The standing charge

victor2

Remember the old style tariffs with a higher rate for the first x kWh used? Then Ofgem "simplified" it into what we have now.

Maybe it should be simplified further into no standing charge and one rate. The suppliers with a large customer base will recover their operating costs etc. with the profits from higher users. Very little profit from low users, but help the consumers out a bit Ofgem! It might also stop those cowboy suppliers starting up and subsequently going bust, which is costing us all dearly now.

brewerdave

wild666 said:

A third of my monthly bill is the SC. Maybe they could scrap the daily SC and put the price onto a kWh of electric using average usage, the price of 1 kWh would increase by 12.5% for electric and around 8.5% for gas but it would benefit low users but hit high users in the pocket whilst average users wouldn't see any difference in the prices they pay.

Ain't going to do that because S/C is being to recover various other costs eg the cost of supplier failures. Why should someone who might be a higher than average user ,pay even more for company failures when they may never have switched ?

pochase

Why should low users not pay their share for "rescuing" the customers of suppliers that went bust? That is the biggest share of the standing charge increase.

But more specific why should high users pay more so you can pay less?

Evan3020

Because there would be more motive to reduce consumption.

MattMattMattUK

Evan3020 said:

Because there would be more motive to reduce consumption.

This argument does not stand up to scrutiny. People reduce their consumption regardless of the standing charge. 

Evan3020

And if the standing charge was on the unit price there would not be more incentive?

philipbin

The electricity standing charge has more than doubled.

The main reason this has happened is so that we can pay the debts for companies that have gone bust.

When does it stop ?

Is it in a years time ?

10 years time ?

When does it stop ?

pochase

If you have reduced as far as possible, how would an additional incentive work?

This often recurring "discussion" is always about only one thing. People who don't use much energy believe others should their share for them.

To follow your argument, you have reduced your consumption, and you are rewarded, you are only paying a very small amount for the energy you are using, and your fair share for the failed suppliers and for you being connected to the grid etc.

Evan3020

If the standing charge was put on the unit price I would reduce even more, probably battery back up for my solar.

MattMattMattUK

Evan3020 said:

If the standing charge was put on the unit price I would reduce even more, probably battery back up for my solar.

That is an irrational position. If you can reduced your usage then you should, adding the standing charge to the unit rate would increase the unit rate by around £0.01.25, so it does not significantly alter the economics of reducing reduction and indeed is an order of magnitude less important than the overall increases in energy prices. 
If you an afford to install battery for solar the standing charge is not a factor in the economics of that, it is the difference between export and import rates.