UK Black outs

[Deleted member 149562]

I may have misunderstood the link but if I haven’t this annoys me.

Why should the people of the UK have to pay stupidly high prices of gas and electric, just to have the government turn it off every so often weather they want to or not?

Surely if the electric is going to be turned off, for let’s say 3 hours, we should get our monthly price reduced by 3 hours?

I know it’s not a lot but it just seems silly that we have to be forced into no electricity when there’s not even a problem with it in the first place. The caps in the uk are no longer about reducing the amount households pay, it’s reducing how much the companies can make. You constantly hear that electricity companies are ‘100% renewable energy’ such as hydropower and wind. Has the price of wind increased? Obviously not, so why are we still paying stupid amounts?

Rant over

In a nutshell and desperately trying to avoid the politics (which is not easy)

In 1986 two departments were established to ensure that both gas customers and electricity customers were not ripped off financially and that they could be a point of contact for service complaints etc. This was mainly for the gas since that was privatised in 1986 (done by Thatcher after problems with British Gas - she did not want electricity companies to go private, she was forced out of office as a result). The then watchdog, OFGAS, also ensured that standing charges and other anciliaries would not impede the consumer and that tight caps on energy providers were in place again to protect the consumer.

In 1990 (under Major and ably assisted by Hesiltine), 12 electricity companies were privatised and subject to the same tight legislation regarding standing charges and caps as the gas providers.

All was going brilliantly.

Then everything changed.

In 1999 (under Blair/Brown) the two watchdogs for gas and electricity were merged into OFGEM, all standing charge caps and individual provider earning caps were scrapped, licences were given to more and more companies to offer privatised distribution and delivery of gas and electricity.

The legislation delivered increased standing charges to the consumer and virtually unlimited earning potention to both distribution and delivery companies in the energy sector. Any profit from distribution/delivery would go back into the company and be shared as dividends to upper management....it would not do as Thatcher/Major wanted and be passed down to the consumer by way of bill reductions and infrastructure improvement.

To have the current legislation removed and replaced would take a full vote both in the House of Commons and House of Lords. Time taken for this has been estimated at 5 years +. The problem comes to gaining votes for removal/replacement. It is reported that 75% of Commons MP's and up to 50% of Lords are, shall we say afforded by lobbyists from the energy producers, distributors and deliverers.

So to get the system changed back to the more consumer orientated system where the consumer was fully protected and did not have annual increases in standing charges will be slim to none.

So there you have it in a nutshell - the almost near as possible non political reasons why we pay through the snout for gas and electric.

 

[AmyKieran]

In a nutshell and desperately trying to avoid the politics (which is not easy)

In 1986 two departments were established to ensure that both gas customers and electricity customers were not ripped off financially and that they could be a point of contact for service complaints etc. This was mainly for the gas since that was privatised in 1986 (done by Thatcher after problems with British Gas - she did not want electricity companies to go private, she was forced out of office as a result). The then watchdog, OFGAS, also ensured that standing charges and other anciliaries would not impede the consumer and that tight caps on energy providers were in place again to protect the consumer.

In 1990 (under Major and ably assisted by Hesiltine), 12 electricity companies were privatised and subject to the same tight legislation regarding standing charges and caps as the gas providers.

All was going brilliantly.

Then everything changed.

In 1999 (under Blair/Brown) the two watchdogs for gas and electricity were merged into OFGEM, all standing charge caps and individual provider earning caps were scrapped, licences were given to more and more companies to offer privatised distribution and delivery of gas and electricity.

The legislation delivered increased standing charges to the consumer and virtually unlimited earning potention to both distribution and delivery companies in the energy sector. Any profit from distribution/delivery would go back into the company and be shared as dividends to upper management....it would not do as Thatcher/Major wanted and be passed down to the consumer by way of bill reductions and infrastructure improvement.

To have the current legislation removed and replaced would take a full vote both in the House of Commons and House of Lords. Time taken for this has been estimated at 5 years +. The problem comes to gaining votes for removal/replacement. It is reported that 75% of Commons MP's and up to 50% of Lords are, shall we say afforded by lobbyists from the energy producers, distributors and deliverers.

So to get the system changed back to the more consumer orientated system where the consumer was fully protected and did not have annual increases in standing charges will be slim to none.

So there you have it in a nutshell - the almost near as possible non political reasons why we pay through the snout for gas and electric.

This was very informative thankyou, if there’s nothing the government can/ will do in a reasonable amount of time, is there nothing the people could do to stand up and change this?

 

[Deleted member 149562]

This was very informative thankyou, if there’s nothing the government can/ will do in a reasonable amount of time, is there nothing the people could do to stand up and change this?

When the next general election is called, check the attachments of the candidates. They have to list their lobbyists by law...hunt down the ones who are not lobbied by energy utility, distribution and research companies

 

[Deleted member 149562]

The other downside from the changes started in 1999 is that the UK's ability to store gas and other utility products dropped significantly since once privatised the coal, gas and electricity companies were able to sell their products abroad instead of placing the needs of the UK first (as per the Thatcher/Hesiltine/Major era).

So a double whammy for the consumer....the utilities could increase standing charges and sell surplus thus gaining more profit without the need for infrastructure and storage upgrades in the UK which would then be used as dividends to the CEO and upper managements as paid bonuses that were index linked to the profitability of the companies concerned.

All very warm and cosy for the fat cats.....and seriously bad barrel scrapings for the consumer.

In regard to fracking....new licences are in the proverbial pipeline. It is not the geologist community that tops the list of those who oppose fracking. It isn't the general population who would be living close to the fracking sites that are opposing fracking.

The biggest opposers are the gas and electricity companies as they see successful fracking for shale gas undermining, quite literally, their profits. Be successful on the shale gas and the need for other gases for basic supplies to homes and for electricity generation at home and abroad starts to fall.....with the profits going down too.

Shale gas by fracking is essentially an unwanted competition to the rest of the energy providers and suppliers. The UK is sitting on vast reserves of shale gas, oil, natural gas, coal...we are fully self sufficient and have been since this rock on the landscape first existed. The only fly in the ointment preventing us from actually benefitting from that vast reserve are those money hungry utility companies who refuse to allow their beloved profit to dividend shares drop.

Under the old scheme (Thatcher/Hesiltine/Major) we could be totally self sufficient and sell to foreign countries with the UK consumers fully protected against standing charge increases and cap changes.

But unfortunately with the regime change brought about totally unlimited profiteering by privatised companies....which, it needs to be said, most of whom have collapsed after raking in a whole load of money from consumers by promising lower bills that they could not actually do.