97 Comments

1. You have more paitiance tham me, unpicking that lot! What to do about it all?

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2. Great analysis, Jit.

   Given that Farage may be correct in thinking that this is the new Brexit, that it is shaping up to be the great dividing line in UK politics ahead of the next general election, what are mainstream media journalists doing? Why does it take Jit at Cliscep to delve into the murky waters of this vitally important issue?

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3. It’s a topic on which,

   David Turver does a pretty good job HERE.
   And, for those who can access it, Tilak Doshi HERE.
   And Kathryn Porter HERE.

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4. Robin, those are excellent and very useful summaries – thank you for the links. The issue remains – why aren’t mainstream media journalists writing about this stuff in large-circulation newspapers and on their websites? If they’re too lazy to do their own research, there are now places where they can lift the information from (such as Jit’s piece or the works to which you have provided links).

   Let’s hope they wake up and start taking this issue as seriously as it deserves before very much longer. Official misinformation needs to be called out – loud and clear – for what it is.

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5. Imagine showing this detail to MiniBrain…………the blank Rabbit in Headlights look, then the messiah smirk as he explains that “it is complicated and beyond the understanding of lesser beings”. The whole thing is obfuscation and double talk- designed so that even the operators do not fully understand it and hence we go to the usual default position of “it ain’t broke, so don’t fix it”.

   However, credit where credit’s due, if you are going to hide the truth, hide it behind meaningless acronyms and corruption.

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6. I reckon Miliband is a secret member of the The Magic Circle – About – The Magic Circle

   “The art of magic – Founded in 1905, the purpose of The Magic Circle is to promote and advance the art of magic.

   Magicians have to prove their skill to gain entry and give their word to abide by our Latin motto (Indocilis privata loqui) which translates as “not apt to disclose secrets”.”

   That’s why he can never give away how his NZ trick will work 🙂

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7. The latest update from Ed Hoskins seems relevant here:

   https://edmhdotme.wpcomstaging.com/the-myth-of-cheap-renewables/

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8. Jit, as an engineer I was struck by the ballpark figures you gave for the Transmission System (£48) and Distribution System (£120).

   Travelling around the country I see the Transmission system being worked on. [I won’t call it “upgraded” because I’m not convinced that is an appropriate descriptor.] However, I see very little evidence of the Distribution System being worked on, and yet your figures suggest that there is two and a half times as much work on the Distribution System than on the Transmission System.

   Do other Clisceppers see evidence of lots of work on the Distribution System? Regards, John C.

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9. From the government’s own website:

   https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-planning-and-infrastructure-bill/factsheet-bill-discounts-for-transmission-network-infrastructure

   …Constraint costs occur when there is insufficient capacity to transmit power to electricity users and generators are paid to turn down. This cost is ultimately paid for by bill payers, so a reduction in constraint costs could lead to cheaper bills in the future across Great Britain. Previous analysis by the National Grid Electricity System Operator, carried out under the previous government, indicates that, if delays to network build persist, annual constraint costs could rise from around £1.4 billion per year in 2023 to around £8 billion per year in the late 2020s. This could add around £80 per year to household electricity bills.…

   And a rather dubious conclusion:

   …The measures included within the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will enable the establishment of a Bill Discount Scheme through regulations, which has the potential to improve community acceptability of new transmission infrastructure. This scheme is vital to the delivery of clean power by 2030 and the government’s growth mission, where boosted acceptability can help mitigate delays for several infrastructure development projects, due to take place in the mid-2020s to early 2030s. The prompt delivery of this pipeline of projects could secure emissions savings, reduce the impact of network constraint costs, and bring down energy costs for the whole of Great Britain.

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10. D

    o

    w

    n

    with acronyms

    designed

    to obscure

    and mystify.

    H/t Alan Sohal and George Orwell.

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11. I think the constraint payments are part of the balancing system. This comes from slide 110 of this NESO deck.

    

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12. And this is rather useful, from Paul Homewood:

    Renewable Subsidies Database

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13. Thanks are due to John Cullen for that one, it seems!

