Average U.K. Energy Bills Could Hit £3,000 a Year

2 min read

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has catapulted the price of gas and oil upwards to record levels with households warned that they could soon be paying more than £3,000-a-year to heat their homes. Maybe it’s time to rethink the fracking ban? MailOnline has more.

Today U.K. wholesale gas prices – the price paid by energy companies who serve British households – briefly topped £4.50 per therm – up from £2.50 yesterday morning. It then settled at around £4.

Experts say that if it remains at this price, household gas bills for millions of Britons already squeezed by the cost of living crisis will be in excess of £280-a-month or through £3,000-a-year by the autumn.

The Government’s price cap will go up by £693 on April 1st to £1,970 – but analysts from Cornwall Insight are forecasting an Autumn price cap at £2,497 a year versus – a further rise of £500 in October – even before today’s record price.

The cost of a barrel briefly hit $113-a-barrel today before settling at $111 this morning, the highest price for more than seven years that is expected to force the price of petrol and diesel over £2-a-litre.

The rising cost of buying oil and gas is good news for Putin as it was revealed the West is still paying Russia more than $1 billion-a-day for fossil fuels, an amount that is only going to rise when Europe is so reliant on their supplies.

Russia can use this daily cash injection to subsidise the $15 billion-a-day invasion of Ukraine as his troops remain bogged down after hitting fierce resistance from Volodymyr Zelensky’s heroes.

Millions of households have this week received details of eye-watering energy bill hikes as suppliers prepare to raise charges next month.

Experts are urging customers to keep an eye out for competitive fixed deals amid fears the Russian invasion of Ukraine could drive prices higher.

Last month, energy watchdog Ofgem revealed plans to hike its price cap by 54% for 22 million families on standard tariffs from April 1st. This will push up the cost of the average household bill by £693 to £1,977 a year.

Worth reading in full.

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110 Comments
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Lea
Lea
4 years ago

Once again, this is a war on the people, the masses, like covid is also. Putin is merely following orders. This is all part of the grotesque reset. Putin is not fighting against the NWO as some would like to have us believe. He is a part of the war on humanity.

THE REAL NORMAL PODCAST
THE REAL NORMAL PODCAST
4 years ago

🚨INSIDE UKRAINE🚨 with Tanya Shelepko
We interview Tanya, an English teacher and theatre director as she navigates life through war torn #Kyiv.
iTunes👉 https://tinyurl.com/ep40iTunes
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Website👉 https://therealnormalpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1268768/10168863-ep-40-inside-ukraine-tanya-shelepko-interview

Tanya.jpg
imp66
imp66
4 years ago

Ain’t capitalism/ opportunism a wonderful thing?

CrouplessCoup
CrouplessCoup
4 years ago

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/impact-climate-change-global-gdp/

So if GDP contracts by that much, it means that the economy’s ability to service historically high levels of debt will diminish if not disappear? Is that the fear? (Not considering for now the plausibility of the WEF’s premise of 18% being wiped off GDP “if global temperatures rise by 3.2°C” by 2050 [sic!]).
Still not clear what’s *really* driving this carbon neutral hysteria.

oblong
oblong
4 years ago

I have terrible track record on financials but last year got lucky when I fixed supplies with SSE. Too big to fail I hope.

Think Harder
Think Harder
4 years ago

“Average U.K. Energy Bills Could Hit £3,000 a Year”Err is that unusual? If I add all my energy up it already exceeds that! When we own nothing and have been moved into our pods in the city, the space freed by the destruction of small business, and work from home pod. The energy consumption will half. You won’t be able to travel far because you’ll need an electric vehicle and your social credit score will take years to save enough to visit to the countryside where it’s hard to track you. If you go without a high enough score your digital pound won’t work – oh dear, now you can walk home sleeping rough.

And … you will be happy apparently!

