Energy price rises - what are you paying?

[Welshbeef]

Has anyone looked at

Shell energy
Energy August 2023 v5
It’s a 23 month product.

Good bad fair ?

[CoolHands]

MJNewton said:

I'm glad I stumbled across this thread, or at least insofar that it forewarned me of impending price hikes.

In November we'll be at the end of a 1yr fixed tariff and have been paying an accurate £68/mth (£816/yr) for gas and electricity... taking a look at what's out there at the moment reveals that if we maintain the same annual consumption (8287 kWh gas, 3807 kWh electricity) the best (cheapest) fixed tariff out there is a whopping £97/mth (£1168/yr). That's a 43% rise - ouch! I can see that the bulk of the increase is down to electricity rises where we're looking at going from 11.781 p/kWh to 19.661p/kWh. Even the variable tariffs aren't looking much cheaper (£93/mth / £1111/yr). Maybe that big new TV wasn't such a good idea after all...

Edited by MJNewton on Wednesday 1st September 21:35

It’s fking outrageous

[anonymous-user]

Why are the utility prices going up anyway? I know they say the wholesale prices are going up but surely with all these new estates being built all the time, the profits must be bigger anyway.

[Welshbeef]

flashbang said:

Why are the utility prices going up anyway? I know they say the wholesale prices are going up but surely with all these new estates being built all the time, the profits must be bigger anyway.

We’ve turned off coal powered generation (cheap)
We’ve not replaced lost nuclear power stations (cheap)
We’re investing hard into green energy (expensive)
We are going to have to get used to keeping thermostat at no more than 16 degrees in winter and simply layer up.

[Wombat3]

Welshbeef said:

Has anyone looked at

Shell energy
Energy August 2023 v5
It’s a 23 month product.

Good bad fair ?

Looks about as ste as the rest of them!

[Wombat3]

Ended up renewing with the existing provider (Utility Point) for 1 year. First time I can remember doing that in years.

I have been paying 14.31 & 2.27.

New rates of 18.45 & 3.23 was a good bit less than offered anywhere else. Standing charges are about 30 quid more than most others but then there is some 30 quid discount applied for online account management.

Using all the usual comparison sites most of the providers are now leading with 2 & 3 year tariffs it seems. Most gas rates now well over 4p & Electricity seems to be between 19.5 & 24p. Some of them will give you up to £250 cash back through Quidco but the tariffs are always at the upper end so a pointless exercise.

You really need to build spreadsheet to get a handle on this these days. Obviously exact comparison can difficult because of changing usage patterns (WFH / weather etc) though I'd expect my usage to be broadly similar.

Assuming similar usage levels then I'm looking at a 28% increase from last year overall.

Given that a very sizeable percentage of energy prices are fixed costs (things like transmission costs/ green levies etc etc) the increase in the actual energy component (which has been only around 1/3rd of the bill) is therefore massive - close to double.

see https://sse.co.uk/help/energy/gas-electricity-bill...

Quite how there isn't more in the news/ press about this seems a mystery. Maybe most people just haven't noticed yet?

Here's hoping for a mild winter & that those that need Winter fuel payments get them adjusted to reflect the recent price hikes.

[Welshbeef]

Increased demand due to electric cars - this will pump prices higher and higher into the future.

With the higher prices we are seeing now (and let’s not kid ourselves that they will ever decrease) has anyone revised the calculations for solar panels / what is the current payback of the average U.K. property.

[Condi]

Wombat3 said:

Given that a very sizeable percentage of energy prices are fixed costs (things like transmission costs/ green levies etc etc) the increase in the actual energy component (which has been only around 1/3rd of the bill) is therefore massive - close to double.

see https://sse.co.uk/help/energy/gas-electricity-bill...

As has been mentioned though, the wholesale gas cost is now about 4 times what it was when that breakdown was produced, and the electric is probably double. So while the fixed costs stay roughly similar, to say that energy component is now only 1/3rd is just wrong - most of the others are fixed costs so the energy cost is now probably 70% of the bill.

[Blue Oval84]

flashbang said:

Why are the utility prices going up anyway? I know they say the wholesale prices are going up but surely with all these new estates being built all the time, the profits must be bigger anyway.

I can't think of any other commodity where as demand increases prices would stay static or decrease. Yes, there's technically a small profit margin on each address (which I'm certain is a lot smaller than the average customer thinks it is), but as the overall consumption goes up, more power must be generated, when the wind isn't blowing that means we're burning gas, which is in short supply.

As power stations burn more gas to generate electricity, the wholesale price of gas goes up, which directly impacts the electricity price that the power stations charge to the energy suppliers.

More houses being built just means more electricity being used, which makes the above cycle worse, not better. Although I don't think enough houses are being built to really make any noticeable difference.

[Welshbeef]

Blue Oval84 said:

I can't think of any other commodity where as demand increases prices would stay static or decrease. Yes, there's technically a small profit margin on each address (which I'm certain is a lot smaller than the average customer thinks it is), but as the overall consumption goes up, more power must be generated, when the wind isn't blowing that means we're burning gas, which is in short supply.

As power stations burn more gas to generate electricity, the wholesale price of gas goes up, which directly impacts the electricity price that the power stations charge to the energy suppliers.

