Cut ‘unjust’ electricity standing charges, UK regulator urged:
Campaigners say much of the ‘discriminatory’ 80% rise relates to collapse of energy suppliers last year
Fuel poverty campaigners have written to Britain’s energy regulator urging it to take action to reduce electricity standing charges, which it says are discriminatory.
When the energy price cap rises on Friday, most households will face an increase of at least 80% in the standing charges they pay for electricity, with much of the extra cost a result of the failure of 30 suppliers during 2020.
The standing charge is applied daily, and is charged regardless of how much energy the customer uses.
In a letter to Ofgem, Fuel Poverty Action said the poorest consumers were “paying for negligent policymaking”, and that the “injustice of the standing charge must urgently be addressed”.
Good to see this being aired. It is another poll tax and I hope the politicians pay the same price.
What is most iniquitous is that people on prepayment meters (who by definition are the least likely to be able to afford price rises) are apparently facing even higher rises than the rest of us. I'm in the old Manweb area, so our standing charge is doubling - like some other places in the provinces.
A
2.0 kW/4.62 MWh pa in Ripples, 4.5 kWp W-facing pv, 9.5 kWh batt
30 solar thermal tubes, 2MWh pa in Stockport, plus Congleton and Kinlochbervie Hydros,
Most travel by bike, walking or bus/train. Veg, fruit - and Bees!
And another circa 11p will be added from April 2023 for 4 years for us all to pay back the £200 loan (bill credit from Oct 2022) whether you received the credit or not. It was pointed out yesterday from a question in parliament that some people on pre-payment meters will need to apply for a special code to obtain the £200 credit so some may not even receive the credit.
And I think there is another tranche of network charges to be added to the standing charge at some point.
18.7kW PV > 109MWh generated
Ripple 6.6kW Wind + 4.5kW PV > 27MWh generated
6 Other RE Coop's
105kWh EV storage
60kWh Home battery storage
40kWh Thermal storage
GSHP + A2A HP's
Rain water use > 520 m3
I've said on here before that standing charges were the least equitable part of energy bills. And that they should, in my opinion, be negative. EG a £10 credit applied to every bill, paid for by slightly higher unit prices. As a proportion of the bill and a proportion of earnings, or any other way you cut i, the standing charge has the biggest impact on the poorest and those who are most economical in heir usage of energy.
However since I said that, they've gone ahead and made the situation MUCH worse...
12x 340W JA Solar panels (4.08kWp)
3x 380W JA Solar panels (1.14kWp)
5x 2.4kWh Pylontech batteries (12kWh)
LuxPower inverter/charger
(Artist formally known as ******, well it should be obvious enough to those for whom such things are important.)
I tried to find it on the OFGEM website as I think its there somewhere, but I cant find it after looking for quite some time, that's a serious fail in my book. I recall Martin Lewes had to have a meeting with them to get the details on the day of the announcement and the only place to get the average price on that day was from his tweet.
18.7kW PV > 109MWh generated
Ripple 6.6kW Wind + 4.5kW PV > 27MWh generated
6 Other RE Coop's
105kWh EV storage
60kWh Home battery storage
40kWh Thermal storage
GSHP + A2A HP's
Rain water use > 520 m3
Have to agree that it does seem so unfair to impose such a draconian price rise on those least able to afford it when an alternative must surely be available.
Something that doesn't appear to have been aired is that while it's the price of gas that has risen so dramatically it's SC has risen by an average of merely 1.2p while leccy is over 20p! While gas contributes to 100% of it's energy use it contributes possibly less than of half that towards leccy generation.
I can't quite see how this is going to encourage anyone to ditch gas in favour of electricity as needed if we are to avoid AGW!
