The Energy Crisis

[chelmsfordhammer91]

As someone who works in a complaints department for a financial services firm, most of that is correct (albeit not the approach I would take, and I'm not sure how different the Energy Ombudsman is to the Financial Ombudsman Service).

There is a fee charged by the ombudsman to the firm for taking complaints on, but just because a complainant uses their right to refer to the ombudsman, it is not guarenteed the ombudsman would agree to take the case on.

With close experience with the Financial Ombudsman, a whole swath of complaints without more substance than "I'm being mugged off" or "they changed my DD but changed it back after I called them" are unlikely to be taken on.

Always use your right to complain if there is (or you believe there is) a genuine service failing etc. The tone of that article makes it sound more about doing what you can to screw the firm over (which it is unlikely to do) rather than get yourself in the best position to not be racking up debt.

Raising complaints for the purpose of trying to cause a business disruption rarely has an impact. The firm I work for covers about a 70% market share of complaint handling for management companies, with about 35-40% of all complaints being upheld.

I would have thought the energy regulator wouldn't be fining firms for charging the price cap, but if there are direct refusals to reduce DD amounts without the firm providing some tangible evidence to support their decision, then that is more likely to get a word or two from them.

[bonzosbeard]

Just a mention about gas running out or 3 day weeks.

I haven't worked with gas for 20 years but when I did I knew that if gas supplies to a house ran out then every home had to be purged to reconnect appliances. Years ago I worked somewhere where the gas was accidentally turned off instead of lowered on the main I was working on.

This lowering was only done at 11pm when cooking and heating was being turned off for the night allowing the lower pressure.

A guy turned off wrong valve and the nearby town had to have every house visited next day to reconnect.

The man whose fault it was didn't get sack due to wife suffering at the time to cancer.

Electricity can go off but I'm sure they cannot do it with gas or there will be a masive standing charge to put us all back on.

[alf git]

Just a mention about gas running out or 3 day weeks.

I haven't worked with gas for 20 years but when I did I knew that if gas supplies to a house ran out then every home had to be purged to reconnect appliances.

Purge and relight

It's also potentially dangerous. Modern appliances have a thermocouple which means they won't pass gas without the presence of a flame. Not all properties have modern appliances. Imagine if the supply runs out and someone goes to bed without turning their hob off

[EvilC]

AG clearly planning on racking up the overtime in Q1 by pretending it isn’t just a case of turning it off and back on again. What a pro.

[alf git]

AG clearly planning on racking up the overtime in Q1 by pretending it isn’t just a case of turning it off and back on again. What a pro.

That and the extra bonus i get for warrant work.
I'm going to be turning my thermostat up to 22 this winter

[WestcliffHammer]

Worrying
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... gency-plan

[bonzosbeard]

Worrying
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... gency-plan

Hope it's in a Monday as telly is rubbish that night.

[Tenbury]

And this, my friends, is the 6th richest economy in the world....

[sendô]

Remember that all of this is happening under a Conservative government, with no way to blame the working classes for these issues, though I don't doubt the Tory press will try and find a way.

[delbert]

Remember that all of this is happening under a Conservative government, with no way to blame the working classes for these issues, though I don't doubt the Tory press will try and find a way.

Tory press? The newspapers that only Tories read anyway are hardly going to be spreading much in the way of propaganda outside their own readership, their influence is minimal at best.
It will be the blameless of all classes picking up the tab for this mess though. So the government give us all £400 to help offset our bills, that £400 then goes straight to the same companies that are charging us ridiculous amounts for energy? Whilst it saves us having to give £400 of our own cash over to them there is something fundamentally wrong with this..........

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

So are we all still feeling the love for Ukraine? Will we come November?

[-DL-]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but could someone explain to me why these worldwide high energy wholesale prices would have been different under another government?

Can someone also explain to me why the energy suppliers are at fault for this?

Is the price for wholesale energy dictated by the producers, such as BP, Shell, etc, or is caused by market forces - and is it the case that the producers are making these large profits due to these market forces, and they have no ultimate control over what the price is on the world markets?

I frequently see 'it's The Tories fault', but why is it? The only thing I see that a government can do is to either totally nationalise the gas and electric industries, at a cost of billions, and take the profit hit at a cost of billions, or offer more financial support to those that are most vulnerable.

I now await the obligatory posts citing covid loans, Test & Trace, etc...

[smuts]

So are we all still feeling the love for Ukraine? Will we come November?

So we should all go and welcome Putin into the fold? Turn a blind eye in a few years when he fancies invading another nation?

The energy prices were going up before Ukraine ever started with blame being put on opening back up, harsh European winter 2020 and no wind summer 2021.

[chelmsfordhammer91]

My (limited) understanding is that oil prices although impacted by supply and demand, are generally dictated by the futures market.

OPEC run as a cartel to control production rates, which then Shell/BP etc. fulfill. Then, Shell et al can either choose to sell what they have produced at the current rate, or if they believe the price will increase enough in the future to outweigh storage costs etc., they can withold all or part of what they have produced.

