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Gas and Electricity Prices

Let’s face it, these smaller providers shouldn’t be in existence, and won’t be for much longer. They’ve proven they can’t operate in global energy markets, they simply don’t have the balance sheets to make a wrong call. The big players won’t want the bankrupt supplier customers in the short term. The price cap is below the current gas price. Why would they want more customers who are going to burn their finite hedged supply? The price cap is going to have to be increased / lifted until wholesale prices fall.

But now they're going to get bailed out anyway...either by taxpayers or bill payers...
 
When a current govt minister states "there is absolutely no question of xxxx" I start to get quite worried...
xxxx in this instance being the lights going out.

I've bought candles and a couple of gas bottles for the BBQ...

Indeed. At this rate I’m going to have to lock up the log sheds! I can see fuel theft increasing this winter. Those with oil tanks need to be particularly vigilant. When the oil price was last high, I heard of organised low life using sharpened scaffold poles to puncture oil tanks and drain. As well as the stolen oil, you need a new bunded tank.
 
Meanwhile HS2 goes on with nobody actually all that bothered about where our energy supply might be wanting.

It's too embarrassing for words.
 
According to Sky 1 in 4 UK households are with un-hedged supply companies that could go under.
 
That’s got to be culled, surely?!

Well, apparently it was a good idea to build a whole new network of transport infrastructure to get people to go where they need to be going a tad more conveniently but I get the impression that not a lot of people really thought it through all that well.

Governments. Couldn't organise the proverbial.
 
According to Sky 1 in 4 UK households are with un-hedged supply companies that could go under.

Jesus. This reminds me of the financial crisis when folks were chasing higher interest rates from Icelandic banks without understanding the risks. They got bailed out anyway by UK taxpayers, crazy!
 
When a current govt minister states "there is absolutely no question of xxxx" I start to get quite worried...
xxxx in this instance being the lights going out.

I've bought candles and a couple of gas bottles for the BBQ...

I couldn't help feeling that the minister missed the ****ing point. I don't think people are concerned that the gas will run out as much as they are concerned that they won't be able to afford it.
 
I naively thought that energy retailers followed a business model in which they would buy forward contracts for supply based on the estimates of how much energy their customers would use during the length of their contract. It never occurred to me that a model of buying at a variable price and selling at a fixed price could be a thing.
 
The utility companies have been making huge profits in the decades since privatisation - why haven’t they saved some of their bounty for a rainy day such as now which given the nature of the gas market this was always going to happen.

Alternatively, and as the government now admits that they are of national importance, why not let them go bust and then take them back into public ownership (where they belong anyway) and with the added bonus of getting them at a knock down price.
 
Various companies/countries own the gas fields and international distribution. Somebody owns the national gas distribution network. All of these gas retailers are just middlemen who do nothing useful.
 
Trouble is that is how I would characterise the politicians who would control any nationalised industry!
There's no reason for politicians to be directly in charge of nationalised industries. A variety of corporate structures are available to allow them to operate at arms' length from government. We just need the political will.

How do you feel about Network Rail, for instance?
 
Which were eventually reimbursed in full by either the Island authorities or their banks.

That’s great, however, the UK govt would not have known this would be the case at the time. IIRC UK councils shoved circa £1BN of funds into them.

Back to energy, why should failed businesses be bailed out and by whom? As I’ve said, they’ve demonstrated they don’t have the balance sheets or resilience to operate when they make a bad call in a global market. They took a punt and got it wrong.
 
There is a storm brewing, and I hope it seriously damages the Tories; huge hikes in energy bills, tax hikes and Universal Credit cuts are all going to align and cause many, many people some serious problems. Coupled with issues such as pressure on food supplies, small businesses folding due to excessive Brexit red tape; something is going to give, and I don't think we're going to be waiting long. Pitchforks at the ready.
 


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