Energy Crisis

[SueEllen]

Switching customers without consent - Omni Energy is switching customers who are heavy users to Scottish Power or Bulb to stay in business.

One issue is that it is against Ofgem's rules to switch customers without their consent, so Scottish Power and Bulb are cancelling the switches leaving customers with Omni Energy.


https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...xpress-consent
From the article -

A source familiar with Omni’s actions said that senior executives at the company had spent days switching hundreds of customers at a time, focusing on the highest energy users.


The source said the company hoped that by offloading the most burdensome customers it could ride out the gas price spike without collapsing. But they said Omni was deliberately not telling customers about the switch.

They also said Omni had turned off its customer helpline, making it harder for people to find out what was going on. When the Guardian called the number, an automated message said it was only fielding emergency calls.

Ofgem is understood to have intervened, ordering Omni to stop switching customers without their express consent.

[vetran]

Blimey, the Brexit fallout is worse than I thought:

2021-10-02 Dutch Greenhouses Go Dark As Energy Crisis Worsens; Food Inflation Fears Mount For Europe

And it's obviously all the fault of those damned Brexiters!

sadly they fell for a bait & switch by vlad the invader. Luckily we closed all our storage years ago so we are bent over the barrel already!

[SueEllen]

It's a bit like the Dutch Tulip Mania. Investors are buying up "paper gas" as there is little else to invest. It will crash back down.

Apparently Russia is going to increase supply...

[Paddy]

If gas prices don't reduce bills will be 30-50% higher next year.

All thanks to this: https://www.theguardian.com/business...ts-record-high
UK wholesale gas prices have hit fresh record highs, amid further warnings about the future of British energy-intensive industries and firms that supply households.

The wholesale gas price for day-ahead delivery rose above the £3 per therm level for the first time on Wednesday morning, hitting 355p at one point, even higher than the spike in demand for gas during February 2018’s “beast from the east” cold snap.

It's a bit like the Dutch Tulip Mania. Investors are buying up "paper gas" as there is little else to invest. It will crash back down.

[vetran]

Yeah mebbe.

sadly true, I currently work in a quango and the level of waste & stupidity is offensive.

[SueEllen]

If gas prices don't reduce bills will be 30-50% higher next year.

All thanks to this: https://www.theguardian.com/business...ts-record-high
UK wholesale gas prices have hit fresh record highs, amid further warnings about the future of British energy-intensive industries and firms that supply households.

The wholesale gas price for day-ahead delivery rose above the £3 per therm level for the first time on Wednesday morning, hitting 355p at one point, even higher than the spike in demand for gas during February 2018’s “beast from the east” cold snap.

[SueEllen]

And another one going-
https://www.theguardian.com/business...der-to-go-bust
The UK household electricity company Omni Energy has said it expects to become the 13th energy supplier to go bust this year, unless the gas price crisis eases before winter.

In an email to about 10,000 customers the company said: “The cost of wholesale energy is continuing to rise and without significant change in the wholesale cost of energy, or a government intervention, it is highly likely Omni Energy will cease trading before the end of November.” The company told customers that it would switch them to a new supplier unless they objected.

[d000hg]

It's one of those ideas like communism that may sound good in theory but doesn't take account of human nature.

Establish a monopoly and, as sure as God made little fishes, bolshy bastards in it will start throwing their weight around and striking!

Not only that, but the management will become lazy and complacent, and subject to all kinds of perverse political motives that have nothing to do with efficiency and in fact generally undermine it.

I'm not sure we've really seen rail and utility companies demonstrate this. On the other hand things like roads and the infrastructure behind utilities ARE effectively nationalised and/or sole supplier monoploy (highways agency, northern powergrid, OpenReach, etc) and seem to do no worse a job. I've found dealing with openreach and power-grid companies quite good.

[OwlHoot]

Blimey, the Brexit fallout is worse than I thought:

2021-10-02 Dutch Greenhouses Go Dark As Energy Crisis Worsens; Food Inflation Fears Mount For Europe

And it's obviously all the fault of those damned Brexiters!

[ladymuck]

It's one of those ideas like communism that may sound good in theory but doesn't take account of human nature.

Establish a monopoly and, as sure as God made little fishes, bolshy bastards in it will start throwing their weight around and striking!

Not only that, but the management will become lazy and complacent, and subject to all kinds of perverse political motives that have nothing to do with efficiency and in fact generally undermine it.

Yeah mebbe.