UK Energy Prices

Originally Posted by nashville

Seemingly there are quite a lot of meters installed wrong and people are being charged a fortune, This is not right,

The article actually states ;

However, when they are not connected properly, customers have to rely on estimated bills, which is resulting in some paying too much for their energy.

Not "all" people, nor does it say "a fortune".
Estimates (as I'm sure you know) are based on previous usage.
You can also supply actual readings to correct any estimated bill.

Originally Posted by papa smurf

search engine broke?

If a poster makes a claim like that then they need to back it up with links, not expect others to have to search.
Same as when starting a news based topic : https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...php?t=33670445

[1andrew1]

UK has ‘less than a week’ of gas stores, says Centrica

Owner of British Gas says low temperatures have strained supplies

Inventories at gas storage sites were, as of Thursday, 26 per cent lower than at the same point last year, Centrica said on Friday, leaving them roughly half full and at “concerningly low” levels.

Britain’s cold snap, during which temperatures have fallen to close to minus 20C in places, has led to increased heating demand from households, most of which rely on gas.

The drop in temperatures, which is forecast to last into the weekend, also comes less than two weeks after Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine ended.

“The UK has less than a week of gas demand in store,” Centrica said in a statement on Friday.

“We are an outlier from the rest of Europe when it comes to the role of storage in our energy system and we are now seeing the implications of that,” added chief executive Chris O’Shea.

Britain has much lower storage capacity compared with countries in mainland Europe, leaving it more vulnerable to surges in demand for gas.

European states are also interconnected with a vast network of pipelines, allowing flexible supplies between countries.

The UK competes with mainland Europe for gas and liquefied natural gas supplies, and its gas prices need to be at a meaningful premium to European prices to incentivise traders to send gas to the UK.

Centrica is lobbying for government support to invest in and upgrade its Rough gas storage site so it can store hydrogen in the long term.

https://www.ft.com/content/cbd527c8-...c-c70907116e7b

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

https://www.ft.com/content/cbd527c8-...c-c70907116e7b

Uk has enough Gas says network operator.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vd57qzlqpo

Centrica, which owns the country's largest gas storage facility, said the UK "has less than a week of gas demand in store" due to the colder-than-usual weather.

But National Gas, which owns the UK gas network, said the UK gets its gas from "a diverse range of sources" and that storage "remains healthy".

It's interesting in another news article i read that Centrica immediately quoted they would have to raise prices, something they are well known for doing at the drop of a hat.

[Taf]

My supplier must know something is up, or are relying totally on computer programs to make decisions.

A letter from them today said that they would reduce my DD from £140 to £136.44 from February.

Centrica is lobbying for government support to invest in and upgrade its Rough gas storage site so it can store hydrogen in the long term.

What use is that, hardly anyone uses Hydrogen.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Paul

What use is that, hardly anyone uses Hydrogen.

They will just change the rules so that you have to use it. They are already pushing heat pumps and if they change them to use hydrogen instead of Gas or electric then we are all flucked

Originally Posted by Paul

What use is that, hardly anyone uses Hydrogen.

The pathway to reducing our national dependence on natural gas will almost certainly involve mixing hydrogen into the public gas supply. There’s simply no way the purported alternative (everyone gets a heat pump) will fly. They require space not everybody has and when you have entire streets of them, they’re noisy. They also draw a lot of electricity which the regional distribution networks might not always have capacity for.

The greenest way of getting hydrogen is to use excess renewable energy to electrolyse water (the alternative involves converting natural gas but while it’s a more efficient process it’s also self defeating if we’re trying to reduce our dependence on it).

Centrica can probably make a credible business case for investing in Rough if it has a long term future, which under present government net zero policies it doesn’t, because it has a load of natural gas storage capacity everyone is telling Centrica they don’t need in the long term. But if they have permission to convert it to hydrogen storage they can probably work with that.

[RichardCoulter]

Aren't most modern boilers able to use gas or hydrogen?

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Paul

What use is that, hardly anyone uses Hydrogen.

I think the key word here is long term. Little use now as hardly anyone uses it, but this should change.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Aren't most modern boilers able to use gas or hydrogen?

Some are what they call "Hydrogen Ready" which means they can be converted to run on it, you cant simply switch and they'll work.

I'd bet the majority of people dont have one atm since boilers are not something you often replace, they run for at least 10 - 15 years, longer if well serviced.

[Taf]

Hydrogen is being touted as "storage" for electricity.

Excess electrical power would be passed to electrolysis sites, where water would be split into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen would then be stored until it was required to power steam generators to generate electricity for the National Grid.

Large batteries are also being built to store DC electricity.

But both methods have an explosive risk.

Being able to store power in these ways will have knock-on effects, of course. The UK is presently seeing a dip in the wholesale price for natural gas, due to a drop in demand. But the ability to store power could well prevent such dips from happening, as any excess could be passed to hydrogen plants and batteries. Our lack of decent levels of mass storage for natural gas is also a factor. So the days of those with smart meters having "free" or cheaper electricity could well be numbered.

[1andrew1]

Some good news I wasn't expecting on energy prices

The bill of a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity will fall by £129 a year, a drop of nearly 7%, analysts at the consultancy Cornwall Insight have predicted.

The fall would mean a typical annual bill for a dual-fuel customer paying by direct debit would cost £1,720, down from the current level of £1,849.

The price cap is based on the cost of each unit of energy, not the total bill - so if you use more, you pay more.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyn5keznpqo

[peanut]

That is good news. But I've just signed up to a fixed tariff. I don't have exit fees so I could come out of it but I'm sure I won't get a better deal before the next Ofgen price cap. Maybe there might be better fixed tariffs around now.

Saying that, they always lower the price in the summer months you don't save anywhere near the amount they state anyway. So it's a bit of a con as they'll put it up again around autumn when you'll use more.

[Sephiroth]

£129/year isn’t even a Waitrose Sourdough loaf per week.

The net-zero surcharge is killing us and our industrial competitiveness.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

£129/year isn’t even a Waitrose Sourdough loaf per week.

The net-zero surcharge is killing us and our industrial competitiveness.

It's been previously explained that it's gas prices that are keeping energy prices high not net zero as renewables are cheapest.