MikeHaseler
MikeHaseler
4 years ago

Just seen that RT has been taken off the air:
https://gettr.com/post/pxseuwa320

harrystillgood
harrystillgood
4 years ago

What makes me laugh about the weak British public, especially on these forums, is there is no talk of rebellion. How far will the people let this go before rebelling. Very very far. Until then maybe let’s stop whining because it on us totally. Either put up or shut up.

D B
D B
4 years ago
Reply to  harrystillgood

What do you propose? Other than “rebellion”

Grumman
Grumman
4 years ago
Reply to  D B

Assassination…one or two getting the chop usually enough…

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  harrystillgood

Did someone mention British public and rebellion?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1396702710431424513

rtj1211
rtj1211
4 years ago

These are spot prices, presumably, not the terms of stable long-term contracts.

If your supplier has been buying gas on the spot market, they are not fit and proper people to be running your utility.

Major utilities should have long-term stable contracts with stable suppliers of sufficient financial standing that they will not go bust.

We have just been informed by our supplier that prices will rise by inflation plus a small percentage more. It’s nowhere near a 60% rise. Nowhere near.

D B
D B
4 years ago
Reply to  rtj1211

The image reflects the change between my Gas and Electric based on my average usage over a winter month.

Gas&Lec.jpg
Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
4 years ago
Reply to  rtj1211

1.5 million homes in the UK, including ours, use oil for heating, the oil price is unregulated and unstabilised and goes up and down in step with the oil market. Oil is now at a near record 85p a litre, a huge impact for the millions of rural homes who rely on oil.

harrystillgood
harrystillgood
4 years ago

Is it stretching facts too much to blame Russia for the price of gas?

Some might find tis a bizarre question to ask – Russia invades, supply shock, price rise. Simples right?

But what about the demand side? There are always 2 sides to every contract. Just like in the so called financial crisis in 2008, there was a bank and a homeowner on each side of the mortgage contract. But only the banks got blamed.

The more that time passes, in a world of people self hypnotised by ignorance and selfishness, the more the West and Russia move toward the centre as equally corrupt.

And like they say, once the people have become corrupt, the worst will rise to the top. There’s no conspiracy as Mr D. believes. Neither is it that our leaders are useless as claims Mr. Young.

It is we, the people, who are fully complicit. In our utter ignorance and selfishness.

JIGR1969
JIGR1969
4 years ago

Just looking at electricity prices over the years for 2nd March (or the first Tuesday in March), I get the following:

2018 @ 08:00am £38 – 42GW
2019 @ 08:00am £38 – 38GW
2020 @ 08:00am £56 – 39GW
2021 @ 08:00am £90 – 35GW
2022 @ 08:00am £348 – 38GW

In 3 years the price of electricity generation has gone up by over 1,000%. I’ve included usage to demonstrate that supply and demand do not equate to the significant, rise in prices.

A very good website that tracks energy prices and usage etc.
https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/dashboard?_k=wxknz4

Dale
Dale
4 years ago

Westerners somehow imagine they’re bringing Putin to heel in ways that don’t blow back – hard.

A Sceptic
A Sceptic
4 years ago

It’s not down to Russia, though that won’t help.

A year ago, I was paying £60 pm fir gas and electric on my fixed rate. That ended in August. The best deal I could get was £98pm. My supplier then went bust, I was moved to another.
They have just told me my bill will be going up by £1000 per year, I expect my new direct debit to be £180pm in April. So my energy will have tripled in under 12 months. That’s not down to Russia, most of it is due to government idiocy.

Anyway, I am resolutely not paying this so have made the decision to switch the heating off between 7am and 5pm, and once I have finished toiling in my office garnett, I sit on my sofa in front of my log burner for the afternoon. Burning wood is cheaper than gas now.

Just ordered a new sack of flour ahead of the wheat crisis, rice too and stocking up on dry goods. Also keeping more cash in the house in view of the forthcoming apolocalypse. Will I need to sleep at my allotment to protect my vegetables, do you think?

