UK Energy Prices

[Julian]

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

just keep a note for your new supplier. I took readings after Avro shut and held onto them

---------- Post added at 14:35 ---------- Previous post was at 14:34 ----------

It has now been 2 months since Avro closed and still no final bill or balance transfer

You may find the Octopus page on Avro helpful.

HERE

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Julian

You may find the Octopus page on Avro helpful.

HERE

cheers bud. Some updates there I have not seen. Appreciate it

[Inactive Digital]

I got collared by a Scottish Power rep in town earlier this week. Not only was he saying my tariff was more than I'm paying (currently on the price cap), he was also trying to get me to sign up to a 2 Yr fix at £100/month more than I'm currently paying.

The question is though... At what point will such a tariff start to look enticing? The price cap will increase again in April, so it's likely fixed rates will increase by then too. When should we jump ship from the capped rate onto a fixed deal? How far in advance is the new price cap announced?

[Carth]

Will the price definitely, without question, go up in April though.

Lots of water under the bridge (and gas through pipelines) before then

[ianch99]

Privatise the profits .. Socialise the losses:

UK government sets aside £1.7bn to support Bulb customers

Bulb has been handed about £1,000 per customer from the UK government to enable it to continue supplying energy.

The firm was put into special administration on Wednesday, which will allow it keep trading for the moment.

Bulb will be run by administrator Teneo until a buyer can be found or until its customers have moved.

The government loan of nearly £1.7bn will mean the administration is managed in a way that the lights stay on for Bulb's 1.7 million customers.

Teneo estimates it will cost around £2.1bn to keep Bulb trading until the end of April next year.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng can provide more money for the company if needed.

[Carth]

Agree on that one, my heckles rose when I first read the story

[Jaymoss]

do not really know what else they can do though

[Carth]

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

do not really know what else they can do though

Same as they did with the others that went bust?

bugger all

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Carth

Same as they did with the others that went bust?

bugger all

they all went to other suppliers. This time there are just too many and the risk of other suppliers going under if forced to take 1.7 million customers at a loss just impossible to do

Originally Posted by Carth

Same as they did with the others that went bust?

bugger all

The"others" were a lot smaller, and all their customers were transferred to bigger complanies, Bulb are magnitude larger, so its clearly not feasible to do so.

If you have a serious practical solution rather than the usual "lets attack the government" we'd all like to hear it.

[Carth]

Just didn't see why all the bulb customers couldn't go back to 'British Gas' or whatever they call themselves now.

no matter tho

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Carth

Just didn't see why all the bulb customers couldn't go back to 'British Gas' or whatever they call themselves now.

no matter tho

they do not want them. 1.7 million new customers all making BG a loss ? you cannot force them to take that hit

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Paul

If you have a serious practical solution rather than the usual "lets attack the government" we'd all like to hear it.

Here's one: we follow a more balanced model where the state and private sector work together like a number of countries in Europe:

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...y-owned-crisis

In other major western countries, most households do not have to play the market as in the UK. In Germany, public sector suppliers of energy are more trusted, and two-thirds of all electricity is bought from municipally owned energy companies (“Stadtwerke”). They avoid other problems of the UK system, too. Stadtwerke own and run the great majority of the distribution companies and have also played a leading role in developing renewable electricity generation. The Stadtwerke of Munich city council has been supplying enough renewable energy for the needs of every household in the city since 2016, and by 2025 will supply enough for all the local industries, too – your BMW will be made using public renewable energy. In France, too, two-thirds buy their electricity from EdF, majority-owned by the French state, which also runs the grids and generates most of the electricity. In Italy, a similar proportion buy from AU, a public company owned by the regulator.

https://blogs.worldbank.org/developm...rent-end-users

Going beyond the “public” vs “private” debate

Overall, we find no major differences between the efficiency and quality of services which commercial end-users receive from private or public utility companies. This is also reflected by the fact that the top 10 economies in the Getting Electricity indicator of Doing Business have both majority public (e.g. Korea Electric Power Corp and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) and majority private distribution companies (e.g. CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd and UK Power Networks) represented.

Looking ahead, more nuance is needed when examining outcomes across utility ownership types. After all, many utilities have a mixed ownership structure between the public and the private sector. Studies have also found that public-private partnerships – as opposed to entirely private (or public) ownership – may be more conducive to utility performance, an area that deserves further research.

[Taf]

The way things are heading, only Centrica might be the only provider left.

So back to British Gas......

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Taf

The way things are heading, only Centrica might be the only provider left.

So back to British Gas......

Those were the days when the British Gas showroom had a café and you could buy your cooker on the quarterly gas bill.