What rates are you being offered by your provider at the moment?

PK_London

Mstty said:

PK_London said:

Mstty said:

PK_London said:

Well, capping the entire wholesale price will do nothing to discourage consumption - the lack of supply is the reason prices are sky high. If Liz does nothing to discourage excess consumption WE WILL HAVE BLACKOUTS. People will die and businesses will move out the country.

I would personally prefer a solution where the first 5 units a day of 150 units a month of electricity was capped with the rest being on the market rate or at your fixed rate. Businesses could possibly have a higher cap.

We have to assume that this supply constraint will last at least 2yrs so throwing endless money at people will not do anything.

People won't die, stop being dramatic.

Planned blackouts, if necessary, can be planned for.

However I do agree the options being muted do not lend themselves to people reducing energy consumption.

Yes people will die.  People who are on oxygen concentrators, home dialysis machines, artificial ventilators. People who rely on stairlifts, bath hoists and adjustable beds. 

They will be forced to stay in hospitals and the NHS is already at breaking point. Black outs cannot be allowed to happen but they will if people who can curb their usage do not do so.

OK let's go facts

STORM Eunice cut power to over 200,000 homes and 3 people died, none of whom you are talking about.

They charged up their batteries and backups or made other arrangements. That was not planned or definite like planned blackouts will be.

People will not die, they may be inconvenienced but they won't die.

I am not being dramatic but I do hope I am wrong and you are right

basketcase

BaffledBloke said:

muzzie2 said:

Thanks for your information.
Shell isn't releasing it's October 1st prices yet.   So I am guessing that 80% on top of  my current variable tariff is a rough idea of Shell's next rise.   That makes is around 48.72 per kwh.   Until the next rise on January 1st. 
Will check out EDF and Octopus by phone.   I wish that there was more choice, but I followed the advice not to switch.
I hate feeling so out of control with my energy costs.   I have reduced my electricity usage to the bare minimum and have even turned off the oven as there is a clock on it.  Candles in all rooms!

Hi. First post here so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. I'll get the hang of it one day.

I've just had an email from Shell Energy saying they're upping my direct debit by an extra £120 on the next cycle, which is towards the end of this month.

I've had previous battles with them since my a/c was moved to them following the Pure Planet collapse: smart meter issues (ongoing), mistakes with billing "but if you pay the extra you'll build up credit" etc. (I suspect these are all familiar here.) So, before I go into battle with their call centre once more, is this just the Ofgen increase kicking in a little early, or a price rise prior to the price cap increase in October?

The latter would be surprising as I've been doing plenty of reducing usage since their last increase. 

Thanks for any help and opinions.

Hi Baffled

I was also moved from PP to Shell.  Do they actually say they are upping your DD or advising you that you should increase it?

When I've checked my account online it advises that I change my payment - by 400% in one instance!  Sometimes the amount advised changes between 2 logins on the same day!  I have a DD for (currently) £199/month - and am being advised to drop it to £135.  As before, being in credit, I mentally thank them for the advice and leave it as it is - though obviously I'll have to up it again if the rates go up.

Can you not do this?

Mstty

PK_London said:

Mstty said:

PK_London said:

Mstty said:

PK_London said:

Well, capping the entire wholesale price will do nothing to discourage consumption - the lack of supply is the reason prices are sky high. If Liz does nothing to discourage excess consumption WE WILL HAVE BLACKOUTS. People will die and businesses will move out the country.

I would personally prefer a solution where the first 5 units a day of 150 units a month of electricity was capped with the rest being on the market rate or at your fixed rate. Businesses could possibly have a higher cap.

We have to assume that this supply constraint will last at least 2yrs so throwing endless money at people will not do anything.

People won't die, stop being dramatic.

Planned blackouts, if necessary, can be planned for.

However I do agree the options being muted do not lend themselves to people reducing energy consumption.

Yes people will die.  People who are on oxygen concentrators, home dialysis machines, artificial ventilators. People who rely on stairlifts, bath hoists and adjustable beds. 

