Fuse Energy

[Deleted User]

bristolleedsfan said:

[Deleted User] said:

why have standing charges suddenly been introduced into the discussion?

Maybe partly due to Fuse discounting approx 20% off average electricity standing charge as apparent alternative to account credit switch incentive.

I suspect that they can do this because as a new supplier they will not pick up a lot of the social costs included within standing charges: eg; Warm Home Discount. This could change overnight if MSE’s newsletter encourages 150k’s worth of consumers to switch.

vision2009

[Deleted User] said:

Wish a lot more would go bust. Then they’d have to nationalise all energy. Until then keep getting ripped off.

How would that work when there is a process in place to ensure no one loses their supply of electricity and gas? If the Government wants to re-nationalise energy supply then it, or more precisely we the consumers, would have to buy out the shareholders of all the energy suppliers at 'above' market value. Why 'above' - simply because immediately the market knows that there is a potential buyer, the value of shares goes up.

Last year, the French Government paid EDF shareholders £8.5Bn to buy the remaining 16% of EDF Energy that it did not already own.

What evidence do you actually have that we are getting 'ripped off'? Shell Energy Retail UK is currently looking for a buyer for its UK energy supply and broadband service because of market losses.

By way of a comparison, re-nationalising the rail operators is easy. All the Government has to do is wait until an operating contract comes to an end and then agree a price for the transfer of rolling stock. 

In news today British Gas profits soar 900%. Now tell me we’re not getting ripped off.

Qyburn

vision2009 said:

In news today British Gas profits soar 900%. Now tell me we’re not getting ripped off.

That depends doesn't it? For example if last year's profit was 0.01% of turnover, and this year was 0.09% do you still call it a ripoff? 

[Deleted User]

vision2009 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Wish a lot more would go bust. Then they’d have to nationalise all energy. Until then keep getting ripped off.

How would that work when there is a process in place to ensure no one loses their supply of electricity and gas? If the Government wants to re-nationalise energy supply then it, or more precisely we the consumers, would have to buy out the shareholders of all the energy suppliers at 'above' market value. Why 'above' - simply because immediately the market knows that there is a potential buyer, the value of shares goes up.

Last year, the French Government paid EDF shareholders £8.5Bn to buy the remaining 16% of EDF Energy that it did not already own.

What evidence do you actually have that we are getting 'ripped off'? Shell Energy Retail UK is currently looking for a buyer for its UK energy supply and broadband service because of market losses.

By way of a comparison, re-nationalising the rail operators is easy. All the Government has to do is wait until an operating contract comes to an end and then agree a price for the transfer of rolling stock. 

In news today British Gas profits soar 900%. Now tell me we’re not getting ripped off.

You're not getting ripped off - this year's profits balance out previous year's losses. More details on the energy in the news thread.

[Deleted User]

In news today British Gas profits soar 900%. Now tell me we’re not getting ripped off.

What level of profit would be acceptable to you? I suspect very little.

CSI_Yorkshire

vision2009 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Wish a lot more would go bust. Then they’d have to nationalise all energy. Until then keep getting ripped off.

How would that work when there is a process in place to ensure no one loses their supply of electricity and gas? If the Government wants to re-nationalise energy supply then it, or more precisely we the consumers, would have to buy out the shareholders of all the energy suppliers at 'above' market value. Why 'above' - simply because immediately the market knows that there is a potential buyer, the value of shares goes up.

Last year, the French Government paid EDF shareholders £8.5Bn to buy the remaining 16% of EDF Energy that it did not already own.

What evidence do you actually have that we are getting 'ripped off'? Shell Energy Retail UK is currently looking for a buyer for its UK energy supply and broadband service because of market losses.

By way of a comparison, re-nationalising the rail operators is easy. All the Government has to do is wait until an operating contract comes to an end and then agree a price for the transfer of rolling stock. 

In news today British Gas profits soar 900%. Now tell me we’re not getting ripped off.

We're not getting ripped off.

vision2009

[Deleted User] said:

In news today British Gas profits soar 900%. Now tell me we’re not getting ripped off.

What level of profit would be acceptable to you? I suspect very little.

If you like getting ripped off, fine. Good luck.

[Deleted User]

vision2009 said:

Dolor said:

In news today British Gas profits soar 900%. Now tell me we’re not getting ripped off.

What level of profit would be acceptable to you? I suspect very little.

If you like getting ripped off, fine. Good luck.

Your pithy responses generate more heat than light. Let us look at a few facts:

‘the bulk of the growth, however, was not down to any trading windfall from high energy prices but an ability to recover earlier trading losses through the energy regulator Ofgem's price cap.

Centrica said its bottom line was boosted to the tune of around £500m during the first six months of the year.

The bulk of the sum, it explained, is effectively a form of compensation for having to buy energy at a loss to the cap level a year ago.’ Source Sky Business News

So Ofgem has allowed BG to recover trading losses which accrued as a result of higher energy prices and the Ofgem Cap under what is known as Backwardation. So that brings BG’s actual profit down to £470M.

BG has 5.9M electricity accounts and 6.7M gas accounts. For the purposes of this discussion let us assume this equates to 6.3M households. £470M profit equates to £74.60 profit per household. That is pretty close to the 2% profit allowed by Ofgem. 

Having lived with publicly-owned companies, I am not a great fan. That said, if a Government of any colour is minded to test whether it would make sense to renationalise then all it needs to do is to set up GOVEnergy.Co and then see how many consumers switch to it. The existing suppliers would though demand a level playing field.

CSI_Yorkshire

[Deleted User] said:

That said, if a Government of any colour is minded to test whether it would make sense to renationalise then all it needs to do is to set up GOVEnergy.Co and then see how many consumers switch to it. 

Several local governments did exactly that.

It didn't go well.

[Deleted User]

CSI_Yorkshire said:

[Deleted User] said:

That said, if a Government of any colour is minded to test whether it would make sense to renationalise then all it needs to do is to set up GOVEnergy.Co and then see how many consumers switch to it. 

Several local governments did exactly that.

It didn't go well.

You are correct, the experiment was very costly:



Source: TPA

I guess that the taxpayers of the Councils listed above could claim that they were well and ‘ripped off’ by their elected representatives.