D B
D B
4 years ago
Reply to  A Sceptic

They’ll get you with the “standing charges”

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  D B

Indeed, mine are rocketing up too. I guess it makes sense given that they have to pay unreliable sources for when they’re not producing power.

D B
D B
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Apparently it covers costs associated servicing you with your account, green initiatives and doing meter readings.

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  D B

A good way to get electricity on the cheap would be to run a cable from Zahawi’s horses’ stables to your own house.

thief.jpg
X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Yeah, and you’d still probably need a step-down transformer! 🙂

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  D B

Our electricity bills here in Finland began to include a new ‘transfer charge’ which is something you pay whether you use any electricity or not.

JohnK
JohnK
4 years ago
Reply to  D B

Spot on. My electric standing charge will rise by 79.71% on April Fools day.

ImpObs
ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  A Sceptic

Burning wood is cheaper than gas now.

Only if you have access to “free” wood, a cube of hardwood is ~£130, before we switched to oil I was processing our own wood (about 6 weeks work per year) we went through ~40 cube per year of softwood, which would be about 20 cube hardwood or £2600 – oil bill at todays price £1,763.80 p.a. so oil is still cheaper without the sweat equity!

I put free in inverted commas because getting it from the source to your log burner is far from free.

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

Here’s a couple of silly videos I made where we collect our own firewood:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRrwuQA-7QA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_l2wjokX2Y

We chuck in a box, maybe 30 logs, into the fireplace roughly once a day in winter, a comfy 24 Centigrade inside whilst minus 25 Centigrade outside. Probably provides 90% of the heating in our house – which is well insulated and has triple glazing. The rest of the heating is by electric radiators which hardly ever come on (thermostats set to 20C) and underfloor heating in the bathroom and other toilet.
Electricity bill around £170/month.

ImpObs
ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

We can’t just walk into a random woodland with a chainsaw here LOL

you mite want to spend 20 mins with someone trained in chainsaw use for some instruction too, get used to putting the chain break on unless you’re cutting, every time, walking about without the break on whilst it’s running is asking for it, take bigger gobs, more controlled cuts, your vid scared me tbh!

MikeHaseler
MikeHaseler
4 years ago

The cost of energy contains massive hidden green taxes … we can easily reduce the price of energy if we just scrap these green taxes.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  MikeHaseler

The cost of energy contains massive hidden subsidies to land holders of windy/sunny land.

prick
prick
4 years ago

O well best unblock the fireplace. Anyone know a good chimney sweep? Yours,Mr D V Dyke

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  prick

You could burn discarded face masks! Plenty of ’em!!

JXB
JXB
4 years ago

So, those sanction on top of the climate change lunacy are hurting whom exactly – not the political filth, as with CoVid regs, but ordinary folk.

i am still not seeing the difference, other than geographic, between Trudeau and Putin.

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago
Reply to  JXB

Really? Who would you put your money on in a fight? Of any description.

BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
4 years ago

Within these islands and shores we have coal, gas and oil – no longer sufficiently utilised. We also used to have a first-rate nuclear industry, now creaking at the seams… And yet, somehow, the most ignorant of people have been divested with the responsibility for formulating national energy policies and who are completely unable to comprehend that immature renewable technologies can nowhere near meet this nation’s energy needs.

This has been coming and those responsible for this catastrophe must be removed and a proper, grown-up energy policy must be produced and based upon all the resources available to us. Wind turbines are not going to solve the problem, nor are solar panels, and neither are heat pumps…

Get fracking, get digging, get pumping, and stop listening to eco-zealots. Phase in reliable and realistic alternative energy sources when they are up to the job.

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago

Hunterston B was creaking at the seams 25 years ago when I last contracted there, quite literally – the buildings were run down, full of cracks, subsidence, and leaks. Half the light bulbs were out at any given time.

And that was before it lost all power – and cooling – for hours in 1998. I was in equal parts astonished and horrified that it managed to puff and wheeze on until 2022.

