Energy Costs
The big six energy companies have been accused of misleading the public by blaming green charges for rising gas and electricity bills. In fact, a Westminster government report argues that green charges have cut £64 from today’s bills and will cut £166 from bills in 2020. Critics say the real cause of rising energy is the increasing cost of fossil fuels – particularly gas. They point to a UK Government analysis showing that charges for insulating homes and supporting renewables make up only 9% of the average household energy bill. The cost of buying electricity and gas on the wholesale market accounts for nearly half the bill. An analysis by the Westminster Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) shows that only £112 of the annual average household energy bill of £1267 is due to so-called green charges. These include £47 to help low-income households insulate their homes, £30 to support wind and other renewable energy sources and £11 for warm home discounts for pensioners. By far the biggest portion of the bill – £597 – comes from the cost of buying wholesale energy to distribute to customers. Then there’s £257 to pay for the distribution networks, £240 to cover supply costs and profits and £60 for value added tax. “Most of the big six just couldn’t wait to slag off the money that goes to insulating people’s homes and making our electricity supply secure for the future by turning it green,” said Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland. Norman Kerr, director of the fuel poverty campaign group Energy Action Scotland, accused the big six of giving people a “narrow view”. “It is unhelpful to the debate that the energy companies are placing so much value on a relatively small part of the bill,” he said. “While they talk about removing the environmental levies from bills to reduce the costs to consumers, what everyone forgets is that there will then no longer be any source of help for fuel poor and vulnerable consumers to reduce t heir energy demand.”
Herald 17th Nov 2013 read more »
Energy supplier E.ON has broken ranks with its rivals by urging ministers not to water down a green levy paid for on consumer bills. Ministers are planning to reform the Energy Company Obligation (Eco), which obliges suppliers to install energy efficiency measures in customer homes by March 2015. Suppliers have vowed to cut prices “within weeks” if green levies are cut. The Sunday Telegraph revealed in September that ministers may extend the deadline for Eco, to reduce costs. Ministers are also looking at cutting targets to install expensive measures such as solid wall insulation, which can cost £10,000. But E.ON chief executive Tony Cocker said: “Let’s not tinker with Eco too early; you don’t change the rules half-way through the game.” E.ON argues Eco’s funding should be moved to general taxation to be less regressive but opposes other changes. E.ON is ahead of its rivals in meeting Eco targets and says its costs so far are close to government estimates. Rivals claim it is 50pc more expensive than ministers say.
Telegraph 16th Nov 2013 read more »
Energy prices are rising at up to eight times the rate of earnings, according to research that will put suppliers under further pressure to justify their recent price increases. As the soaring price of energy starts a national debate on how to keep gas and electricity suppliers in check, analysis from Citizens Advice projects that by next month, the big six suppliers will have increased their prices by 36% since October 2010.
Observer 16th Nov 2013 read more »
HOUSEHOLDS could pay almost £500m more for energy over the next two years even if the government scraps future green taxes on utility bills, analysts have warned. George Osborne, the chancellor, is expected to announce plans in the autumn statement on December 5 to prevent rises in environment charges on energy bills, which are used to pay for renewable energy projects and social schemes. The move could limit the impact of the latest round of energy price hikes and save households about £30 over the next two years, according to the analyst Cornwall Energy. However, a projected increase in wholesale energy prices, which accounts for about two-thirds of bills, will add more than £50 to costs over the same period, according to the energy analyst Icis Heren. Based on 22m energy accounts in Britain, consumers could see bills rise by £484m in the next two years as a result. Last week Ed Davey, the energy secretary, admitted: “Changes to the way environmental and social measures are paid will not have a significant impact on bills as they account for a small part of the total cost. Wholesale energy prices have a much more significant impact.”
Sunday Times 17th Nov 2013 read more »
Charles Clover My dictionary says a “cartel” is a “collusive association of international enterprises formed to monopolise production and distribution of a product or service, control prices, etc”. Disappointingly, I can’t find any incontestable evidence that all the “big six” energy companies have colluded in setting their outrageous inflation-busting price increases this autumn. But I can point to other evidence of their collusion that neatly fits the definition. In seeking to justify the above-inflation rises that have made energy prices the No 1 political issue of the autumn, the big six have made a concerted attempt to blame what have come to be known as “green taxes” – the element of bills that pays for wind, solar and nuclear power. It also subsidises energy-saving measures designed to reduce fuel bills for about 400,000 households a year. This last part costs £47 out of an average annual bill of £1,400. EDF did it again only last week when it announced a below-average price rise on the condition that ministers scrap “social and environmental obligations”. This amounts to blackmail, and it seems to be working. Thanks to Ed Miliband’s promise at the Labour party conference to freeze bills, David Cameron has become increasingly desperate to find a way of keeping prices down. Concessions now look inevitable. The chancellor is expected to scrap the levy on bills for home-insulation schemes in the autumn statement, and perhaps suggest that the energy ministry find money for it from its own budget. The danger is that the government’s response to rising fuel prices will be to scrap energy-efficiency measures and spend a long time thinking what to do next. That would mean cutting off the help ordinary householders need to insulate themselves against future price rises – a perverse double blow to our wallets when bills are bound to rise anyway. It would mean the cartel getting away with ripping us off. It would also mean the Conservatives losing every shred of green credibility they traded on at the last election.
