^Next week Ofgem will announce the energy price cap rise^.

annsixty I fixed in March but my daughter is in the same position as you. I have been trying to make suggestions as whether to fix or stay flexible but a week ago Martin Lewis had no answer to that question, whereas he usually would. It was a case of fix and pay more starting now, or stay flexible and pay less now but then ride the roller coaster as the prices rise. Now he has put a calculator on the website so basically saying 'work it out for yourselves'. So there is no answer to that question as to whether to fix or be flexible. No-one even Martin knows which is best.

Do we fix or don’t we fix.
That is my dilemma.
A few weeks ago the advice was don’t fix .
Mt current fix ends on August 31st.
The offer I had from my current supplier EDF was to fix at just over £300 which was almost 100% more than I am paying at £157.
I haven’t accepted that yet but it looks as if it might be a better option.
It would be a penalty of £300 to come out of the contract.
I am truly in a fix about this with no help from family, I do have family but they can’t advise.

They're making the most of it before we change to renewables (and nuclear).

They know that we're trying to move away from reliance on fossil fuels.

No,I still don’t get it. Companies with billions of pounds profit aren’t going to go bust. They’re just going to make less profit.

Will they cease to trade if they can’t make billions? Then they won’t make anything, will they?

Chestnut

Bandying around figures of £6,000 per year is meaningless to me. It depends on the size of your property and how much energy you use. I want to know the cost per kWh for gas and electricity, those are the only figures than mean anything to me.

You probably realize this, already, but I'll mention it anyway, for anyone who doesnt - you need to know the daily standing charge, too, if you want to work out your bills, and they have risen a lot.

He won't but will give you all the information so you can decide for yourself.

I see he's added a calculator on that page which wasn't there a few days ago. He was basically saying he couldn't tell you whether it was better to fix or be flexible.

There could be some helpful information in this link:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/

Is what she's been offered a fixed rate that will cover her for a year or so? They're probably hedging their bets about what the future costs will be.

The £6,000 is meaningful because it allows people who aren't very good with numbers to make comparisons. i.e. the average house used to pay £1,000 (say), and now its going to be £6,000

Just to be clear - I don't agree with any of this. Utilities should be nationalised and not for profit, and they should be run on behalf of the people of this country. There is no "choice"; we all need power and we all need water.

Long time since we've had that approach.

volver

Well here's the thing.

The price cap refers to the maximum price a supplier can charge per kWh. For an average household, that's predicted to go up 82% in October. More than that in Spring. And likely to end up at about £6,000 for an average household.

So whatever you are paying now, assume its going to rise by 82% in two months time.

Still meaningless?

Still meaningless. My daughter was paying (for gas) 3.58p per kWh, is now paying 7.28p and been offered a new tariff of 15.59p per kWh. By my calculation that has already gone up 440% since before 1st April.

I know what a price cap is. I know what is predicted. But unless you are whatever they consider to be an 'average household' these figures of £6,000 are meaningless.

I've just found this interesting article from the FT.

www.ft.com/content/0d4d3f4d-f073-4115-b389-066aa894fb53

It explains how less than 60% of the typical fuel bill is for the actual (wholesale) cost of the energy, while the rest is made up of all sorts of other charges.

Several well-known energy suppliers are urging the government to remove some of these charges from fuel bills and add them to general taxation.

They are not suggesting that all of these extra charges can, or should, be removed.
Nevertheless, the changes they are seeking could save customers more than £400, which is the amount that the Government has offered to all households this coming winter.

They also say that the saving to customers could be over £500 if the cost of keeping the failed energy company Bulb running was also funded via tax rather than through all our energy bills.

That's the gist of it.

Thanks for that information MaizieD - particularly about gas needed to fire up electricity. Up here in the north of Scotland for years we have had enough Hydro-electric schemes to provide for ourselves and the south of Scotland and also sell the surplus to the rest of the UK which I presume helped the Scottish economy.

Grayling

This will probably be my last post as it will prove what kind of a dimwit I am!! Why is the electricity so high? Russia doesn't supply us with that!!

One of the reasons it is so high is that gas is used in the generation of electricity. (Not all, electricity of course, some is from renewable sources). So the price of gas ups the cost of generation and it's being passed on to the consumer.

