Energy price rises - what are you paying?

[CoolHands]

Bloody French.




Oh, sorry - that’s probably not what you meant

[anxious_ant]

jonwm said:

anxious_ant said:

anxious_ant said:

So EDF finally came out to sort my meters after almost 6 months of chasing. I've now got working smart meters.
Gas meter won't connect but to be fair the manager assigned to my case had been extremely helpful.

Just received a message on my account stating that they cannot connect to my gas meter, probably due to the distance from the leccy meter.
I can't believe this is serious... I don't live in a mansion and the gas meter is about 5m around the corner away from the gas meter.
My last smart meters connected just fine.

The gas meter now displays reading (reset from zero), but I cannot submit unless asked to.

So I have got new smart meters, but still can't submit gas readings. Not happy bunny

Sorry for the rant!

I live in a 1 year old new build and my Smets 2 worked for about 6 months, neither send a transmission to the metering centre, I have to manually read, very frustrating, Energy supplier couldn't care less.

Update to this.
Got a call from the "manager" working on my case and have finally ran through the procedure to sync my gas meter.
Next step is to wait few days and then setup the indoor device (IDF?).
Apparently the engineer that came to install the new meters (most probably contractor) didn't go through the required processs to setup the new meters.
Oh well, at least there is some progress.

[anxious_ant]

the tribester said:

So ofgem have appointed EDF as Utility Point customers new supplier

link

what do you think?

Went through same thing with GNE.
My advice is that their first line support is crap, If you find that you are not getting anywhere, escalate to the executive team.

[heisthegaffer]

anxious_ant said:

the tribester said:

So ofgem have appointed EDF as Utility Point customers new supplier

link

what do you think?

Went through same thing with GNE.
My advice is that their first line support is crap, If you find that you are not getting anywhere, escalate to the executive team.

Our energy supplier wrote to me to say they've gone under and OFGEM will appoint a new supplier.

Does this mean we're in for a world of pain?

[anxious_ant]

heisthegaffer said:

anxious_ant said:

the tribester said:

So ofgem have appointed EDF as Utility Point customers new supplier

link

what do you think?

Went through same thing with GNE.
My advice is that their first line support is crap, If you find that you are not getting anywhere, escalate to the executive team.

Our energy supplier wrote to me to say they've gone under and OFGEM will appoint a new supplier.

Does this mean we're in for a world of pain?

Perhaps it's my bad for not chasing up earlier in the process and expecting everything to just work. It doesn't.
Keep chasing for updates with EDF, and escalate early if required.
I can only attest to EDF, and yes their customer service is a pain.

[scottyp123]

Have people tried getting gas and electricity from different suppliers? it seems to work out a bit cheaper.

Cheapest for me is Neon Reef and Daligas. Daligas's reviews are absolutely abysmal though and their meter reading page looks like something from windows 3.1

https://www.daligas.co.uk/meter-reading

Second cheapest is OFTM for gas but its a variable price. Utility warehouse seems fairly cheap but as far as I can see you have to take the whole bundle off them, broadband and all, whats the point in putting out cheap gas figures if they have you over with internet costs. You really do have to go through a lot of facts and figures to keep a lid on your energy prices though, I've been sat here for an hour now with a pen, paper and calculator tinkering with unit rates/calorific conversion equations and standing charges. God help people that can't work a utility bill out.

Edit it seems when you actually try to do a propper quote with the cheaper ones they won't do a gas only quote. OFTM for eg on a dual tariff want double what I'm paying now. If I go totally separate for gas and electric I can get them for not at lot more than I'm currently paying but the customer service looks terrible.

Edited by scottyp123 on Saturday 18th September 09:56

[StephenP]

With five providers going pop in the last month or so, is this just the tip of the iceberg?

Do their business models work on very low margins to build the customer base faster than their equivalent competitors - a survival of the fittest approach?

Is it likely they've all been caught out with little left in tank to cope with such unexpected rapid wholesale cost increases?

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News...

[Condi]

StephenP said:

With five providers going pop in the last month or so, is this just the tip of the iceberg?

Do their business models work on very low margins to build the customer base faster than their equivalent competitors - a survival of the fittest approach?

This is very much the tip of the iceberg.

The main problem is the cost cap introduced by OFGEM works retrospectively - ie it looks at the last 6 months worth of energy prices and then calculates a cap based on that, however energy costs have been rising that quickly that wholesale prices are well above where the cost cap is, and so the companies are forced to sell at a loss.

Shamelessly stolen from someone else, but I saw this earlier which shows how much margin is available if you had a new customer on a capped tariff now. It shows your wholesale energy costs are higher through winter, but this is before operating costs, metering costs etc, and so actual losses will be higher. Now, come April the cost cap will be updated again and it will go up considerably, but if you have already run out of cash before then it doesn't help much. (This models a slightly higher than average usage, but only by 20% or so).

[f1_dragon]

scottyp123 said:

Cheapest for me is Neon Reef

Edited by scottyp123 on Saturday 18th September 09:56

I think Neon Reef are the same people as Utility Point. With what’s come to light with some of their practices over the last few months I’d approach with caution.

