Standing charge on energy bills

sandyides

Anyone else like me appalled by the escalation of the daily standing charges being applied to energy bills? So even if you don't use any energy at all, you'll still have an increasing bill.
There was a time, not so long ago, when there were no standing charges. Can we revert to that please?
Is it worth a petition?

MattMattMattUK

sandyides said:

Anyone else like me appalled by the escalation of the daily standing charges being applied to energy bills? So even if you don't use any energy at all, you'll still have an increasing bill.
There was a time, not so long ago, when there were no standing charges. Can we revert to that please?
Is it worth a petition?

Some people are getting upset about it, but no one being rational about it is appalled. The Standing Charge pays for one's connection to the grid, the maintenance of that, the infrastructure and the systems in place, including the social provision imposed by the government, so long as one has that connection one pays. There was a time when the costs were front loaded onto the first few units, that meant that low users were subsidised by average and higher users, it would be illogical to revert to that system.
No it is not worth a petition. 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

MSE tries to explain it HERE.

[Deleted User]

sandyides said:

Anyone else like me appalled by the escalation of the daily standing charges being applied to energy bills? So even if you don't use any energy at all, you'll still have an increasing bill.
There was a time, not so long ago, when there were no standing charges. Can we revert to that please?
Is it worth a petition?

There are a lot of things to do with energy that are not fair. Why should a 90 year old pensioner who has been with British Gas for decades contribute anything towards the costs of failed suppliers, or contribute to the write off of consumer debt owed to suppliers? Why isn’t The Warm Home discount paid out of taxation? Why - because the  Government that we elect chooses to do it in the way that it does.

Life isn’t fair. That said, those who advocate doing away with standing charges never say how much more they would be prepared to pay per kWh. They also forget that many homes now benefit from PV solar and pay only the standing charge from April through to September. They would love a zero standing charge tariff.

matt_drummer

[Deleted User] said:

sandyides said:

They also forget that many homes now benefit from PV solar and pay only the standing charge from April through to September. They would love a zero standing charge tariff.

I only expect to buy electricity from the middle of November until the middle of February, all the rest of the year I import nothing.

A zero standing charge tariff will be great, I'll contribute very little to the network that I actually use all year round.

agentcain

sandyides said:

Anyone else like me appalled by the escalation of the daily standing charges being applied to energy bills? So even if you don't use any energy at all, you'll still have an increasing bill.
There was a time, not so long ago, when there were no standing charges. Can we revert to that please?
Is it worth a petition?

The increase of standing charges is unfair because it mainly includes so many other things that are not related to the actual network maintenance, the worst one being the credit cover for failed suppliers.

Whether a no-standing charge tariff makes sense, that's up to the business model of the supplier. Should it be available? I believe so. Should it be enforced? I don't think so. 

Is a petition worth it? I doubt it. I never see anything done with petitions even in other major situations like brexit or covid etc. A better approach is civil disobedience, i.e. don't pay movements, demonstrations, strikes, anything that can bring others to the cause to the extend where politicians start to consider lost votes (as its primarily the reason anything gets done, as opposed to them being afraid of legal repercussions)

powerful_Rogue

I don't shoplift, so should my groceries be cheaper as I shouldn't have to pay for those that do and the additional security shops have to employ.

I think the SC is a small price to pay to be connected to the grid. Average of £14 per month. A telephone landline costs around £20+ per month.

matt_drummer

powerful_Rogue said:

I don't shoplift, so should my groceries be cheaper as I shouldn't have to pay for those that do and the additional security shops have to employ.

I think the SC is a small price to pay to be connected to the grid. Average of £14 per month. A telephone landline costs around £20+ per month.

And the millions that went with newly set up suppliers that got caught out by rising prices, I bet there would be uproar if their credit balances had been lost?

matt_drummer

agentcain said:

The increase of standing charges is unfair because it mainly includes so many other things that are not related to the actual network maintenance, the worst one being the credit cover for failed suppliers.

Really? All those customers would have lost their money, it would have been a nightmare for many people.

agentcain

matt_drummer said:

agentcain said:

The increase of standing charges is unfair because it mainly includes so many other things that are not related to the actual network maintenance, the worst one being the credit cover for failed suppliers.

Really? All those customers would have lost their money, it would have been a nightmare for many people.

We've been through this a number of times.
This should never have happened. The regulator should have forced the companies to ringfence those credits and no one would have lost anything. I realise this is hindsight but lacking that (which is more obvious than not, I can't believe how anyone wanting to call themselves a regulator missed it), individual assets should have been liquidated, i.e. we don't care if CEOs and directors of those supplies lose everything, its their fault. There is an argument about limited liability etc, but it goes back to proper regulation. 

agentcain

powerful_Rogue said:

I don't shoplift, so should my groceries be cheaper as I shouldn't have to pay for those that do and the additional security shops have to employ.

I think the SC is a small price to pay to be connected to the grid. Average of £14 per month. A telephone landline costs around £20+ per month.

Not comparable. A shop sells a number of things, some of which are more vital than others. There's a greater variety of shops too. Energy is about survival. Even if a particular vital item is fixed in price, e.g. a bottle of water, and there's an increasing probability of theft for that item, its price should never increase because of that as it is vital. Instead, the costs are covered from other item sales and further measures are taken to avoid it in the future. Which is something most suppliers were not doing, because they're not generators.