How would nationalisation of energy companies work

BarelySentientAI

Brie said:

If the government set up their own energy provider then when any company failed they would inherit all the clients.  That would at least chip away at the problem but never resolve it completely unless the gov tariffs were so attractive that most people switch.  Of course there will always be those that have always been with British Gas and will never change....

Several local governments have.

All went bust, some passing massive debt back into the local government purse.

If it was easy to be cheaper, everyone would do it.

Scot_39

Nottingham's attempt cost local taxpayers "at least" £38m according to local press - for at peak just 125,000 customers - average of £304 per customer.

It's costs depleting it's reserves and listed as a major reason on its Section 114 notice last year.

Expecting any better from Lab new energy co - why ?

Netexporter

The only way to have a properly functioning national energy supply would be to have Octopus running it.

BarelySentientAI

With some of the bandwagon-jumping spin that comes out from their boss, it might seem little different from just letting politicians run it anyway.

Netexporter

You don't come from zero to largest electricity supplier, in 8 years, without some degree of competence. 

BarelySentientAI

You don't learn how to run an energy system by being a competent supplier.

mongoose2009

the GVT has no money its all your taxes so there is no Free
once you know that you get that all politicians lies about everything always
so its all marketing and spin
so "investment" is govt  spending via borrowing or taxes

so weve decided to go on this ludicrous idea of "zero carbon" to fix the weather

but rather than build 30 nuke plants to power the grid

theyve decided on wind which only works 35% of the time

so the madness of duplication for the "back up" 65%

GingerTim

mongoose2009 said:

the GVT has no money its all your taxes so there is no Free
once you know that you get that all politicians lies about everything always
so its all marketing and spin
so "investment" is govt  spending via borrowing or taxes

so weve decided to go on this ludicrous idea of "zero carbon" to fix the weather

but rather than build 30 nuke plants to power the grid

theyve decided on wind which only works 35% of the time

so the madness of duplication for the "back up" 65%

Come again?

stripling

born_again said:

Pretty sure that courts would be the route & the cost of buying up all the energy suppliers would be so big that it is simply not feasible for any government.
Remember that most, if not all are owned by investment groups. So they will want back at least what they paid. Even National Grid is owned by investment groups, most of which are foreign owned.

A big hunk of National Grid is currently being brought back into state ownership - largely because it's the only way to get our energy supply decarbonised. Only Britain & Portugal have privately owned grids. 

stripling

Netexporter said:

The only way to have a properly functioning national energy supply would be to have Octopus running it.

Er...... 🤦🏻‍♀️