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14. Possibly made this point on here before….but Red Diesel is currently around 72p per litre and has an energy density of 10.4kWh per litre. A 5 kW generator at 80% load (4kW) will use about 1 litre per hour thus producing 4kWh for 72p = 18p per kWh. Current mains electricity price is 28p per kWh. it is possible to generate electricity on a micro scale for 2/3rds the price of mass production.

    We are being royally shafted.

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15. Here’s a curious thing. After months of low levels of sun and wind, high levels of imports through the interconnectors, and the price of electricity regularly over £100 per MWh, right now the situation is very different.

    Right now the price is negative, at -£8.24 per MWh. Renewables are providing 60% of our electricity, but net imports are at 12.9% and gas is at 12.1%.

    At face value, Miliband et al might argue that this makes their case about renewables being cheap (it doesn’t, it just confirms that their marginal costs are low – it’s whole system costs that matter). Yet if gas is responsible, as they wrongly claim, for high electricity prices, because it sets the price whenever it is generating electricity, how can this be? If gas always sets the price when it’s called upon to generate electricity, rather on a large or a small scale, the price should be fairly consistent. But it isn’t – it’s all over the place, and that is purely because of the unreliability and unpredictability of renewables.

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16. Thank you Mark. That is an interesting observation. Demand is low because of the day of the week and the weather. But if the price is negative… why would gas generators stay online, knowing that they will make a loss (there is fuel cost to pay).

    I wonder whether this is because they are getting paid from another pot for grid stabilisation? Is it necessary to have gas going at all times, just for that purpose?

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17. Of course the wind farms etc bidding negative are still getting the top up to their CfDs.

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18. And it didn’t last long. The price is now £59.82 per MWh, gas is supplying 20.2%, renewables have dropped to 48.5%, and interconnectors have sneaked up to 13.5%.

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19. This morning the interconnectors are supplying the UK with more electricity than the UK’s entire fleet of on- and off-shore wind turbines. And the price is back up to £92.17 per MWh.

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20. Why Are UK Electricity Prices So High? (Part 1)

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21. “Household energy bills to rise under net zero grid overhaul

    Network charges face a sharp increase under plan unveiled by regulator”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/30/household-energy-bills-to-rise-under-net-zero-grid-overhaul/

    Household energy bills will rise to pay for a net zero upgrade of Britain’s regional power grids, Ofgem has announced.

    The energy regulator on Wednesday published plans for a massive expansion of the local distribution networks that deliver power the last few miles from the energy grid to homes and businesses.

    The plans, to be undertaken between 2028-33, will be paid for by households through extra levies on their bills.

    It means sharp increases in the average network charges that every home pays. These charges have already risen from £238 in 2019 to £372 today.

    Steve McMahon, Ofgem director for network price controls, said: “If you look at the electricity system as a whole, we’ll need hundreds of billions of pounds in investment to build the capabilities needed to run a clean power system and decarbonise the economy.”...

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22. “Net zero subsidies cost British households £280 a year

    Levies are a key factor in sky-high electricity prices, says Renewable Energy Foundation”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/02/net-zero-subsidies-costing-uk-households-280-a-year/

    Britain’s green energy subsidies have added an estimated £280 to households’ energy bills, research has found.

    Levies used to encourage construction of wind farms, solar parks and other renewables have added £25.8bn a year to energy bills paid by both households and industry, according to a study from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF).

    The charity said the cost of the subsidies were a key factor in the UK’s sky-high electricity prices and blamed them for accelerating the decline of British industry.

    John Constable, REF’s director, said: “Renewables subsidies are now costing £25.8 bn per year – or over £900 per household annually – about one third of which, £280, will hit the average domestic electricity bill directly.

    “The remainder, £650, impacts households through general cost of living increases – as businesses like supermarkets recover their share of the green subsidy costs through increased prices.

    “This is intolerable. It simply can’t go on.”

    REF’s estimate of the direct cost of green energy subsidies on household bills is strikingly similar to the £300 that Labour promised bills would decrease by if the party came to power and moved Britain’s energy system to renewables.…

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23. It’s hard to know exactly what the costs associated with Net Zero are, even with the breakdown shown in the head post. We know that some of the Network Costs would not be there absent Net Zero, but how much is opaque.

