Posts in category: Energy News

Britain’s increasing reliance on “intermittent” renewable energy means that the country is facing an unprecedented supply crisis, a senior Ofgem executive has warned.

Andrew Wright, a senior partner at Ofgem and former interim chief executive, warned that households could be forced to pay extra to keep their lights on while their neighbours “sit in the dark” because “not everyone will be able to use as much as electricity as they want”.

He warned that in future richer customers will be able to “pay for a higher level of reliability” while other households are left without electricity.

Mr Wright said that because Britain has lost fuel capacity because of the closure of coal mines, there is now “much less flexibility” for suppliers.

In a stark warning about the future of energy supply in Britain, Mr Wright said that consumers could be forced to pay more if they want to ensure they always have power.

“At the moment everyone has the same network – with some difference between rural and urban – but this is changing and these changes will produce some choices for society,” he told a recent conference.

“We are currently all paying broadly the same price but we could be moving away from that and there will be some new features in the market which may see some choose to pay for a higher level of reliability.

 “One household may be sitting with their lights on, charging their Tesla electric car, while someone else will be sitting in the dark.”

Mr Wright, who Ofgem last night insisted was speaking in a “personal capacity” appeared to lay blame to any future supply issues on the recent focus on renewable energy.

He said: “The system we are all familiar with has some redundancy built into it. It was pretty straightforward and there was a supply margin, but increasing intermittency from renewable energy is producing profound changes to this system.

“We now have much less flexibility with the loss of fossil fuel capacity. Coal has been important, but this is disappearing.”

 He added: “In the future not everyone will be able to use as much as electricity as they want, and there will be a need to re-write the rules.”

An Ofgem spokesman said: ” Ofgem is fully committed to delivering secure supplies for all consumers now and in the future. This is our number one priority. This is why we have driven up network reliability standards and worked closely with Government to ensure secure energy supplies.”

“In order to protect consumers every regulator has to look a possible future challenges. Mr Wright was talking at an University conference in a personal capacity and looking at possible issues that might or might not arise in 10-15 years time.”

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, has previously said that Britain will need to invest “eye-wateringly large sums of money” just to keep the lights on.

The Chancellor put the cost at around £100 billion in the next 20 years to ensure the country meets its energy needs.

Four of the UK’s largest energy companies have been barring their own customers from some of the best deals for gas and electricity, the BBC’s Moneybox programme has learnt.

The cheapest deals are often reserved for new customers only.

Meanwhile existing customers have been offered deals which can be hundreds of pounds a year more expensive.

The four companies, E.ON, EDF, SSE and British Gas said they were simply responding to changes in the market.

While the British Gas tariff has now been withdrawn, other suppliers are still restricting their offers to new customers only.

Such deals were originally banned by the regulator Ofgem in April 2014. Following a recommendation from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in April this year, Ofgem let it be known it would no longer enforce these rules.

‘Gob-smacked’

The discovery of such deals has as come a surprise to some leading industry figures.

Ken Geddes is the chief executive of Scottish-based Energylinx, the fourth biggest energy price comparison business.

When the BBC told Mr Geddes about the new tariffs, he declared himself “stunned” by the difference between the prices some companies offered new and existing customers.

Mr Geddes immediately tested a new-customer-only tariff from E.ON, launched in mid-September.

He first applied as an E.ON customer and then as a customer of another company. The difference in the the two prices he got from E.ON was £260.

“Having spent over a decade doing this job, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that differential”, Mr Geddes told the BBC. “I’m just gob-smacked as to the difference in price”.

‘Filtered out’

Large differences in price between new and existing customers are not confined to E.ON.

In the summer, British Gas launched a new-customer-only one year tariff offered exclusively through Uswitch – the UK’s biggest energy price comparison website.

For new customers with average household energy consumption, the British Gas “Home Energy Exclusive Jun 17” tariff cost £735 a year. But for existing customers – barred from that deal – the best British Gas price for the same amount of energy was £989.

That British Gas tariff has now been withdrawn but others are appearing.

The SSE new-customer-only tariff, launched in September, offered new customers on average consumption a year’s energy for £759 . For existing customers, SSE’s best deal cost £972 – a difference of over £200.

Customers were unlikely to have learned such low-priced tariffs were available from their companies even if they searched Uswitch and Energy Helpline.

That’s because such websites start by asking users for the name of their existing energy supplier. New-customer-only deals from that supplier are then filtered out.

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‘Very sorry’

As a long-standing customer of EDF, I wanted to find out what tariff I would be offered.

In a web-chat, I was told the tariffs available to me were: “Blue+ Price Protection Sep 2017” – costing £133 more than EDF’s new-customer-only tariff, and “Blue+ Price Freeze Sep 2018” costing almost £300 more.

Were these the “very best tariffs EDF offers?” I asked the agent.

“Yes” was the emphatic reply.

