Britain to see 80% spike in energy bills as crisis deepens

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press

Britain to see 80% spike in energy bills as crisis deepens

By SYLVIA HUI
today

LONDON (AP) — Jennifer Jones keeps feeding money into her energy meter, but it never seems to be enough. And when she can’t pay, she feels the impact immediately. ... The power in her London home has gone off suddenly three times recently, once when her partner was cooking an egg.

Like millions of people, Jones, 54, is struggling to cope as energy and food prices skyrocket during Britain’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. The former school supervisor has health problems and relies on government benefits to get by, but her welfare payments are nowhere near enough to cover her sharply rising bills.

“I’ve always struggled, but not as much,” she said. “Everything is going up. I can’t even pay my rent, my council tax, I can’t afford to do anything. … I keep asking myself, what am I supposed to do?”

And things are getting worse. U.K. residents will see an 80% increase in their annual household energy bills, the country’s energy regulator announced Friday, following a record 54% spike in April. That will bring costs for the average customer from 1,971 pounds ($2,332) a year to 3,549 pounds.

{snip}

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/inflation-boris-johnson-london-prices-261588f042ffe5cfeac3ea8e1db0f637

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Hat tip, Joe.My.God. (and {redacted})

Britain To See 80% Increase In Household Energy Bills
August 26, 2022

https://www.joemygod.com/2022/08/britain-to-see-80-increase-in-household-energy-bills/

[Ford_Prefect]

1. One more self-inflicted Brexit penalty. The very rich get much richer and everyone else pays for it

through the nose. Some are not going to manage this coming winter, if not the next month.

This is not one of those situations where you can cut down by turning off a few lights or going without a hot bath on the odd day. Switching from tinned chicken to cat food won't do it either.

Our monthly power bill (very well insulated house in Montana) runs roughly $110 per month, or roughly $1400 a year. an 80% increase would make that around $2500. With the knock-on effects raising prices of food and other things it will wipe out people on fixed incomes and severely impact those throughout much of the so-called middle class.

[FBaggins]

4. How is it a Brexit penalty?

It looks like the EU is doing even worse.

[melm00se]

24. Because everything that

goes wrong in Britain must absolutely tied back to Brexit.

Rain on a wedding day? Brexit.
Dog pees in the house? Brexit.
Got sunburned? Brexit.

[Backseat Driver]

6. My FB friends in Ontario Canada are similarly facing huge energy cost increases

from rising hydro-plant energy providers...but have only always available on-demand electric/gas - never heard of selective pre-payment meters...

[Warpy]

12. We're going to have some gas bill shocks here in the US, also

because there will be huge pressure on the world supply, especilly of LNG.

I know it'll be wool sweaters and Acorn socks for me this winter.

[IronLionZion]

2. Now might be a good time to insulate Britain

before it gets too cold

[yardwork]

3. Thanks to BREXIT and the invasion of Ukraine.

Both caused by Putin.

[PSPS]

8. Didn't you get the memo? It's all Biden's fault!!111!!1

[former9thward]

21. How is it Brexit?

Energy prices are up even more in the rest of Europe.

[yardwork]

22. Lol.

[modrepub]

25. Most Petro/Energy Is Priced In US Dollars

Brexit became effective 31 Jan 2020. Pound was worth about $1.29 then. It's currently trading around $1.17 US per pound. That's about a 10% drop (so you have to pay 10% on the exchange rate).

For comparison, the Euro was trading around $1.14 US dollars at the start of the Ukraine war. Now it's around par with the US Dollar. That's around 12% depreciation in 6 months. Same impact.

Wars that skitter world markets tend to strengthen the dollar (as a safe haven currency). This benefits US energy purchases and hurts all other economies (because it costs more if the sellers only accept US Dollars).

How long our currency will be the world currency is anyone's guess. And that's why defaults on our debt would be so detrimental to our currency's world status.

[Backseat Driver]

5. Never heard of these types of pre-payment energy-Smart "parking" meters.

Sounds absolutely archaic...Put still another nickel in - In a Lectric-lodian...

Interesting though: Use with specialized digital links and voice commands provided in on-line recipes for Smart-metered range or cooking appliances, never burn a roast again, cook an egg at the perfect temp on the range top? Better control the cost of small meal preparation? Cloud-based databases deliver precise temperatures and cooking time to the appliance's coils, gas jet, Instantpot, or infrared induction plate energy delivery tops, ovens, and pressure devices reducing the risk of wasted burned foods?

Could HVAC furnace and AC be far behind?

Learn something new everyday...Are jukebox parking meters of energy only used in the UK? - just weird!

