[Ash4781]

Does anyone know how fast gas and electricity prices have been rising? Going through newspaper articles seems to give around 20% a year for the past 5 years!

[catdog1121]

Ash4781, on 27 July 2011 - 02:00 PM, said:

Does anyone know how fast gas and electricity prices have been rising? Going through newspaper articles seems to give around 20% a year for the past 5 years!

Dont know the figure but it does seem like quite a lot, think they did come down at some point although this was not as well publicized as the rises

[FreeTrader]

Prices really started to take off in 2004. RPI measurements of electricity and gas:

Jan 1987 – Jan 2004: Electricity +32.1% Gas +31.1%

Jan 2004 – Jun 2011: Electricity +85.7% Gas +129.3%

[interestrateripoff]

FreeTrader, on 27 July 2011 - 02:48 PM, said:

Prices really started to take off in 2004. RPI measurements of electricity and gas:

Jan 1987 – Jan 2004: Electricity +32.1% Gas +31.1%

Jan 2004 – Jun 2011: Electricity +85.7% Gas +129.3%

The success of privatisation.

[Lagarde's Drift]

The end ot cheap oil. Get used to it.

[Superted187]

Gas and Oil are different things dude

[mightytharg]

Superted187, on 27 July 2011 - 04:19 PM, said:

Gas and Oil are different things dude

Dude, they make gas out of oil.

[GloomMonger]

mightytharg, on 27 July 2011 - 04:45 PM, said:

Dude, they make gas out of oil.

That's news to me

[yellerkat]

mightytharg, on 27 July 2011 - 04:45 PM, said:

Dude, they make gas out of oil.

GloomMonger, on 27 July 2011 - 05:09 PM, said:

That's news to me

And the other way round! Gas to Liquids.

[retz]

GloomMonger, on 27 July 2011 - 05:09 PM, said:

That's news to me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline

[Snugglybear]

The price of oil affects the price of gas because in Europe the two are linked.

BTW, have a look at this:
"Since the start of large scale extraction of natural gas from beneath the North Sea in the early 1970s, the gas price in the UK has been related to the cost of extracting gas from thousands of feet below the sea-bed and delivering it to homes in the UK. In the early days, because the body responsible for buying all gas from North Sea and selling it to customers was a government-owned monopoly (the Gas Council), the gas price was set centrally and, although cost reflective, could be used as a tool of social policy.

The creation of competition in the 1990s revealed that the wholesale market was oversupplied and the wholesale gas price collapsed. Domestic customers saw the benefit of this low wholesale gas price when gas supply was open to full competition in the latter half of the 1990s, and households saw their gas price fall steadily until 2000.

The completion of the gas pipeline between England and continental Europe (which has a higher gas price) saw large quantities of gas flow out from the UK to the continent. This had the effect of reducing the North Sea of gas more quickly and bringing the UK gas price into line with that of continental Europe. With UK gas reserves now rapidly depleting, the UK will soon be importing the majority of the gas we need, and as a result our gas price will be determined by the European gas price. The European gas price is, in turn, linked to the price of oil – because most wholesale gas imports to Europe have their gas price indexed to the global price of oil."

[ChumpusRex]

People's memories are short.

I recently found some old electricity and gas bills from the early-mid 80s. Up until about 3 years ago, energy was more expensive in the 80s (not inflation corrected) than in the 2000s.

Privatisation of the North Sea gas/oil was spectacularly successful, in that production was so aggressive that prices collapsed to previously inconceivably low levels. It was one of the reasons why new nuclear power and new hydro electricity (a major hydro plant was planned for exmoor) was abandoned in the UK in the 90s. Gas was virtually free, and no other fuel could compete.

Now that the North Sea is depleting, we are having to pay much higher prices to extract what's left, or import it via thousands of miles of pipe through politically and environmentally unstable places. It's been obvious since about 2004, that the era of cheap energy in the UK was over, and that prices were going to rise dramatically. In 2004, I predicted an average of 20-30% p.a. price rises for gas thereafter. I was laughed at by my friends and colleagues and even at meeting of the residents association for the block of flats where I lived (the 'communal areas' electricity bill was about £25k per year, and I warned at the meeting that they urgently needed to address electrical energy efficiency - they did see the light in the end, and began addressing the number of lights left on, installing timers and motion detectors, etc. after bills started to jump). In actuality, I was wrong, in that I had overestimated the price rises - but not by much.

[Ash4781]

Some interesting replies. I have been looking at the capped energy tariffs and they are priced at around a 30% premium.

[pie-eater]

Ash4781, on 27 July 2011 - 06:38 PM, said:

Some interesting replies. I have been looking at the capped energy tariffs and they are priced at around a 30% premium.

I have just capped mine for 3 years and it works out at a fiver per month more than I was paying. My old company have just announced an increase in both gas and leccy, so my timing was good for once.

This post has been edited by pie-eater: 27 July 2011 - 06:54 PM

[winkie]

Ash4781, on 27 July 2011 - 06:38 PM, said:

Some interesting replies. I have been looking at the capped energy tariffs and they are priced at around a 30% premium.

...plus an exit penalty for each fuel.....the on-line duel fuel, pay by dd, no posted bills are the best buys at the moment...not a fixed price, I did look into it about three months ago as was considering a fixed/capped, but instead I am looking to save money by trying to cut down and being more energy efficient this winter...30% saving in fuel would be nice....shame the first units you use are the most expensive....I think ofgem should look at why the price of all units can't be the same with no standing charges, it would encourage more to try to save wasting fuel unnecessary ...the energy companies will say it is more to pay for supplying the fuel to the property, but that is just an excuse they could if they wanted change this, pressure should be put on them to do so imo.

This post has been edited by winkie: 27 July 2011 - 06:55 PM