They will be forced to stay in hospitals and the NHS is already at breaking point. Black outs cannot be allowed to happen but they will if people who can curb their usage do not do so.

OK let's go facts

STORM Eunice cut power to over 200,000 homes and 3 people died, none of whom you are talking about.

They charged up their batteries and backups or made other arrangements. That was not planned or definite like planned blackouts will be.

People will not die, they may be inconvenienced but they won't die.

I am not being dramatic but I do hope I am wrong and you are right

Me too we don't want people dying.

QrizB

Without wishing to sound heartless, everybody dies of something.

Except for the occasional case of eg. someone walking off a pier in the dark, it won't be possible to say for certain whether a specific winter death was due to the blackout or something else. The totality of the excess deaths will only be known after the event, once age-standardised death statistics are produced.

Mstty

QrizB said:

Without wishing to sound heartless, everybody dies of something.

Except for the occasional case of eg. someone walking off a pier in the dark, it won't be possible to say for certain whether a specific winter death was due to the blackout or something else. The totality of the excess deaths will only be known after the event, once age-standardised death statistics are produced.

I'm sure any this winter will be marked "covid" anyway

PK_London

On the plus side, as soon as its confirmed that £2500 will be the annual cap, the first thing i will do is call Eon Next to cancel my 54p kwh electricity fix that I have been paying for the last month and to be honest, I will probably just go back to consuming gas and electric as I always have done knowing there is no disincentive not to do so.

John_Philip_Howarth

PK_London said:

On the plus side, as soon as its confirmed that £2500 will be the annual cap, the first thing i will do is call Eon Next to cancel my 54p kwh electricity fix that I have been paying for the last month and to be honest, I will probably just go back to consuming gas and electric as I always have done knowing there is no disincentive not to do so.

You were a little bit slow in only fixing at 54 pence per Kwh for electricity . 
Were you happy at that tariff rate?

spot1034

John_Philip_Howarth said:

PK_London said:

On the plus side, as soon as its confirmed that £2500 will be the annual cap, the first thing i will do is call Eon Next to cancel my 54p kwh electricity fix that I have been paying for the last month and to be honest, I will probably just go back to consuming gas and electric as I always have done knowing there is no disincentive not to do so.

You were a little bit slow in only fixing at 54 pence per Kwh for electricity . 
Were you happy at that tariff rate?

In the end, the people who were slower to fix and got a worse rate have ended up better off as they have not had to overpay for so long.

Doc_N

spot1034 said:

John_Philip_Howarth said:

PK_London said:

On the plus side, as soon as its confirmed that £2500 will be the annual cap, the first thing i will do is call Eon Next to cancel my 54p kwh electricity fix that I have been paying for the last month and to be honest, I will probably just go back to consuming gas and electric as I always have done knowing there is no disincentive not to do so.

You were a little bit slow in only fixing at 54 pence per Kwh for electricity . 
Were you happy at that tariff rate?

In the end, the people who were slower to fix and got a worse rate have ended up better off as they have not had to overpay for so long.

This is true. Sometimes the tortoises win, but there’s been this feeling for some time now that the government would be politically forced to act, and it looks as if it is doing.

The political bonus is that it might well save the Conservatives from losing an election in, say, a year’s time.

John_Philip_Howarth

spot1034 said:

John_Philip_Howarth said:

PK_London said:

On the plus side, as soon as its confirmed that £2500 will be the annual cap, the first thing i will do is call Eon Next to cancel my 54p kwh electricity fix that I have been paying for the last month and to be honest, I will probably just go back to consuming gas and electric as I always have done knowing there is no disincentive not to do so.

You were a little bit slow in only fixing at 54 pence per Kwh for electricity . 
Were you happy at that tariff rate?

In the end, the people who were slower to fix and got a worse rate have ended up better off as they have not had to overpay for so long.

I fixed with E.on, but my new contract Online v14, only commences 2nd October so currently still.paying on v7 tariff. With no exit fee, I can change tariff whenever I want after the Government announcement tomorrow.