Energy Pricing
In researching the new gas courses for my training programme, I discovered the etymology of the word “gas” - appropriately, it derives from the Greek word khaos meaning “chaos”. Sixteenth century Flemish scientist Joannes Baptista van Helmont, was interested in the process of combustion, [...]
The energy market crisis is suddenly big news. It is impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the television or radio without hearing stories of rising bills and supplier bankruptcies. Energy is no longer a footnote in the business pages, with some outlets [...]
Gas market tightness has caused prices to rise sharply over the past few weeks, not only pushing electricity prices higher, but also causing supply issues in industries such as fertiliser manufacture which rely on natural gas as a feedstock. This is creating major headaches [...]
Today the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has raised the prospect of nationalising parts of the electricity industry. Of course, it isn’t couched in those terms, but the Government has announced that it will appoint a Special Administrator to run any supplier that fails if [...]
In the year and a half from the beginning of 2020 to July 2021 UK power day-ahead prices effectively doubled, and everyone from suppliers, three of whom have closed in recent weeks, and another two today: Utility Point and People’s Energy, to end consumers [...]
I have been writing recently about the need for radical reform of the retail energy market, and predicted that this autumn would see more supplier failures. Today, another two energy suppliers announced their closure today: PfP Energy (formerly Places for People Energy) based in [...]
The Government has finally announced a review of so-called “green tariffs” to assess whether suppliers are communicating appropriately with consumers, or whether they are engaging in “greenwashing”. According to the Government, 9 million British households are now on green tariffs, with over half of [...]
From 1 April 2023 the way that Balancing Services Use of System (“BSUoS”) costs are recovered could change - Ofgem is proposing to exempt generators from the charges and to recover the costs solely from end consumers. This would likely prompt a reduction in [...]
Last week Ofgem announced another increase to the price cap on so-called default energy tariffs, which will take effect from 1 October, the start of the winter season. This comes after a previous increase to the cap last February, and will be a blow [...]
Yesterday, National grid ESO published a preliminary Winter Outlook for next winter (2021/22), deciding to come out with an early view following last winter’s market tightness, which I discussed in a series of posts last month: With tight margins and high prices, was Winter [...]