I'm talking mostly oil/fuel based, I'm not sure how it works with utility providers but if they have been running at a loss for years then it's no surprise that the actual market rate would be a shock to most.

I could be completely wrong, but that is what I understand from a 'how the investment markets work' point of view.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

So we should all go and welcome Putin into the fold? Turn a blind eye in a few years when he fancies invading another nation?

Nope but it's a big factor in all this. Just wondering at what point self preservation overtakes sentiment and support

[alf git]

So are we all still feeling the love for Ukraine? Will we come November?

It's what Putin is counting on.
Who's going to fold first?

[EvilC]

My (limited) understanding is that oil prices although impacted by supply and demand, are generally dictated by the futures market.

OPEC run as a cartel to control production rates, which then Shell/BP etc. fulfill. Then, Shell et al can either choose to sell what they have produced at the current rate, or if they believe the price will increase enough in the future to outweigh storage costs etc., they can withold all or part of what they have produced.

I'm talking mostly oil/fuel based, I'm not sure how it works with utility providers but if they have been running at a loss for years then it's no surprise that the actual market rate would be a shock to most.

I could be completely wrong, but that is what I understand from a 'how the investment markets work' point of view.

The futures market is a reflection of forecast supply and demand.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

It's what Putin is counting on.
Who's going to fold first?

Exactly plus we've now got Eurovision

[mumbles87]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but could someone explain to me why these worldwide high energy wholesale prices would have been different under another government?

Can someone also explain to me why the energy suppliers are at fault for this?

Is the price for wholesale energy dictated by the producers, such as BP, Shell, etc, or is caused by market forces - and is it the case that the producers are making these large profits due to these market forces, and they have no ultimate control over what the price is on the world markets?

I frequently see 'it's The Tories fault', but why is it? The only thing I see that a government can do is to either totally nationalise the gas and electric industries, at a cost of billions, and take the profit hit at a cost of billions, or offer more financial support to those that are most vulnerable.

I now await the obligatory posts citing covid loans, Test & Trace, etc...

its the failure to act from the tories as normal thats accelerated a lot of the problem. Couple that to the lack of empathy for the general public in this situation.

As EvilC has said ofgem isnt fit for purpose, whos fault is that? after 12 years of tories in power it can only be the tories fault no?

Labour share the blame for holding back nuclear so that arent blameless at all btw.

we are in a situation now where people are struggling and its only getting worse. More help is needed but its the closed shop now of "cant help sorry its the next guys problem" rather than accepting that this is actually a crisis and doing something about it. the £400 for everyone wasn't enough at the time and now it is going to be like throwing a deck chair off the titanic.

we understand that wholesale costs have risen but the support from gov needs to rise during these times to protect people from this. Ofgem have decided oh we will now change your bill every 3 months not every 6 .. claiming it will help pass on savings but lets face it its to pass on more costs sooner.

Ill hit the bingo with test and trace plus covid loans for a full house because its spot on. as martin lewis has said this issue is becoming pandemic like. Everyone needs help and this is what governments are for in this situation. to help. they found the money during covid and will just have to find again. problem is with the tories the money they find seems to always find a way into helping one of their friends who have a company rather than the best company for the job. thats the issue and why everyone gets angry.

record profits for oil companies who need taxing to help pay for half this crisis. however apparently taxing them is a dirty word because we dont want them angry and refusing to invest in things...

its disgusting to see heads buried in the sand over this issue .. its almost like the government only want to be in power for what suits them and not do the actual job when it gets a bit rough.

[EvilC]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but could someone explain to me why these worldwide high energy wholesale prices would have been different under another government?

Can someone also explain to me why the energy suppliers are at fault for this?

Is the price for wholesale energy dictated by the producers, such as BP, Shell, etc, or is caused by market forces - and is it the case that the producers are making these large profits due to these market forces, and they have no ultimate control over what the price is on the world markets?

I frequently see 'it's The Tories fault', but why is it? The only thing I see that a government can do is to either totally nationalise the gas and electric industries, at a cost of billions, and take the profit hit at a cost of billions, or offer more financial support to those that are most vulnerable.

I now await the obligatory posts citing covid loans, Test & Trace, etc...

The government is at fault for a lack of joined up strategy. Having this would have provided partial mitigation. They were told a decade ago that Rough storage needed replacing. They did nothing. It would not have made a huge difference, but it would have made a difference. The new nukes have been discussed forever, the only one on the horizon is Hinkley Point C.

The big fault was to allow any Tom, Dick or Harry to set up a supply company and then being shocked when they go bust, leaving Joe Public to pick up the tab. How many billion are we in for on Bulb alone?

If BP and Shell could dictate prices then they would never have been low. They’d be high all the time.

It isn’t their fault, but we’ve been woefully lacking in this area for decades. The government has been desperate to paint itself as wanting to escape from the EU yoke, they might have a better case for that if they demonstrated themselves capable of running anything more sophisticated than a whelk stall in the process.