When pressed about the much cheaper new tariff EDF had just launched, the agent replied, “I’m very sorry. This is only for new customers – not existing customers”.

On Friday, EDF relaunched their new-customer-only deal, cutting the price by around £50 a year. So it’s a better deal than before but it’s still not for existing customers.

Strategy

Not all major energy suppliers plan to offer such tariffs.

Scottish Power’s commercial director Colin McNeill told the BBC his company would not offer them.

“These tariffs must stop,” Mr McNeill said. “We must recognise that we are still not a trusted industry, and perceived sharp practices do the industry no favours.”

With Scottish Power, he added: “Any of our customers can switch freely to any of our tariffs at any time.”

The four energy companies which have offered the new-customer only tariffs, E.ON, EDF, SSE and British Gas, all say that they are responding to changes in the energy market and that their new tariffs are part of a strategy to serve a wide range of customers.

All four companies declined the BBC’s invitation to be interviewed about their new exclusive offers.

Ofgem’s chief executive Dermot Nolan told the BBC that Ofgem had acted on the CMA’s recommendation “to make energy competition more similar to telecoms because on the whole that will mean lower prices and better deals for consumers”.

Householders are being warned to brace themselves for a rise in their electricity bills as a series of freak events conspires to send wholesale prices rocketing.

Safety concerns at France’s nuclear power plants operated by the energy company EDF have led to many reactors being temporarily shut down. There have been similar suspensions in Belgium. In addition, a lack of rain in Norway and Sweden – whose hydro plants generate large amounts of electricity for their European neighbours – has limited both countries’ energy production.

The combined effect has been to send the price at which energy companies buy their power through the roof.

Last Monday, a UK energy company buying power on a next-day contract would have paid about £150 a megawatt hour. The average price a year ago was £38.10. For companies that had not agreed forward contracts, the cost has soared to more than £1,000.

Several smaller electricity suppliers have already raised prices or withdrawn competitive tariffs. Energy analysts say it will not be long before the big operators follow if, as looks possible, this winter starts with a protracted cold snap.

An index tracking the price power companies pay for electricity, produced by the consultancy Cornwall Energy, is at its highest since it started in 2012. “It is unusual for there to be significant volumes of outages in the French nuclear fleet, however this is also one of our tightest winters in recent times in terms of extra capacity, which has also influenced how high prices rise,” said Cornwall analyst Tom Edwards.

Twenty of EDF’s nuclear reactors have been stopped for checks on their steam generators, five more than would normally be shut down for maintenance at any one time. In July, EDF was forced to lower its 2016 nuclear output target to 395-400 TWh (terrawatt hours) from 408-416 TWh because of the need for “additional controls during the second half of the year” to show its reactors can operate safely. Last month, the group revised its nuclear output target again, from 380-390 TWh to 378-385 TWh.

A spokeswoman said it was looking at ways to ensure it could maintain electricity generation by using its thermal and hydraulic plants. She said EDF would buy more electricity on the European wholesale markets if necessary and use “contractual flexibilities with some industrial customers and individuals to limit their electricity consumption”.

Edwards said supply issues were currently to blame for price rises, but extra demand could soon be a factor. “The increase was primarily driven by rising wholesale prices, so the effect will be driven by supply and demand issues,” he said. “If it’s a cold winter and supply issues remain, then this should persist for the next three to four months. There has been some concern raised about how suppliers will cope over the winter if they aren’t able to hedge against these short-term price rises.”

Sources say the average standard variable tariff could be set to rise 13 per cent from £1,063 to £1,201 per year

FAMILIES face a hike in their energy bills as power giants get set to pass on increases in the price they pay.

Wholesale gas and electricity prices are rising after a period of staying steady or falling.

Sources say energy firms are looking to pass on the price rises — despite The Sun’s campaign to highlight how customers are already overpaying.

It could see the average standard variable tariff rise 13 per cent from £1,063 to £1,201 per year.

Some firms could delay an increase as they “hedged” against wholesale costs rising by pre-buying power at lower rates earlier this year.

A source at one of the Big Six suppliers said: “Price rises are coming.

“None of us bigger firms will want to go first but it will come to a point where we have to.

“Hiking before Christmas will mean we get a lot of grief so firms will sit there now doing the maths to see how long they can hold off.

“The bigger ones can hold off a bit longer than the smaller ones.

“They pre-buy more power and also have deeper pockets to soak up tighter margins for a while.

“But don’t be surprised if some of the smaller suppliers raise prices.”

E.ON has already warned investors they have not hedged enough for their UK business.

Co-op raised the price of their standard variable tariff last month.

Critics said the Big Six are quick to pass on price rises but slow to pass on any savings.

Will Hodson, of consumer collective TheBig Deal.com, said:   “When wholesale prices dropped it took them forever and a day to pass those savings on.”

E.ON said it would not speculate on pricing.