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24. Above, at 7.32 am on 27th April, I asked whether people had observed expansion/renewal of their local electrical distribution systems because I had not seen any such activity. Perhaps the answer now comes from Paul Homewood’s NALOPKTsite:-

    Household Energy Bills To Pay For Regional Grid Net Zero Upgrades

    Regards, John C.

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25. Rewiring The UK–Mike Travers

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26. https://x.com/7Kiwi/status/1916156557823189446

    https://x.com/ajcdeane/status/1916045482230419719

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27. https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/pestons-power-trick

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28. “Why High Energy Prices are High and How to Reduce Them

    My evidence to the ESNZ Inquiry into the cost of energy”

    https://davidturver.substack.com/p/why-energy-prices-high-how-reduce-them-esnz-cost-of-energy

    …In summary, the UK’s high energy prices represent an existential threat to the economy. Before making recommendations on how to reduce energy bills, you need to correctly diagnose the problem and then select actions that will directly cut the costs of energy, not simply change the pocket that the bills are paid from.

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29. Net Zero Watch have made a factsheet for their version of this calculation.

    LINK.

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30. “Net zero will not bring electricity prices down, says British Gas boss

    Energy giant’s owner casts doubt on Labour’s promise to lower household energy bills”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/119ccb26dc633fd6

    Britain’s shift to a net zero power grid will not bring down electricity prices down for families, the boss of British Gas has said.

    Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of British Gas’s parent company Centrica, wrote on LinkedIn that the shift to renewable power “will NOT materially reduce UK electricity prices from current levels”.

    He added: “They may give price stability, and avoid future price spikes based on the international gas market, but they will definitely not reduce the price.”

    Mr O’Shea based his conclusion on an analysis comparing the cost of renewable energy with gas, showing that the cheapest renewables cost roughly the same as gas and the most exotic are up to three times as expensive.

    It suggests that the move to an energy system based around wind farms, solar parks or emerging technologies like tidal power will not lead to lower bills.

    The verdict from the boss of one of Britain’s biggest energy providers represents a damning rebuttal of Labour’s pledges to consumers....

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31. Confirmation, if you needed it: the July price cap will go down by 6% if you’re lucky, despite wholesale gas prices falling by 30%. Then the price cap is likely to increase again towards winter.

    ENERGY PRICE CAP LATEST PREDICTIONS The assessment period for the July energy Price Cap is 18 Feb to 16 May, so its almost over. That means predictions now are likely to be pretty close. Eon & Octopus are now predicting a 6.5% DROP (which would only put us back to roughly the same before the April cap rose) whereas EDF & BG slightly more 8% ish DROPS. Even so prices will remain far too high, and most predict slight rises by the end of the year. If this is true as the cheapest fixes are over 15% less than the current price cap, most should compare and fix.

    https://x.com/MartinSLewis/status/1922272590850085315

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32. “Starmer’s EU Sellout Deal On Carbon Pricing To Hike Electricity Bills ‘By £200 Million Per Year’”

    https://order-order.com/2025/05/19/starmer-carbon-pricing-deal-to-hike-uk-electricity-bills-by-200-million-per-year/

    …Guido spoke to independent energy consultant Kathryn Porter who sounded the alarm over higher prices:

    “Since Keir Starmer announced his intention to harmonise the UK and EU ETS, UK carbon prices have increased significantly. Full harmonisation could end up adding more than £200 million per year to electricity bills.

    UK carbon prices have been lower as a result of a surplus of allowances due to de-industrialisation. It’s hard to see how we will benefit from harmonisation. The “level playing field” sounds like a mechanism to remove the UK allowances surplus with no benefits to UK consumers.“

    Within the EU prices are currently roughly £10/ptCO2 higher than here. ‘Savings’ spin from Starmer and the EU is centred on the introduction of the bloc’s carbon border tariffs next year. In essence energy costs are being immediately hiked for the UK in return for a future tariff reduction – even on those who don’t export to the EU – while the UK also agrees to take EU rules, ECJ jurisdiction, and pay the EU for the pleasure. The EU will further decide who in the UK is exempt from its hiked carbon pricing. Got all that?

