Why in UK the DD amount is constant figure?

Thrugelmir

oliverbrown said:

Thrugelmir said:

A system has that has worked well for decades. Why change it.  Now there's panic over very little.

Very little? FMDD was the cornerstone of corrupt directors getting rich from overpayment for energy, and walking away scot-free when their companies collapsed, leaving every billpayer paying for the consequences.

The companies that collapsed were all newbies to the scene. A failure of light touch regulation. No one foresaw a pandemic followed by an opportunistic war.  

tghe-retford

QrizB said:

Gerry1 said:

Well, the simple answer is that Ofgem should make VMDD the default, with FMDD as an option !  To reduce the burden on the suppliers, the standing charge could be billed in advance, as with telephone line rental.

 A case could even be made for the default to be smart metered prepayment, like a PAYG mobile account.

The system now exists and it would give consumers full control over their bills, plus prevent suppliers financing their businesses with other people's credit balances. New entrant suppliers could be restricted to prepayment only until they've demonstrated a sound financial footing to Ofgem's satisfaction.

(I'm now waiting patiently for the tinfoil-hat brigade ...)

People will treat pre-payment as a form of fixed credit system where they top up the same every month and generate credit during the summer to use during the winter. The same complaint I saw here when it came to failing suppliers and people having significant credit on their accounts. If we go that way, a "use it or lose it" system will become inevitable to ensure people are financially dissuaded from building up credit on pre-payment smart meters and credit on meters will be non-refundable.

Mstty

oliverbrown said:

Thrugelmir said:

A system has that has worked well for decades. Why change it.  Now there's panic over very little.

Very little? FMDD was the cornerstone of corrupt directors getting rich from overpayment for energy, and walking away scot-free when their companies collapsed, leaving every billpayer paying for the consequences.

I am curious, it worked well for us for 25 year FMDD.

Surely the blame is with the oversight that allowed these companies in without due diligence that messed it all up?

agentcain

Thrugelmir said:

oliverbrown said:

Thrugelmir said:

A system has that has worked well for decades. Why change it.  Now there's panic over very little.

Very little? FMDD was the cornerstone of corrupt directors getting rich from overpayment for energy, and walking away scot-free when their companies collapsed, leaving every billpayer paying for the consequences.

The companies that collapsed were all newbies to the scene. A failure of light touch regulation. No one foresaw a pandemic followed by an opportunistic war.  

No one could foresee the problems that would arise from lack of diversity in energy production and the requirement to import its main source?
Of course not, it's all been greenwashed.  

oliverbrown

Mstty said:

I am curious, it worked well for us for 25 year FMDD.

Surely the blame is with the oversight that allowed these companies in without due diligence that messed it all up?

The wholesale adoption of FMDD enabled their shenanigans. Had people not been paying using that method I can't see how customers would have built up large credits which the directors ran off with.

Gerry1

Thrugelmir said:

oliverbrown said:

Thrugelmir said:

A system has that has worked well for decades. Why change it.  Now there's panic over very little.

Very little? FMDD was the cornerstone of corrupt directors getting rich from overpayment for energy, and walking away scot-free when their companies collapsed, leaving every billpayer paying for the consequences.

The companies that collapsed were all newbies to the scene. A failure of light touch regulation. No one foresaw a pandemic followed by an opportunistic war.  

That's a red herring because no energy companies have collapsed since Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Ultrasonic

doodling said:

My strong preference is that energy companies do daily variable direct debits (based on smart meter reads) 

I for one would absolutely not want my bank statement cluttered up by daily energy payments!

agentcain

Gerry1 said:

Thrugelmir said:

oliverbrown said:

Thrugelmir said:

A system has that has worked well for decades. Why change it.  Now there's panic over very little.

Very little? FMDD was the cornerstone of corrupt directors getting rich from overpayment for energy, and walking away scot-free when their companies collapsed, leaving every billpayer paying for the consequences.

The companies that collapsed were all newbies to the scene. A failure of light touch regulation. No one foresaw a pandemic followed by an opportunistic war.  

That's a red herring because no energy companies have collapsed since Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Indeed
The increase in wholesale prices was due to China apparently buying all gas post COVID
The same gas that was sitting happily idle during COVID and sits idle again now that China has new lockdowns enforced, only it didn't drop in price then or now. Its all so convenient when prices are about to increase, until you look at the profits of energy producers.

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

Thrugelmir said:

oliverbrown said:

Thrugelmir said:

A system has that has worked well for decades. Why change it.  Now there's panic over very little.

Very little? FMDD was the cornerstone of corrupt directors getting rich from overpayment for energy, and walking away scot-free when their companies collapsed, leaving every billpayer paying for the consequences.

The companies that collapsed were all newbies to the scene. A failure of light touch regulation. No one foresaw a pandemic followed by an opportunistic war.  

That's a red herring because no energy companies have collapsed since Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

While you're correct re. the war, in September last year (which is when energy companies were going to the wall) it was reported that gas prices were soarding because supplies from Russia had fallen.

See eg. this article from 28/09/21, when only nine suppliers had failed that year:

Gas for delivery in winter to British buyers jumped by more than 20% to 218.4p a therm during late morning trading. European gas prices rose by 10%, with price pressure exacerbated by a dwindling supply from Russia.

Supply dropped on Tuesday as the flow of Russian gas via the Yamal-Europe pipeline fell by more than half, the Interfax news agency reported, citing data from the grid operator Gascade.

A 180-degree turn in Europe's relationship with Russia has to be an unexpected factor. If you were running an energy business it would be on your risk register but 12 months ago no-one really expected that we'd be where we are now.

Edit: here's an article from July last year, when there had only been two supplier failures (both in January) that also points the finger at Russia:

The energy market rally has also threatened to reignite tensions over Russia’s gas supplies to Europe after the head of Ukraine’s state gas pipeline company accused its neighbour of withholding supplies despite soaring prices.

Sergiy Makogon, the chief executive of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, told the Financial Times that Europe’s gas supply crunch was “an artificially created problem” create by Russia’s Gazprom holding back exports.

He described Gazprom’s export strategy as blackmail intended to force the approval of a controversial new pipeline, Nord Stream 2, which is planned to carry Russian gas to Germany by bypassing Ukraine.

The slowdown in Europe’s imports of Russian gas, which are down by a fifth this year compared with pre-pandemic levels, comes against the backdrop of a global dash for gas.

Section62

Gerry1 said:

Thrugelmir said:

oliverbrown said:

Thrugelmir said:

A system has that has worked well for decades. Why change it.  Now there's panic over very little.

Very little? FMDD was the cornerstone of corrupt directors getting rich from overpayment for energy, and walking away scot-free when their companies collapsed, leaving every billpayer paying for the consequences.

The companies that collapsed were all newbies to the scene. A failure of light touch regulation. No one foresaw a pandemic followed by an opportunistic war.  

That's a red herring because no energy companies have collapsed since Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

24 February 2022 was the start of the "Special Military Operation" but the war has been ongoing since 2014.

Russia's large-scale military build-up near the Ukranian border started in March/April 2021, with further build-ups from October 2021.  In early December 2021 US intelligence publicly warned of a Russian invasion as soon as "early next year".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-ukraine-invasion/2021/12/03/98a3760e-546b-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html

International energy buyers were on notice from at least early 2021 that there were risks to future supplies from Russia. Their analysts would have been far better informed about the Ukraine/Russia situation than the MSM and general public. They wouldn't have needed the US intelligence announcement to know things were going pear-shaped long before.

It would be a PhD project to get to the bottom of why and when individual companies went bust relative to international events, but very unlikely that a one (or a few) reason(s) could adequately explain the whole picture.