With its sister plant Hinkley Point B finally being shut down later this year, the only thing that’s going to keep the lights and heat on is gas, and we’ll need to build a damn site more of it to tide us over until we grow up, sort ourselves out, and build a proper new generation of nuclear.

tom171uk
tom171uk
4 years ago

Let’s not be fooled into thinking that this is due to the invasion of Ukraine, though that has exacerbated the problem. The deep rooted causes are home grown, for example

Closing down coal production
Banning fracking
Not exploiting new North Sea oil and gas fields
Failing to invest in nuclear energy
Failing to invest in hydro-electric energy
Pursuing a pointless virtue signaling “net zero” policy
Banning future production of petrol and diesel cars rather than encouraging the automotive industry to develop affordable and practical carbon capture technology

Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

Precisely. But the modern diesel engine couldn’t really get more efficient. It is a marvel.

And I would add investment in incinerators. Poland has amazing incinerators, they basically chuck everything in there, and get a lot of electricity.

BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
4 years ago

Where I live they are trying to build a power station using rubbish as the fuel, but the usual suspects are trying to block the plans.

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago

Just brand it a “thermal recycler”, job done.

John Dee
John Dee
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

You could always say it’ll be painted Green. Might just work.

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago

Solenoid rather than cam driven valves and “5 stroke” could eke out a little more. But nobody is going to be sinking investment into internal combustion now that electric (largely charged by combustion generators…) has been chosen as the winner.

JIGR1969
JIGR1969
4 years ago

You should look at opposed-piston engines, they are more economic than four-cylinder diesel engines currently. Less moving parts, more efficient, a number of companies are investigating and test engines have been built. It’s only a matter of time that they’ll be used, especially when they realise that electric cars are not the future.

cornubian
cornubian
4 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

You say a Net Zero carbon policy is pointless, which I agree with, but then say cars need to be fitted with carbon capture technology.

Make your mind up.

Either the carbon-bad narrative is a total fraud, or it isnt.

NeilofWatford
NeilofWatford
4 years ago

I pray the silver lining is that this news kills Johnson’s carbon zero plan stone dead and we start fracking.

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago

Just now I saw a figure of 836,000 people have left Ukraine because of the war (‘refugees’). Population of Ukraine 44 million… so that’s around 1 person in 50?

D B
D B
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

1 in 50 always sounds so much higher than it is

Cristi.Neagu
Cristi.Neagu
4 years ago

Eco-nuts insist that the only way to lower energy prices is to switch over to renewables. But weirdly enough, despite constantly investing in more and more renewables over the past 10 years, energy prices have only been going up. How delusional can you possibly get?

Government advisors are pushing for a stop on all fossil fuel exploitation. They claim that the only way to lower prices is to stop exploiting local, cheap fuel and instead use expensive import fuel and exploit even more expensive and unreliable renewables. Again, how some people are buying this is beyond my comprehension.

There is no other way towards cheap energy right now other than fossil fuels. No other option. We must increase nuclear power production, but until more power plants come online, there simply is no replacement for fossil fuels. There is an obvious agenda at work.

Sinor
Sinor
4 years ago
Reply to  Cristi.Neagu

Just a quick thought on Offshore wind .The more reliant we become on it ,when blowing, would make it a strategic thing.I not want for a moment to suggest that as its offshore and in the sea a hostile power would target such in any conflict .A few commando types with some C4 could easily topple a load. This does assume that these windmills will have any real longevity stuck out in a stormy North Sea for a few years.

brachiopod
brachiopod
4 years ago
Reply to  Sinor

That’s one good thing about nuclear power, your neighbour won’t bomb them in a dispute.
On the other hand you might not want to be near one if you annoy the yanks half a planet away.

stewart
stewart
4 years ago

Maybe it’s time to rethink the EU and NATO expansion eastwards too.

fractaltrader
fractaltrader
4 years ago

I don’t like nit picking, but the opening paragraph says ‘Record Prices’, but the chart shows even higher prices just a few weeks ago!
Schoolboy error?