More houses being built just means more electricity being used, which makes the above cycle worse, not better. Although I don't think enough houses are being built to really make any noticeable difference.

Plus removal of cheap coal nuclear from the baseline generation

[Blue Oval84]

Welshbeef said:

Plus removal of cheap coal nuclear from the baseline generation

That too!

[Condi]

Welshbeef said:

Plus removal of cheap coal nuclear from the baseline generation

Coal isn't cheap, not once you have to pay the carbon cost.

[Jasandjules]

Welshbeef said:

Jasandjules said:

I really need to find the cheapest provider.... £330 pcm leccie, £140 pcm for gas.....

What square meter is your property?
Do you have an electric car charger?
Do you heat the property with leccy?
Do you’d daughters leave hair dryers switched on to warm their bedrooms.
How many leccy units do you use per annum.

2000sq ft
No electric car but electric oven.
No Gas.
Nope. But my wife thinks if she may be heading into another room anytime later in the evening, it is best to leave the lights on just in case...
14000 units IIRC.

I do have a reasonably sized marine aquarium however and five freezers......

[Welshbeef]

Jasandjules said:

Welshbeef said:

Jasandjules said:

I really need to find the cheapest provider.... £330 pcm leccie, £140 pcm for gas.....

What square meter is your property?
Do you have an electric car charger?
Do you heat the property with leccy?
Do you’d daughters leave hair dryers switched on to warm their bedrooms.
How many leccy units do you use per annum.

2000sq ft
No electric car but electric oven.
No Gas.
Nope. But my wife thinks if she may be heading into another room anytime later in the evening, it is best to leave the lights on just in case...
14000 units IIRC.

I do have a reasonably sized marine aquarium however and five freezers......

We used 6833kwh of electric
Electric ovens and induction hob.
3,230 square foot house.
5 of us in the property
3 fridge freezers
No marine aquarium
No electric cars
Tumble dryer used a lot
Washing machine on nearly daily
Dishwasher on Monday daily

We average c£140pcm average cost for leccy and gas. Am at a loss as to how your spending £470pcm combined with a house c40% smaller.

How many occupy the house?(excl the fish)

[dickymint]

Jasandjules said:

Welshbeef said:

Jasandjules said:

I really need to find the cheapest provider.... £330 pcm leccie, £140 pcm for gas.....

What square meter is your property?
Do you have an electric car charger?
Do you heat the property with leccy?
Do you’d daughters leave hair dryers switched on to warm their bedrooms.
How many leccy units do you use per annum.

2000sq ft
No electric car but electric oven.
No Gas.
Nope. But my wife thinks if she may be heading into another room anytime later in the evening, it is best to leave the lights on just in case...
14000 units IIRC.

I do have a reasonably sized marine aquarium however and five freezers......

You have a serious usage problem somewhere

[Matt..]

flashbang said:

I put my dad onto octopus and they're fantastic. They sent an email saying instead of passing the increase onto the consumer, they're cutting their profit margin. None of this you have to have at least a month of credit at all times nonsense either.
He also went from paying 170 a month from his previous supplier to 140 a month and is still always in credit.

Octopus are horrifically expensive right now for new customers.

Massively more expensive than most other companies. They are over 5p/unit gas!


I might just fix with Ovo. I've been with them a really long time and they've always been good. Their rates are fairly competitive right now.

Sainsburys Energy seem fairly good for rates, and you get a good amount of Nectar points for switching. Is anyone here with them? They are Eon which definitely puts me off.

Edited by Matt.. on Monday 6th September 18:55

[Welshbeef]

Best rate I can get she’ll energy 100% renewable (not sure how the gas part works on 100% but hey Ho)

Fixed to Sept 2022
Electric
Unit 21.07p
Daily 24.58p

Gas
Unit 5.04p
Daily 14.7p

All up it looks like a 20% increase BA the unit and daily charges of my existing fix.

So question is does anyone have a superior deal than the above that’s on the market now - to change from end of Sept21

[anonymous-user]

Matt.. said:

flashbang said:

I put my dad onto octopus and they're fantastic. They sent an email saying instead of passing the increase onto the consumer, they're cutting their profit margin. None of this you have to have at least a month of credit at all times nonsense either.
He also went from paying 170 a month from his previous supplier to 140 a month and is still always in credit.

Octopus are horrifically expensive right now for new customers.

Massively more expensive than most other companies. They are over 5p/unit gas!


I might just fix with Ovo. I've been with them a really long time and they've always been good. Their rates are fairly competitive right now.

Sainsburys Energy seem fairly good for rates, and you get a good amount of Nectar points for switching. Is anyone here with them? They are Eon which definitely puts me off.

Edited by Matt.. on Monday 6th September 18:55

How odd! It was OVO we moved away from, they completely cocked up my dads electricity bill when he first moved to them. They didn't bill him for electric for six months and then took £1400 off him. They couldn't even be bothered to look into it and he had proof he had paid off the last suppliers bill.

[Matt..]

Welshbeef said:

So question is does anyone have a superior deal than the above that’s on the market now - to change from end of Sept21

That entirely depends on your usage.

[Welshbeef]

Matt.. said:

Welshbeef said:

So question is does anyone have a superior deal than the above that’s on the market now - to change from end of Sept21

That entirely depends on your usage.

C13k gas units
C7k electric units

There will not really be a volume variance merely rate