onto the standing charge. I don't see sharing the cost of the SOLR process equally across all energy company customers as unreasonable though. Everyone benefits from the SOLR protection (as I did personally actually).

*Typically 1500 kWh of electricity per year and 4000 kWh of gas.

I agree, sharing the SoLR costs across all energy company customers is quite reasonable for the SoLR protection, it's just the way it's implemented needs reviewing.

Ultrasonic

Phones4Chris said:

Ultrasonic said:

Phones4Chris said:

@Ultrasonic I didn't say put it all on the unit price, I said more proportionately. Low users are going to be clobbered by the massive daily charge increases.

For context I am a low energy user* who would personally benefit if the SOLR costs were not all put onto the standing charge. I don't see sharing the cost of the SOLR process equally across all energy company customers as unreasonable though. Everyone benefits from the SOLR protection (as I did personally actually).

*Typically 1500 kWh of electricity per year and 4000 kWh of gas.

I agree, sharing the SoLR costs across all energy company customers is quite reasonable for the SoLR protection, it's just the way it's implemented needs reviewing.

A crucial word in my sentence was 'equally'.

SBeatt73

McMickly said:

British Gas is unsurprisingly putting up the unit price of the electricity supplied to my static caravan holiday home, but what I don’t understand is why the standing charge per day is going up from 25.664p per day to 51.626p per day an increase of 101.16% !!

It stinks of a scam whereby they increase profits while adhering to the energy price cap.

You can reduce the amount of energy you use but not the standing charge.

Has anyone else noticed this?
Can anyone explain what is going on?

Thanks

Yeah, got moved from Together Energy about 5 weeks ago. Got my 'Contract information' through confirming my rates and standing charges which clearly states "Price guaranteed till 31st March 2023." Yet a couple weeks ago standard charges have increased 100% Strange thing is that the rates per kWh on both Gas and Electric have so doubled!! What prices were guaranteed exactly?!?!? 😡😡😡

Ultrasonic

SBeatt73 said:

McMickly said:

British Gas is unsurprisingly putting up the unit price of the electricity supplied to my static caravan holiday home, but what I don’t understand is why the standing charge per day is going up from 25.664p per day to 51.626p per day an increase of 101.16% !!

It stinks of a scam whereby they increase profits while adhering to the energy price cap.

You can reduce the amount of energy you use but not the standing charge.

Has anyone else noticed this?
Can anyone explain what is going on?

Thanks

Yeah, got moved from Together Energy about 5 weeks ago. Got my 'Contract information' through confirming my rates and standing charges which clearly states "Price guaranteed till 31st March 2023." Yet a couple weeks ago standard charges have increased 100% Strange thing is that the rates per kWh on both Gas and Electric have so doubled!! What prices were guaranteed exactly?!?!? 😡😡😡

This particular issue is being discussed in the thread below. Basically British Gas clearly made a mistake but the question is whether there is scope to push for it being honoured or not.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6332329/british-gas-removes-guarantee-dates-from-solr-tariffs/p1

MattMattMattUK

Phones4Chris said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Phones4Chris said:

wild666 said:

McMickly said:

British Gas is unsurprisingly putting up the unit price of the electricity supplied to my static caravan holiday home, but what I don’t understand is why the standing charge per day is going up from 25.664p per day to 51.626p per day an increase of 101.16% !!

It stinks of a scam whereby they increase profits while adhering to the energy price cap.

You can reduce the amount of energy you use but not the standing charge.

Has anyone else noticed this?
Can anyone explain what is going on?

Thanks

Most of the increase, 18.6p,  is due to OFGEM reclaiming money they paid out to SoLR's. There was so many that's why the price they increased was so large. Then when the government start reclaiming the £200 expect another 11p per day increase on the standing charge of electric. These are charges that I doubt suppliers will not reduce lightly once the money is paid back.

Whilst your comment and those above are undoubtedly correct, it is still IMHO and no doubt many others opinion, a SCAM. Most of the companies that have entered SoLR are because they were charging too little on the unit cost (in the main). Many of those smaller companies were a bit more efficient in operating costs and so daily charges could be lower. So the cost of the SoLR scheme should be more proportionately but put on the unit cost not just the standing charge, otherwise low users are more disproportionately affected, especially if they make efforts to save energy. 

You do not understand what a scam is. 

Phones4Chris said:
OFGEM are not fit for purpose, if they'd been doing a more effective job there wouldn't have been so many companies going to the wall.

The only way to stop more companies going bust would have been to have raised the price cap earlier, or abandoned it entirely, neither of which Ofgem are allowed to do, because the price cap is enshrined in legislation. 

What words I choose to use is my choice, of course I know what a scam is, you obviously don't like opinions that don't agree with yours.

I am fine with people having different opinions to me, what I dislike is people who are factually wrong insisting that they are right. The definition of "scam" is below, you can choose to use the wrong word if you wish, but that does not make you right. 

scam

/skam/

noun INFORMAL

a dishonest scheme; a fraud.

Phones4Chris said:
I'm well aware of what's enshrined in legislation and that is the fundamental problem. IF OFGEM were fit for purpose they'd have seen these problems coming a mile off and been campaigning HMG for changes to allow them to regulate more thoroughly, the Energy crisis has only exacerbated the problem.

Ofgem are not allowed to "campaign" as they are a government body. They can suggest reforms, which they do pretty much every year, and pretty much every year the government ignores them. There is no "more thorough" regulation that would have solved this current situation and the reality is that the price cap system, which forced many companies into liquidation, has been in the short term (and probably medium term) beneficial to the consumer, it has meant many companies losing all their assets going bust, it has meant the others losing billions as they are forced to sell energy below cost. The energy sector is fairly heavily regulated, up until the price of energy rose significantly we had some of the cheapest domestic energy in Western Europe, the country where prices have not risen significantly is France, which is almost entirely because they produce 75% of their energy from nuclear power. 

As a nation we have two choices, produce little of our energy domestically and be subject to the global energy markets (and potentially the whims of dictators), or produce all, or the majority of our energy domestically and be insulated from global markets, but potentially with somewhat higher costs during the periods of lower global pricing. 

MattMattMattUK

Phones4Chris said:
I didn't say put it all on the unit price, I said more proportionately. Low users are going to be clobbered by the massive daily charge increases.

The cost of providing the network and various schemes, the "fixed costs" are supposed to be covered by the standing charge, the costs of the energy itself are supposed to be covered by the unit rate, that is "proportional". What you want is for low users to be subsidised by average and high users. 

Phones4Chris

MattMattMattUK said:

Phones4Chris said:
I didn't say put it all on the unit price, I said more proportionately. Low users are going to be clobbered by the massive daily charge increases.

The cost of providing the network and various schemes, the "fixed costs" are supposed to be covered by the standing charge, the costs of the energy itself are supposed to be covered by the unit rate, that is "proportional". What you want is for low users to be subsidised by average and high users. 

That is clearly a matter of opinion as to how such costs should be distributed and stop making assumptions about what you think I want. And stop treating other posters as idiots, and splitting hairs on particular words, campaigning/suggest reforms!
You really need to take your blinkers off if you think that "more thorough regulation" before the current crisis arose wouldn't have helped mitigate some of the problems. SoLR cases were happening a long while before the Energy Crisis came along. I'm really not going to waste time on this issue any more when all you can do is make petty belittling remarks.