[PSPS]

7. England has had pay-as-you-go energy forever.

Before electrification, people would feed schillings into the gas meter in their flats.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. Coin-fed gas meter? That sounds like a nice improvement.

Our house had a little fireplace in every room, for burning coke. There was no central heating. Winter mornings were a mad dash to light the fires, and coke is not an easy fuel to start burning.

We had electricity, which was used for the water heater as well as lights.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Companies are allowed to install prepayment meters with customers who get into debt

and the tariff, inevitably, is a bit more than for those who can pay from their bank account.

Smart meters track household energy use and have been touted as a way to improve energy efficiency and help customers track their spending.

But they also have a functionality allowing them to be changed into a prepayment meter, meaning a customer has to pay for energy before they use it. This is generally more expensive than monthly energy payments. Energy suppliers are able to switch customers onto prepayment when they fall into debt with the company, using prepayment as a way to recoup the debt.

Ordinarily, energy companies have to obtain a warrant from a court to enter a customer’s home and physically install a prepayment meter and last month the Big Issue revealed 187,000 such warrants have been granted in 2022 alone.
...
Debt and energy charities are now calling on Ofgem to take action ahead of winter to protect customers from forced switches to prepayment meters.

https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/vulnerable-smart-meter-customers-could-be-forced-onto-prepayment-as-energy-bills-soar/

As the article says, "smart meters" are touted endlessly by the utility companies as "helping the consumer" (you get an easy way of monitoring real-time usage via an app), but they never mention that they can be converted into the hated prepayment meters.

They're not, these days, actually coin-operated (at least I don't think anyone's are now); they work with a card or 'key' that you top up either online or at a shop: https://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/prepayment-meters/

[obamanut2012]

11. They have had them for many, many years

As in, well over a century. Including hot water geysers. They were also used in the US, from at least just prior to the Civil War. I just looked it up: I can't fins an exact date for the UK, but the first one used in the US was made in 1834! For apartment buildings.

My now-deceased great uncle was stationed in London for about a year during WW2 (American). All I know is that he was with US MilIntel, and met John Godfrey more than a few times. He talked about what a pain in the ass these things were, and he was in a nice flat.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. A lot of people are really hurting. So much for

medicine. They are having to choose between food and heat. That has to be awful.

[Delphinus]

23. I feel

badly for them. The sanctions the EU have imposed upon Russia for their invasion of Ukraine are painful. There was a separate article this morning from the Telegraph about medicines.

I am sure we here in North America will be seeing something like this come our way soon too.

[womanofthehills]

14. I'm my rural area, propane companies are not taking new clients

What’s that about? I have 500 gal tank and thought I better fill up. Luckily, my house is passive solar plus I have 2000 watts of solar panels.

[SWBTATTReg]

19. Wow. This is the first I've heard of this ... in what state are you in? Thanks! NT

We got some tenants that use Propane still at our place in a Missouri rural area.

[cstanleytech]

15. I hate to imagine how much worse it could be for those in the UK

if they had the same % of their population reliant on paying for gas for their cars as we have in the US.
Thankfully though a lot of their population does have access to a good mass transit system.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. The price increase of petrol isn't that much, in comparison

Oil is maybe $40/barrel more expensive now than the 5 year average: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cmjpj223708t/oil

A barrel is 35 Imperial gallons; say you get 30 gallons of petrol from it, and the price increase all goes there. That's $1.33/gallon more, or about £1.10; say you do 10,000 miles a year and get 38 mpg, that's 263 gallons per year, or £290 more (oops, plus 20% VAT - say £350).

In the past year, the combined typical household gas and electricity bill has, with this latest rise, gone up about £2,300. £350 is annoying; £2,300 could put you into debt and/or poverty.

[cstanleytech]

17. Ya, thats about what we are paying per year here in Georgia for our electric

assuming I have the USD to Pound conversion correct and yes it does suck.
Of course that does not include gas as we are fully electric so if those in the UK also has an additional gas bill then its probably especially horrible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. You must use a lot of electricity

Average US electricity price is 14.92 cents per kWh
The UK capped residential price has been, since April, 28p per kWh - 33 cents per kWh. So just over twice as much. It's now going up to 52p, or 61 cents. Anyone who heats their house with electricity is well and truly stuffed. Gas price per effective kWh is rising from 7p to 15p - about 8.2 cents to 17.7 cents.

[cstanleytech]

20. "You must use a lot of electricity" Majority is for the AC as I literally

would not be able to breath down here due to the humidity.
Might be better if I was back up north or in a drier climate but I am trapped here with no chance of ever having enough money to move and find out.