Sunday Times 17th Nov 2013 read more »
More than a million households are poised to swap energy suppliers in a move of unprecedented magnitude in Britain. In a dramatic escalation of pressure by the Government on energy suppliers over their soaring prices, homes across London and in 77 local authority areas, helped by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, can change their fuel provider this Tuesday. Ed Davey, the Climate Change Secretary, said “people are fed up with the Big Six” and that collective switching was a way for families, particularly the fuel-poor, to regain control over their energy bills.
Independent 17th Nov 2013 read more »
THE chief executive of National Grid has been awarded a bonus worth more than £2m as the company embarks on an investment programme funded by higher energy bills. Steve Holliday has been awarded conditional bonuses in shares in the past three years worth up to £8.4m. Under one of these schemes, he was awarded shares in June, now worth £2.27m. His long-term share bonus scheme — on top of an annual performance bonus scheme worth £846,000 in 2012-13 — makes him one of the best- paid bosses in the energy sector.
Sunday Times 17th Nov 2013 read more »
IN THE storm over household energy bills, one group has sailed through entirely unscathed: the local electricity networks. It’s not surprising. All but two of them are privately owned, often by big offshore investors. The pair that aren’t are in the hands of publicly traded SSE. Yet these 14 companies, which build and maintain local power lines, account for 16% of the average annual household bill. At £1,415, that equates to £226 — more than twice as much as the maligned “green taxes” tacked on to bills. This is a big week for them. On Friday, the regulator Ofgem will give its verdict on their business plans for the period between 2015 and 2023 — how much they can invest and, crucially, how much they will be allowed to charge. Given that government guns are still firmly trained on SSE and its rivals, profits are falling and debt is rising, it’s probably best to steer clear for a while yet — at least until December 4, when the chancellor is expected to unveil changes to the charges included on utility bills.
Sunday Times 17th Nov 2013 read more »
While this will not console those struggling to pay their bills today, energy bills rose by much less than general inflation from 1990 to 2004. The reasons for this extended pause shed light on more recent developments. There were three key factors: international prices for, in particular, gas were relatively stable, new technology for gas-fired plants reduced the costs of electricity generation, and there were significant improvement in the operating efficiency of networks and generation following the breakup of energy monopolies.
Herald 17th Nov 2013 read more »
Radwaste
The letter here illustrates how CONsultations are manipulated with “trending themes” which bend nuanced replies from people struggling to answer deliberately skewed questions. The only answer is NO but that is not an option especially so in this latest CONsultation. Below is a letter sent to DECC from Radiation Free Lakeland regarding the last CONsultation. This follows sight of the “trending themes” of the last CONsultation. These were asked for by Freedom of Information request by Dr David Lowry an independent consultant and researcher, they can be seen in the pdfs below.
Radiation Free Lakeland 16th Nov 2013 read more »
Iran
Global powers and Iran are close to a preliminary deal to rein in Tehran’s nuclear programme and should not pass up a “very good chance” to clinch it, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks broadcast on Saturday. His upbeat comments in a television interview came a day after a senior US official said it was possible a deal could be reached when negotiators meet in Geneva from 20 November.
Guardian 16th Nov 2013 read more »
Geothermal
As much as a third of the heat needed to keep Scotland warm could be provided by tapping geothermal energy from old coal mines across the central belt, a major new study for the Scottish Government has concluded. Warm water piped up from abandoned mine shafts between Glasgow and Edinburgh and in Ayrshire and Fife could help heat many thousands of homes and other buildings for decades, researchers said. They are urging ministers to embark on an ambitious attempt to make geothermal energy a major new source of clean, renewable power within a few years. The two-volume, 345-page study was conducted by the US energy firm Aecom and the British Geological Survey, and has been published by the Scottish Government. Geothermal energy from deep underground has “the potential to play a significant role in Scotland’s future energy provision”, it said. The most promising sou rce is the water that has flooded the hundreds of disused mine shafts that underlay large areas of the Central Belt. Heated by the warmth of the Earth, it averages 17C, with higher temperatures at deeper levels. The study recommends a series of actions by Scottish ministers in the next three yea rs, including the development of a national geothermal energy strategy. It suggests two major new “demonstrator” projects, at the Clyde Gateway in eastern Glasgow and at Shawfair in Midlothian, by 2016. It points out that two small geothermal schemes in Scotland that tap the warmth of mine water have been running since 2000. One is at Shettleston in Glasgow and the other at Lumphinnans in Fife, each serving fewer than 20 homes.
Herald 17th Nov 2013 read more »
Climate
Developing nations have launched an impassioned attack on the failure of the world’s richest countries to live up to their climate change pledges in the wake of the disaster in the Philippines. With more than 3,600 people now believed to have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan, moves by several major economies to backtrack on commitments over carbon emissions have put the world’s poorest and most wealthy states on a collision course, on the eve of crucial high-level talks at a summit of world powers.
Observer 16th Nov 2013 read more »
