Households delaying the switch to heat pumps risk a £2,000 spike in energy bills as the shift to Net Zero drives an exodus from the gas network. The Telegraphhas the details.
But with heat pump numbers forecast to rise, the energy watchdog Ofgem has predicted the bills paid by those who stick with their gas boilers risk spiralling.
This is because the cost of maintaining the gas network’s 174,000 miles of pipes and pumps will be spread across ever-fewer customers.
According to Ofgem’s modelling, charges for those who stick with gas will rise relatively slowly through the 2020s and 2030s but then jump tenfold in the space of a few years during the 2040s, to at least £2,000 per year and likely continue to rise.
That compares to an average of £170 paid per year in charges by the 23 million households with gas boilers today.
The surge in bills will take off when the number of people ditching gas heating reaches a tipping point, according to documents published by Ofgem.
At that stage, gas network costs will become so high that they cause a stampede of disconnections. …
The average cost of installing an air source heat pump is about £13,000, according to data from industry standards body MCS. …
Alongside the issue of gas network charges, Ofgem has also warned that there is currently no plan for the physical shutdown and decommissioning of the gas distribution networks themselves. …
Ofgem has not yet estimated the cost of doing this. But a separate study published by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) last year found it could cost up to £74 billion, about £2,600 per household.
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