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  fractaltrader

European vs UK, perhaps. They buy from Russia, we supply about half our own needs and buy a lot from Norway so have maybe been slightly cushioned up to now.

Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Think we get max 4% of our gas from Russia?

GlassHalfFull
GlassHalfFull
4 years ago

The best course of action is to stop provoking Russia.

Consent to their demands for a neutral Ukraine which would end the conflict.

Consent to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

And the world could live in harmony and have reasonable priced fuel to keep everyone warm.

James Kreis
James Kreis
4 years ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

Agreed but the Yanks won’t let that happen. US foreign policy has always been the greatest threat to world peace. They are gangsters.

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  James Kreis

Yes. The US and it’s underlings don’t care about peace and getting along. The last thing they want is any competition. They do not want Russia to become a healthy/wealthy country.

America has only one aim – Full Spectrum Dominance.

Doom Slayer
Doom Slayer
4 years ago

I checked the heating oil prices this morning as we are low. F**k. Get pumping arabs.

D B
D B
4 years ago
Reply to  Doom Slayer

I pumped an arab once she was delightful.

ImpObs
ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  Doom Slayer

I’m scared to dip the tank tbh, that price chart is depressing.

ImpObs
ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

OMG just dipped the tank we need a refil
first quote for 1000ltrsfrom BoilerJuice £1018.56 😮
HomefuelsDirect £881.90

I need a sit down

MrTea
MrTea
4 years ago

All this can be solved if only Putin would up the donation to the Tory party?

JXB
JXB
4 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

Or if we donated the Tory Party to Putin.

Bella Donna
Bella Donna
4 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

LOL! There is some truth in your comment!

ImpObs
ImpObs
4 years ago

My Electric went from 14ppu to 24ppu, then I got an email from the electric company predicting a 3x rise from there. My heating oil went from ~£300 to fill a 1k tank, to ~£650 all this was before xmas, a direct result of money printing, and ill planning in the name of greenery.

But now we can blame Putin, yay.

Russia can use this daily cash injection to subsidise the $15

billion-a-day invasion of Ukraine as his troops remain bogged down after

hitting fierce resistance from Volodymyr Zelensky’s heroes.

The hold-up seems more to do with defenders blowing up bridges than anything else, plus the fact Putin has only committed ~30% of his forces, most of which seem to be ill trained conscripts armed with 1980-90’s technology, presumeably holding the rest back in reserve in case WWIII kicks off, looking at the current state of global affairs, that won’t happen until next winter. It doesn’t look avoidable given the current crop of world leaders all dangling from the puppet strings of the international banking cartel.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

You saw money-printing cheered in the D wail as it collapsed land affordability

It’s not a surprise (to any economist i.e. no-one the MSM have on) this inflation has emerged into the non-title part of the economy

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago

The fact that Premiere Johnson’s husband hasn’t already given the go-ahead to frack for victory suggests that this is a planned part of the New Normal, and the Reset is going Great.

And none of the likely leadership candidates or permitted opposition parties have a saner policy – indeed, most are worse. Vote Davos, get Davos.

Sinor
Sinor
4 years ago

But we will be the Saudi Arabia of wind says the Pig Dictator..Can anyone find his marbles ??

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  Sinor

10.21GW at the moment, very nearly enough to meet the average (but not the peak) demand of an electrified vehicle fleet. Maybe 5% of the Winter morning demand for 29 million electrically heated homes.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Sinor

So a dictatorial religiously crippled nuthouse who selectively hands out largesse that should belong to the people as a dividend in order to cling to power and second and only export after oil is terrorism.

Paul B
Paul B
4 years ago

Gah, at this rate I’m going to have to close the window!

I think it’ll be cheaper to work from the office next winter, I might even volunteer for Saturdays and Sundays (and take a sleeping bag in).

beakymitch
beakymitch
4 years ago
Reply to  Paul B

And family ?

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