    The Institute of Economic Affairs’ energy analyst Andy Mayer adds: “The smarter strategy would be to retain control of our own carbon policy, and cut it drastically to compete with the EU, encouraging jobs and growth, including in low carbon technologies also impacted by high energy prices.”…

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33. Thanks Mark.

    Reading yesterday about this ploy to avoid the EU’s CBAM, it occurred to me that it must mean we are set to impose a CBAM of our own to avoid the issue of re-exports avoiding the EU’s tariff. Presumably this is not going to go down well with our friends in America.

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34. “Raise taxes or gas bills to save net zero, Miliband urged”

    Because renewables are so cheap, their cost has to be removed from the electricity bills, preferably onto the gas bills. Only particularly vindictive and stupid people would want householders to move away from gas usage onto rationed energy. Gas, it has been noted, does not suffer from the same daily bottleneck in supply that electricity does. Plus, as I have pointed out in the past, the quantity of household energy use that is gas is very high relative to electricity at peak winter heating times. It is beyond absurd to propose switching us all over to a single energy source.

    Ed Miliband must consider raising taxes or gas bills if the UK is to have any hope of hitting net zero, the Government’s climate change quango has warned.

    To ensure his flagship policy succeeds, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said the Energy Secretary needs to remove green levies from household power costs.

    Telegraph link, yesterday.

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35. Have I got this right? The Committee that told us that net zero makes economic sense because renewables are so cheap now says that renewables are so expensive that we have to move their costs from electricity bills to gas bills or to general taxation. In other words, we have to hide the costs of net zero, or it will fail. Given that UK net zero will make absolutely no difference to the climate, remind me why we are putting ourselves through this economic torture, exporting our jobs and emissions, rendering our energy unreliable and expensive, and making ourselves highly dependent on an inscrutably non-friendly state, viz China.

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36. “UK Industrial Electricity Prices Still Highest in EuropeNew Government data for 2H2024 shows the UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in Europe”

    https://davidturver.substack.com/p/uk-industrial-electricity-prices-still-highest-europe

    …UK industrial electricity prices for medium users are some 89.3% higher than the EU14 median. For large and very large users, the relative position is even worse with UK prices more than 132% and 113% respectively higher than the EU14 median. UK industrial electricity prices are also higher than the rest of the full EU27. Very large users in the UK pay 22.32p/kWh, more than five times more than Finland, with the lowest prices, where large industrial users pay just 4.19p/kWh.…

    …The UK has improved from the first half of 2024 because we now have the fourth highest domestic electricity prices in the EU14, down from third in the first half. Our prices are below only Ireland, Germany and Denmark, all with large proportions of their power coming from intermittent renewables. UK prices are 25.4% higher than the EU14 median and 43.9% higher than the median for the EU27.…

    …They want to hide the cost of their ruinous policies in our gas bills, so making gas more expensive so it is easier to sell heat pumps and EVs to the public. Of course, the poorest and most vulnerable will be hit by this most, making more expensive to heat their homes. They never explain how these charges will be levied once we’re all using heat pumps. Classic bait and switch tactics.…

    …When it comes to gas prices, the UK is very competitive compared to the EU average. But this is something of a pyrrhic victory because European gas prices are so much higher than key industrial competitors like the US and Canada.

    However, when we turn to electricity prices, the UK is woefully uncompetitive, particularly for industry where our prices are much more than double those in the EU for large users. When we factor in EU prices being very much higher than other international competitors, then we can see the UK position is dire. This level of price differential is an existential threat to the economy.

    We can pretend to be “climate leaders” on the world stage by setting a mission for a Net Zero grid by 2030, but this comes at the cost of winning the gold medal in the international industrial electricity price Olympics.

    We can also see that it is not the gas price that is driving our electricity prices to such uncompetitive levels, because our industrial gas prices are competitive in Europe. As discussed previously renewables are much more expensive than gas-fired electricity. We pay about £12bn per year in renewables subsidies and over £3bn in the extra costs of grid balancing and backup. There is an extra £112bn of transmission network costs in the pipeline to connect remote, intermittent renewables to the grid that will continue to push up prices….