[NMNeil]

so called said:

Solar Power......but you live in New Mexico, you have sunshine.
I live in the UK. The sun came out on Monday for the first time in ages and is due to retire for the winter tomorrow.

But you have rain in the UK, so maybe a trade, some of our sunshine for some of your rain?

[LocoBlade]

My deal is coming to an end next month and both the 1 and 2 year fixes that SSE offered me mid week at around the same price as their standard capped rate have disappeared when I checked tonight only offering me their standard tariff which is actually no more expensive but obviously subject to change in March. The Meerkats / uSwitch have halted their comparisons as so many providers are doing the same so looks like I'll be stuck with taking the standard SSE tariff then get shafted next spring when the new cap is announced and new fixed rates are invariably sky high.

[Wombat3]

The market seems to be practically in meltdown. The comparison sites are all saying that energy companies have pulled most of their tariffs.

EDF are not saying what they are going to charge Utility Point customers, only that you will be advised when they send you your contract.

I'm now thinking my gas (heating) costs are likely to double & electricity will go up 50-60% at least

[BobSaunders]

StephenP said:

With five providers going pop in the last month or so, is this just the tip of the iceberg?

Do their business models work on very low margins to build the customer base faster than their equivalent competitors - a survival of the fittest approach?

Is it likely they've all been caught out with little left in tank to cope with such unexpected rapid wholesale cost increases?

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News...

I think I read another two-four expected to go pop this week coming.

With that in mind I’ve shifted fixed to a big six spin off.

[Mr Whippy]

Time to buy a wood/coal burning stove then.

Could be a cold winter without gas, or electric to run the gas boiler

[Chris Type R]

Mr Whippy said:

Time to buy a wood/coal burning stove then.

Could be a cold winter without gas, or electric to run the gas boiler

Hopefully my Lockdown wood (which is chopped up, but probably not sufficiently seasoned) will help smooth out the bills this year.

Might pre-emptively get some bags of smokeless coal in too.

[Mr Whippy]

Chris Type R said:

Mr Whippy said:

Time to buy a wood/coal burning stove then.

Could be a cold winter without gas, or electric to run the gas boiler

Hopefully my Lockdown wood (which is chopped up, but probably not sufficiently seasoned) will help smooth out the bills this year.

Might pre-emptively get some bags of smokeless coal in too.

We’re moving to a new build with flues in kitchen diner and lounge, but no fireplaces/stoves... seriously thinking about a pair of stoves given this recent news about leccy and gas supply issues!

Just also storage for supplies because you can bet that wood and coal will be hard to find if this brownout/gas shortage materialises even a bit!

That wood will burn fine, just get it under cover

Edited by Mr Whippy on Sunday 19th September 11:36

[VR99]

My current plan runs till March22 with Eon. Based on everything going on in the energy market, I think will stick with it till next year.

I'm currently being badgered to have smart meters fitted as apparently it's part of our contract when I switched over. I've avoided smart meters like the plague for years due to all.the issues with 1st gen meters. Would it be fair to say that for gen2 smart meters it's a big improvement?

[motco]

VR99 said:

My current plan runs till March22 with Eon. Based on everything going on in the energy market, I think will stick with it till next year.

I'm currently being badgered to have smart meters fitted as apparently it's part of our contract when I switched over. I've avoided smart meters like the plague for years due to all.the issues with 1st gen meters. Would it be fair to say that for gen2 smart meters it's a big improvement?

I hope the SMETS2 meters are better but that doesn't address the issue of it being possible to remotely ration supplies. I have swapped to separate suppliers and both want me to agree to 'smart' meters but one (Sainsbury's for electricity) isn't pressing the matter yet, and the other (SSE for gas) has a duff booking page on its website.

[Condi]

motco said:

I hope the SMETS2 meters are better but that doesn't address the issue of it being possible to remotely ration supplies.

The energy companies have no more rights if you have a smart meter than they do now;

If you don't pay your bill, you can be disconnected. Same as now, same as ever. Only difference is they can do it remotely rather than sending a man out.

If National Grid or your DNO need to disconnect demand they do so at transformer level, not turning off Mrs Norris at number 42 but leaving on Mr Smith at 29!

Of everything there is to worry about, having your supplies "rationed" because you have a smart meter really isn't a priority.

[Mr Whippy]

Condi said:

The energy companies have no more rights if you have a smart meter than they do now;

If you don't pay your bill, you can be disconnected. Same as now, same as ever. Only difference is they can do it remotely rather than sending a man out.

If National Grid or your DNO need to disconnect demand they do so at transformer level, not turning off Mrs Norris at number 42 but leaving on Mr Smith at 29!

Of everything there is to worry about, having your supplies "rationed" because you have a smart meter really isn't a priority.

Terrorism. Never ending emergency.
Covid19. Never ending emergency.
Energy security. Never ending emergency.

“Rights“ are irrelevant when there are emergencies to deal with.