Standing Charges Ofgem review

olgadapolga

This consultation ends today, 19th January 2024.

Xenon

Sorry for being a bit thick with this question

Why can't our energy bill be one single unit & standing charge combined to give one price 

What is the reason why it cannot be like that ?

QrizB

Xenon said:

What is the reason why it cannot be like that ?

Public policy.

As there are fixed costs associated with providing a connection, it's been decided that there should be an equivalent charge representing those costs that's independent of the unit price.

wild666

Chrysalis said:
debt recovery (we have a court system for this, and can prevent as bad debt build up by sorting out all the fixed DD issues), inefficiency margin, supplier costs.

That's why I'm against the £16 per year cost for debts by those who don't pay, people who don't pay get taken to court and get prepayment meters fitted plus all the court costs are added to the bill they have to pay. People who aren't ever in debt to suppliers will feel conned by this added charge.
Adding the SC's to the price per kWh would see people try and save as much as possible on their electric and gas  bills if they used 8 kWh per day to divide the SC for electric by and 33kWh for the gas, in summer people would save on the SC but pay more in the winter months.

Scot_39 said:

wild666 said:

believe the standing charges were introduced in the 70's as a short term measure but they have never being scrapped. Energy suppliers must be rubbing their hands with glee that most people are paying £300 for using no electric or gas, or £180 for those that just use electric. 
I would rather see a her higher kWh charge on both electric and gas worked out on average daily usage, that would be about 6p on the electric and 1p on the gas. Low users would benefit and high users would lose out. This could make users find ways of using less electric and gas.

Energy suppliers do not keep the standing charges.

 I know they don't but if the suppliers had to pay 6p per kWh to the grid for every kWh used by the household and about 0.9p per kWh for gas then they would see higher bills in winter which would offset the low summer usage of gas. The £67 charge for failed suppliers, IMHO, will never be removed, could be a separate charge. these charges should be passed on every month to whoever receives the SC's for electric and gas.

wild666

Netexporter said:

Chris_b2z said:

Let's not forget that there's a £38 million annual marketing budget to promote smart meters with the main message being that they will save you money. Is there really any point in a low energy user switching off their standby devices at night to save 50p a year when they will be stung by a huge standing charge anyway?
There is no incentive for the low energy user to reduce usage.

You entirely miss the point of smart meters. It is the time of use that yields the biggest savings.

Even those that don't have smart meters could be made to pay a higher price for their electric and gas at certain hours of the day as the supplier could average out their daily usage and charge more for what they deem are peak period. There will be certain times of the day where more electric and gas is used and the supplier could easily say that between X and Y hours the usage was this many kWh's and the price is Z pence per kWh for the electric and gas used.

MultiFuelBurner

wild666 said:

Netexporter said:

Chris_b2z said:

Let's not forget that there's a £38 million annual marketing budget to promote smart meters with the main message being that they will save you money. Is there really any point in a low energy user switching off their standby devices at night to save 50p a year when they will be stung by a huge standing charge anyway?
There is no incentive for the low energy user to reduce usage.

You entirely miss the point of smart meters. It is the time of use that yields the biggest savings.

Even those that don't have smart meters could be made to pay a higher price for their electric and gas at certain hours of the day as the supplier could average out their daily usage and charge more for what they deem are peak period. There will be certain times of the day where more electric and gas is used and the supplier could easily say that between X and Y hours the usage was this many kWh's and the price is Z pence per kWh for the electric and gas used.

I can't wait for the day that those who have refused smart meters (not those who have them and have issues connecting) start paying more for their energy. Hopefully something meaningful such as double the price?

Maybe for refusing three times that should be the norm?

QrizB

MultiFuelBurner said:

I can't wait for the day that those who have refused smart meters (not those who have them and have issues connecting) start paying more for their energy. Hopefully something meaningful such as double the price?

They're already paying about 50% more than they need to, by not being eligible for Octopus Agile or Tracker (or any of the other smart tariffs that are available).

QrizB, who's been averaging under 5p/kWh for gas and under 12p/kWh for electricity for the last year.

TheElectricCow

wild666 said:

Netexporter said:

Chris_b2z said:

Let's not forget that there's a £38 million annual marketing budget to promote smart meters with the main message being that they will save you money. Is there really any point in a low energy user switching off their standby devices at night to save 50p a year when they will be stung by a huge standing charge anyway?
There is no incentive for the low energy user to reduce usage.

You entirely miss the point of smart meters. It is the time of use that yields the biggest savings.

Even those that don't have smart meters could be made to pay a higher price for their electric and gas at certain hours of the day as the supplier could average out their daily usage and charge more for what they deem are peak period. There will be certain times of the day where more electric and gas is used and the supplier could easily say that between X and Y hours the usage was this many kWh's and the price is Z pence per kWh for the electric and gas used.

Ah yes, the infamous gas peak hours each day where everyone has to turn their boilers off to avoid the surcharge from when we can't generate enough methane to meet demand. I've heard they have to pay the farmers extra if their dinner times are interrupted to go feed the cows to get production back up.

MWT

QrizB said:

They're already paying about 50% more than they need to, by not being eligible for Octopus Agile or Tracker (or any of the other smart tariffs that are available).

QrizB, who's been averaging under 5p/kWh for gas and under 12p/kWh for electricity for the last year.

Agreed, those still resisting are already paying the price for holding out.

I do have a lot of sympathy for those who want a smart meter but can't get one due to their location.

jiMOB

A bit late to this, but I've been looking at my provider (BG) latest offering on standing charges.
From what I can ascertain with regard to standing charges, I currently pay Electric 44p + Gas 29.6p (per day) on the 'standard variable tariff; so a combined cost of 73.6p per day or £259.07 per yr. I'm being offered two 'fix opportunities' but whilst the individual unit rates are potentially attractive based upon current pricing, the new standing charges seem nonsensical and designed to make it impossible to make a rationale decision about 'fixing'.
On their '15 month fix' offer the comparable combined standing charges work out at 81.78 per day (£287.87 per year) On their '24 month fix' offer the comparable combined standing charges work out at 68.12 per day (£239.78 per year)

Is in realistic to expect customers to make an informed decision with this variability and an ongoing Ofgem review!?