blandy Posted February 18, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 18, 2023 A company goes bust because it has debts it can’t pay and has not enough day to day funds coming in to continue to trade. So the bust companies had cumulatively huge debts. Their owners and backers were no longer prepared to keep putting in funding to cover the operating costs, they couldn’t get loans from banks, because their businesses weren’t sustainable under the situation were in. The government stepped in. Customers (with their positive or negative balances) were, apart from Bulb, moved to other suppliers. Bulb was so big, no other supplier could take them on, so the government took over the very loss making running of bulb, accruing further costs. They recently came to an agreement with Octopus for them to take over the customers, but not the debt, obviously. The government is also through the energy price cap, subsidising a chunk of each and every kWh each of us use, plus the various direct payments of 200 and 600 quid to every domestic customer in the uk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 A lot of the standing charge is down to recovering the SOLR (supplier of last resort) costs from all the failed companies over the last couple of years. When PFP went under in 2021 British Gas took me on as a SOLR. A supplier of last resort can then make a claim for any reasonable additional, and otherwise unrecoverable, costs they incur. These levy claims are paid to energy companies by the distribution network companies and recovered from consumers via their standing charges. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 18, 2023 Author Share Posted February 18, 2023 Is there a set period of time they will use to recover the costs? My fear is that long after it’s all been recovered the high standing charges will remain. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 18, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 18, 2023 (edited) I thought the Standing Charges were purely to pay for maintenance of The Grid and other power structures. The cost of which has gone up like everything else. Edited February 18, 2023 by sidcow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted February 18, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 18, 2023 I was round my mates house, well mansion on the Four Oaks estate the other night and he says that his electric bill is around 8 grand a month to heat his sauna , steam rooms and swimming pool, house et cetera He said it used to be around £1500 a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 18, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 18, 2023 (edited) 35 minutes ago, Follyfoot said: I was round my mates house, well mansion on the Four Oaks estate the other night and he says that his electric bill is around 8 grand a month to heat his sauna , steam rooms and swimming pool, house et cetera He said it used to be around £1500 a month. Is this the new humble brag? Look at the soize of muy electricity bill. I am considerably richer than yaw. Edited February 18, 2023 by sidcow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 Our LPG is going up 11p per litre. Could be worse I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 Natural gas prices at its lowest level it’s been since summer 2021, 6 months before the Ukraine war. This should start feeding into our gas prices once all the current forward buying contracts expire in a few months. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 19, 2023 1 hour ago, ender4 said: Natural gas prices at its lowest level it’s been since summer 2021, 6 months before the Ukraine war. This should start feeding into our gas prices once all the current forward buying contracts expire in a few months. If only the UK had huge amounts of storage to buy this gas cheap now and then use it in the winter. What's that you say? The Government allowed the UK to totally run down our storage facilities to save a few beans unlike the rest of Europe. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 19, 2023 Author Share Posted February 19, 2023 15 minutes ago, sidcow said: If only the UK had huge amounts of storage to buy this gas cheap now and then use it in the winter. What's that you say? The Government allowed the UK to totally run down our storage facilities to save a few beans unlike the rest of Europe. In theory we’ll be better off won’t we? If the likes of Germany have to use up their stores of expensively bought gas first we can dive straight in at todays better prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 19, 2023 5 minutes ago, Genie said: In theory we’ll be better off won’t we? If the likes of Germany have to use up their stores of expensively bought gas first we can dive straight in at todays better prices. I expect they've much more flexibility to buy and store at cheap prices than us. Hedging will help but finance markets aren't dumb. They know the current price will be rock bottom so they're unlikely to offer options at that price as they know when we're buying it to use next winter the price will be a load higher than today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 19, 2023 Author Share Posted February 19, 2023 When the price is falling we’re in a better position not having stocks. When the price is going up we’d better off having some cheaper stuff out the back we can use to rise out the spike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 Can someone explain to me if global prices have gone down why they are expected to raise again in april? And its been very mild recently so im pretty sure consumption is lower than last winter How does that make sense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted February 19, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 19, 2023 44 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: Can someone explain to me if global prices have gone down why they are expected to raise again in april? And its been very mild recently so im pretty sure consumption is lower than last winter How does that make sense? Guvmint subsidising our bills. They are going to stop doing that at the end of March, so while the costs will drop from current levels, bills will rise because guvmint subsidy taken away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 EDF got in touch with me last week and said that my bills are going down from £88 a month to £61 a month and they are have dumped £170 back into my bank account (hence me suddenly finding the money for the guitar I bought the other day) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 3 hours ago, leemond2008 said: EDF got in touch with me last week and said that my bills are going down from £88 a month to £61 a month and they are have dumped £170 back into my bank account (hence me suddenly finding the money for the guitar I bought the other day) Buying fuel while it's cheaper is a good idea. Not sure how long a guitar will burn for though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichfield Dean Posted February 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 19, 2023 1 hour ago, brommy said: Buying fuel while it's cheaper is a good idea. Not sure how long a guitar will burn for though. Depends if it's made of camphor wood 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milfner Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 Gas below 5.75p for the last three days. We're paying 10.33p. Electricity below 23p for the last four days, and today it is down at 21.39p. We're paying 33.73p. Piss take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 20, 2023 Author Share Posted February 20, 2023 I must admit, I thought the government energy prices were maximums, not fixed prices. They really do manage to **** everything they touch up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted February 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2023 1 hour ago, Genie said: They really do manage to **** everything they touch up. Do they ? Surely it depends on what side of the counter your on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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