It appears that our largest gas storage facility, owned by Centrica and closed for 'safety reasons' in 2017 because the company claimed it would be too expensive to make it safe, is about to be reopened 'within a few weeks'. Which makes me wonder how 'safe' it is likely to be, or, was Centrica telling porkies when they closed it...

But it will, I hope, act positively on energy prices.

www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/437044/liz-truss-questioned-over-closure-of-rough-gas-storage-facility/

Well here's the thing.

The price cap refers to the maximum price a supplier can charge per kWh. For an average household, that's predicted to go up 82% in October. More than that in Spring. And likely to end up at about £6,000 for an average household.

So whatever you are paying now, assume its going to rise by 82% in two months time.

Still meaningless?

Bandying around figures of £6,000 per year is meaningless to me. It depends on the size of your property and how much energy you use. I want to know the cost per kWh for gas and electricity, those are the only figures than mean anything to me.

Zonne I agree with you. There is a government but they are choosing not to work at all for several weeks. There is a deputy prime minister too, what is he doing? Why was a new chancelor of the exchequer appointed? all he has said is that he can't do anything until after September 5th. Although Boris said he was resigning he is still there, saying what they are all going to be doing from September onwards even though he will have no say in it. I expect he is still being paid and still living in his free house. All the candidates for new PM have been doing a lot of talking and travelling around the country for weeks spending all their time furthering their careers but not working at their jobs but I expect they are still being paid as usual. Is this a new idea? When I have given in my notice at a job I leave, has that changed now?

This will probably be my last post as it will prove what kind of a dimwit I am!! Why is the electricity so high? Russia doesn't supply us with that!!

Don't worry! That nice Mr Rees-Mogg is working hard to find a Brexit opportunity to solve the problem of extortionate energy bills. He's multi-skilled, of course, and able to slag off civil servants and idle workers all at the same time.

This, from earlier this year:

Whilst this is good news (in part) for residential customers, the same cannot be said for businesses.

The energy price cap is a tool used by Ofgem to protect the consumer, not businesses. Energy Suppliers are now passing on their costs to businesses by increasing their business gas and business electricity costs. Some businesses have received quotes exceeding a staggering 70p/kWh, making operations extremely challenging.

businessenergyclaims.co.uk/does-the-energy-price-cap-apply-to-businesses/

Zonne

Thank you, Volver.

Re the cap question: as far as I understand it, Ofgem are setting the cap at a level that will prevent more companies going bankrupt. The argument is that, in the long run, this would force prices even higher.

I don't think that the 'cap' applies to anyone apart from domestic consumers.

Off to check it out now...

Thanks *MaizieD for the information.

So perhaps the question should be - Why don't they lower the cap for all users?

We live in an isolated town. Our only pub landlord has decided to close for the winter once the summer season is over as he can't afford the energy bills. This hub of our community is a lifeline to the elderly and lonely in winter. If something isn't done to help businesses this is going to bring many small businesses, some essential in their areas, to ruin.

^I don’t understand why

I don'tt understand why either^

I don’t really understand but here’s my take on it. A Conservative gov will not ‘interfere’ with private industry. The energy companies are making huge profits for their shareholders - happy shareholders; happy Tories. Who gives a sh** about the consumer. We are a ‘captive audience’. We can’t say OK, I won’t buy your overpriced electricity -because we can’t do without it. Energy companies & gov know this. The so-called ‘price cap’ put out by the (discredited) ‘regulator’ Ofgem appears to be skewed in favour of the energy companies NOT the customer. Ofgem says it needs to keep the price cap rising to prevent energy companies going bust. Surely the energy companies could do this themselves by accepting lower profits during an energy crisis! Back to my original point - keep the rich shareholders happy. Round and round we go

I imagine they are all nicely cooking on beaches somewhere hot and not giving a shiny

Thank you, Volver.

Re the cap question: as far as I understand it, Ofgem are setting the cap at a level that will prevent more companies going bankrupt. The argument is that, in the long run, this would force prices even higher.

RichmondPark1

Lathyrus asks a question that nobody in government is answering.

Why don't they just put a cap on prices?

As I understand it there is a cap on prices. That is what is periodically announced

It is only for domestic users, though. No cap for anyone else.

That means hospitals, schools, care homes, your little local businesses, pub, restaurants, every single blessed thing that isn't a domestic user will be having much bigger price increases. Which means lots of businesses going bust.

Goodness knows what will happen to hospitals and schools if the government doesn't give them any help...