Energy price cap increase and meter reading advice

[Kim]

I have never really understood why billing such a dark art.   It's just current meter read less previous meter read multiplied by the tariff (plus VAT).

I assume that it's either a dog's breakfast of legacy systems, glued together by some underpaid admin copy&pasting things into Excel, or the incompetence is deliberate.  Possibly a combination of both.

[felstedrider]

I have never really understood why billing such a dark art.   It's just current meter read less previous meter read multiplied by the tariff (plus VAT).

I assume that it's either a dog's breakfast of legacy systems, glued together by some underpaid admin copy&pasting things into Excel, or the incompetence is deliberate.  Possibly a combination of both.

There's another issue in that you produce the customers bill without having to interface to industry data flows.   You receive the meter readings either from the customer or direct from the smart meter (ever so occasionally from a 'proper' meter reader).   The process falls over when the industry thinks the meter reading is different or out of kilter with prior consumption.   The trick is to persuade your systems to ignore spurious data coming from industry data flows and not send a new bill.   

[ian]

I have never really understood why billing such a dark art.   It's just current meter read less previous meter read multiplied by the tariff (plus VAT).

I assume that it's either a dog's breakfast of legacy systems, glued together by some underpaid admin copy&pasting things into Excel, or the incompetence is deliberate.  Possibly a combination of both.

Having seen behind the curtains of corporate billing mechanisms, it truly is often a mishmash of systems acquired through acquisitions and badly sewn together by overpaid and underqualified consults who once paid go into witness protection. Though, to be honest, finding someone willing to own up to understanding Microsoft Dynamics Great P[l]ains is a tough one. Dexterity programmers, anyone? Anyone?

[mrcharly-YHT]

[not billing system] A few years back I was working in one of the major merchant banks.

One of their critical systems was running on a VAX 11/750 - so old they couldn't even get hardware, they were reduced to buying up and cannibalizing decommissioned  VAXs. A damn expensive consultant was on hand to keep the VMS OS running.

'twould be virtualized these days, but that just solves the hardware problem.

[ian]

Not that bad, but I remember one encounter with a bit of infrastructure that defied explanation, but eventually some veteran remarked 'oh yeah, we added that during the transition away from microfiche.' Another entire system had been built to create a CD-ROM prodect that they had kludged to pipe into a web application in a way so ugly my eyes can't unsee it.

Thing is, as the owner of the Big Spreadsheet, you figure out how much it will cost to tidy up this shit, and say 'not on my budget, just keep it working.' Yes, I was that guy. Sorry.

[rogerzilla]

The regulator predicts another 40% increase in the cap for the coming winter, which is when shit gets real.  High energy prices aren't so bad in summer.

[felstedrider]

Couple of extra bits.

Ofgem have changed the assessment window for the price cap from season ahead to quarter ahead which will produce 4 revisions a year but will make it harder for suppliers to hedge their price cap exposure accordingly.   They are running to keep up.

The new thing is the Market Stabilisation Charge.   Under this mechanism if there is a drop on wholesale prices and suppliers start to offer cheap tariffs, the incoming supplier will need to make a payment to the outgoing supplier to cover the difference between the cap and the new rate.   This will increase the acquisition costs for taking on a new customer although the supplier will recoup this over the course of the contract.   Straw poll this week seems to say this will stop new players coming into the sector and reduce the appetite for existing suppliers to take on new customers.   Switching will probably stay pretty low for some time.

Also, market rumours are that suppliers are seeing customers cancelling their DDs so bad debt is going to be an issue with, possibly, more supplier collapses to come.

[rogerzilla]

My bills have gone from £41/month to £98/month in a year, and are likely to be £138/month by autumn.  I am a low, low user on a decent income.  What it's like for most people, I can't imagine.

[Canardly]

£170 pcm here and there are only two of us.

[ian]

£550 actual for the last quarter which was less than I'd anticipated (for some reason we're using less gas and tinglejuice than last year though, weather must have been better or somesuch). That's two people, in a modest palace, working from home.

Of course, given none of the externalities are priced into these costs, in many ways we've got used to implausibly cheap fuel.

[rogerzilla]

EON are offering a 12 month fix at only a 27% increase on current prices.  They don't say if this includes the £400 rebate, though.  If it doesn't, it's a bargain as I'll be paying less than I am now.  I have DMed them on Twitter.

[robgul]

£550 actual for the last quarter which was less than I'd anticipated (for some reason we're using less gas and tinglejuice than last year though, weather must have been better or somesuch). That's two people, in a modest palace, working from home.

Of course, given none of the externalities are priced into these costs, in many ways we've got used to implausibly cheap fuel.