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37. Gas Only Explains A Small Part Of Electricity Price Rise

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38. Is this a joke?

    “Lower energy costs make retirement less expensive”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj42022gqzwo

    Lower energy prices mean the amount of money needed to meet a basic standard of living in retirement has fallen, a major report has found.…

    …It suggested the cost of a minimum retirement living standard for a one-person household has decreased by £1,000 a year to £13,400.…

    The BBC doesn’t provide a link to the report. They’ve made the mistake of opening it up to a have your say. The highest-rated comment, by a country mile, is this:

    Who wrote the major report?.
    Our energy costs have not decreased by £1000 and I don’t know anyone who has either or we would have switched.
    Maybe AI wrote it?

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39. The report – Home – PLSA – Retirement Living Standards

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40. dfhunter, thanks for the link. This is the detail it contains (and I confess it seems to me to bear precious little relation to reality – I would love to see more evidence as to how they arrived at their figures):

    The most significant change across all the retirement living standards between 2023 and 2024 relate to the cost of domestic fuel. This is a consequence of changes in the energy price cap, capping the price per kilowatt hour (kWh) and the standing charges paid by consumers. This started to reduce in July 2023, with further reductions in most quarters since then until October 2024. These changes in prices mean that the domestic fuel budgets in 2024 are also below the level they were in 2022. A further reduction in the price paid by consumers came into effect in July this year, but this has not been captured in calculating the fuel budgets for 2024 as these are for April 2024.

    However, across the retirement living standards, the amounts calculated as required to cover the
    cost of weekly domestic fuel have fallen by more than a quarter for all household types. For a couple at the minimum, the weekly domestic fuel budget has fallen by £12.44 (accounting for around 90% of the overall reduction in the total weekly budget), while at the moderate and the comfortable the weekly budget has fallen by £16.74. For singles, at the minimum the weekly domestic fuel budget has fallen by £8.82, while at the moderate and comfortable it has fallen by £15.38.

    At the risk of being controversial, it looks like cherry-picked data aimed at assisting a government that is in a lot of trouble over these issues. I don’t recognise the figures at all in respect of my two-person retiree household.

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41. Mark – skim read it & thought the same thing.

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42. “Millions more on benefits to get £150 off energy bills”

    The BBC report misinforms:

    Energy companies pay for and distribute the £150 discount to people’s bills across England, Scotland and Wales, but the government sets the criteria for who should receive it.

    Bill payers who are not in receipt of the Warm Homes Discount pay for it, not energy companies.

    2.7 million more homes will get the £150 this winter = 405 million quid

    Divided by 28 million households ~ an additional £14 on each to add to the £11 already contributed to WHD from the bill.

    [I’m presuming here that everyone pays the same, but that some bill payers get £150 back. So it’s either a net loss of £25 or a net gain of £125, depending on whether you’re on benefits.]

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43. “UK manufacturing poised for funding boost to reduce energy costs

    Struggling steel sector among those expected to benefit in government’s long-awaited industrial strategy”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/19/uk-manufacturing-set-for-funding-boost-to-reduce-energy-costs

    UK manufacturing is expected to receive support to ease energy costs and boost skills, the Guardian understands, as part of a long-awaited industrial strategy due to be unveiled next week.

    Energy-intensive industries have long complained that they pay too much for electricity compared with competitors in the EU, while the wider industrial sector has struggled to recruit skilled staff….

    …the government will increase from 60% to 90% the “network compensation charging” (NCC) scheme, a discount for energy-intensive businesses on the fees they pay to connect to the Grid.

    The discount, which is ultimately paid for by other electricity bill-payers including households, [my emphasis] is available under the British Industry Supercharger initiative brought in by the previous government.

    Industry sources said increasing the discount would reduce costs for struggling steelmakers by about £6.50 per megawatt hour (MWh).

    This is expected to help big companies such as Tata and British Steel, which is under government control, manage the costly transition from blast furnaces to greener electric arc furnaces.