Ditto on anticipation - £562 for last quarter received today . . . and we have a fix to mid-23 at well under the cap rates. Almost 50/50 between fuels, but gas will diminish as only water heating from now until heating is used again in the (late?) autumn.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Our house is (mostly) heated by oil boiler.

We filled the tank about 4 months ago. 72p per litre.

Just been quoted £1.08


That's a 50% rise.

[fd3]

My bills have gone from £41/month to £98/month in a year, and are likely to be £138/month by autumn.  I am a low, low user on a decent income.  What it's like for most people, I can't imagine.

Family of 5 - yes the utilities have gone up but there are things we can do about that.  Cost of food has gone up ~25% and not eating is not really an option.  Middle (on the lower side of) income household and for the first time in my life I'm looking at having £0 to hand and bills that need paying.  No idea what I would do were I on a checkout wage.

[felstedrider]

I’m starting to think it’s going to be quite a while until we see lower bills.  The early months of the Summer had settled pretty cheap but we have had 2 bad bits of news this week.

1. There has been a fire at the Freeport LNG facility in the US and it looks like it will be off line for 3 months.
2. There has been a compressor failure on Nordstream 1.  The replacement part is in Canada and sanctions mean they can’t ship it.  Gas flows from Russia into Europe are down.

It is Summer and mild but this is the time you should be using excess gas to fill storage.

Last Saturday power prices went negative when there was too much sun/wind so it’s not all bad news, but Grid are concerned about low wind, mid-Winter days.  A deal was struck last week to keep West Burton A on line and there seem to be more similar negotiations going on.   No one has been drawn, so far, on how big the bungs are to not retire plant as planned.

[Wombat]

Our house is (mostly) heated by oil boiler.

We filled the tank about 4 months ago. 72p per litre.

Just been quoted £1.08


That's a 50% rise.

About a year ago, in very rural Wales, I paid 31p a litre, having just missed the minimum of 29p.  The last lot which was only a top-up to get us through the tail end of winter, a couple of months ago, was 85 or so, but there is no way I'm filling it now!  Luckily the Solar PV is heating the water and offsetting most electricity consumption, but I'm going to be scrabbling around for logs ready for next winter, to provide most of the heating.

[Basil]

The price of logs seems to be going up.
Because......
Because they can.

[rogerzilla]

My mother has decided to move house before the winter, so there is a tonne and a half of firewood if I want it.  Annoyingly, it's 40 miles away.  Will have to move it in dribs and drabs.

[JellyLegs]

The price of logs seems to be going up.
Because......
Because they can.

Simple supply and demand.  It takes time to properly season logs so you can’t easily increase supply overnight but demand has rocketed as other fuels have gone up.  Everyone round here is suddenly looking for logs.  Luckily I have just enough of a non-commercial supply to get me through winter, though I suspect I may soon lose access to it.

[Paul H]

What's the opinion of fixed or variable?
My current tariff ends this month and I'm being offered fixed for a year at 44.1p kWh day and 26p kWh night, or variable which is currently 30.3 and 20.3, standing charge is the same for both.
I'm a low user 2,700 kWh last year and a lot of that in the winter months at the night rate with storage heaters.
I'm also on a lowish budget so the idea of a fixed rate and being able to spread that over the year appeals.
So, I'm sort of tempted by the fixed offer, even if it means paying a bit more for the lower summer use - Except, there's a £100 exit fee, which makes me think if it's such a good deal why do they need that.
This is with British Gas, is it worth shopping around?
Thoughts?

[rafletcher]

Well my fixed deal has just finished, and my supplier SO Energy aren’t offering any more at the moment, as fixing at the top of the market isn’t, in their opinion, sensible. I tend to agree with them.

[rogerzilla]

Fixed at less than a 30% increase is worth doing, according to the slightly camp M Lewis.

First bootful of logs now retrieved.  Did I ever mention that my parents bought the old Llamasoft registered office?  There was llama-related stuff everywhere.

[rogerzilla]

53% increase now forecast for Oct.

[Mr Larrington]

Just got an e-mail from EDF asking for meter readings in the next week or so.  Bollocksbollocksbollocks!  I'll have to attack the Horble Spiky Bush ov Doom that guards the gas meter cupboard 

[felstedrider]

Wholesale prices are now spiralling out of control.

The continent seem to be putting measures in place.   EDF has been entirely renationalised (it was always 80% Govt owned anyway).   Uniper have been bailed out by the German Govt to the tune of circa 10bn.   Gazprom Germania is now German state owned and has rebranded to remove all trace of the Gazprom name.

Gas flows into Europe continue to be squeezed.

UK policy appears to be persuading generation that was due to retire to stay on the bars this Winter.  Ofgem are busy sending letters to small suppliers telling them they don’t meet financial requirements that didn’t exist when they started up.