    However, industry sources said that, while the policy was welcome, the overall saving for the sector is only expected to be worth about £15m a year....

    I have a better idea – ditch net zero, and stop making energy costs more expensive by ceasing to add to its cost by using expensive renewables.

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44. Yes – it would make sense to make electricity cheaper across the board rather than cross-subsidising bills between weary cash cows and the destitute.

    The same applies to the Warm Homes Discount mentioned above. On the 1 o’clock news yesterday, the reporter did expand on what was written on the BBC’s website to note that it was bill-payers who end up out of pocket for Labour’s largesse. But in the very next sentence, she said government figures – can’t remember which department – had given assurances that thanks to savings elsewhere, no-one’s bill would go up in the winter. We’ll see!

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45. “Rob Peter to pay Paul” seems to be in thing at the moment re NZ. With the message carefully crafted to highlight how we are helping struggling “Paul” first (good news if you are a caring person, what’s not to like), before grudgingly mentioning that “Peter pays” (caring person, but would like to asked where my taxes/bills are spent).

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46. “What is the link between GB electricity and gas prices?”

    https://cloudwisdom.substack.com/p/what-is-the-link-between-gb-electricity

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47. “Lower energy costs part of government’s 10-year plan for industry”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1ljnrrmd7jo

    This looks like an admission that “green” levies are the cause of the UK’s high energy prices. The solution? It’s not to stop making energy more expensive, but presumably to disguise the reality by adding the “green” levies to general taxation instead (or, worse still, to move them from commercial energy users and load them on domestic energy users instead):

    Lowering energy costs for thousands of businesses by scrapping green levies will form a central part of the government’s new 10-year industrial strategy.

    The plan, which may slash energy bills by up to 25% for more than 7,000 UK businesses, is set to be unveiled on Monday alongside other measures hoped to boost growth.

    Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the industrial strategy “a turning point for Britain’s economy” by supporting key industries where there is potential for growth.

    Acting shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie criticised the plans, saying the UK needed “a serious approach to energy policy” that “tackles the root cause of our high energy prices”.

    He said it was “astonishing” Labour was “finally admitting that the costs of net zero are so high that they’re having to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money subsidising businesses’ energy bills to stop them going bust”.

    Manufacturers in the UK currently pay some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world….

    …About 500 of the most energy-intensive firms, including the steel industry, chemicals and glassmaking, will also have their network charges cut.

    Those firms currently get a 60% discount through the British Industry Supercharger scheme, which will increase to 90% from 2026….

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48. “Lower electricity prices for industry are crucial, but the government’s plan lacks details

    Jonathan Reynolds’s ‘modern’ strategy looks more like a sketch of a plan than a fully worked-up scheme for the sector”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/jun/23/lower-electricity-prices-for-industry-are-crucial-but-the-governments-plan-lacks-details

    ...it’s impossible to avoid the UK’s woeful position on electricity prices. The statistics are aired alongside every deindustrialisation story from the Port Talbot steelworks to the Grangemouth oil refinery. The lobby group Make UK estimates costs for UK steelmakers of £66 per megawatt hour in 2024-25 compared with estimated German prices of £50 and French ones of £43.

    So a plan to “slash industrial electricity prices” for 7,000 companies and “move us from being an outlier to right in the middle of the pack”, as Reynolds put it, is definitely a step towards sanity. The detail, however, matters. For at least three reasons, this looks more like a sketch of a plan rather than a fully worked-up scheme.

    First, the new “British industrial competitiveness scheme” won’t arrive until 2027, which leaves an uncomfortably long period for more crises to occur. Shouldn’t the government have made up its mind by now? The forerunner Invest 2035consultative document was issued last October, but the outcome on Monday was a further consultation on eligibility criteria for the headline measure. At least the separate and established “British industry supercharger” scheme, aimed at industries such as steel, chemicals and glass, will deliver bigger discounts next year – but that scheme covers only about 500 companies.

    Second, the tally of 7,000 firms in the new scheme is not enormous in the context of a broadly defined UK manufacturing sector of 140,000 companies. The hospitality industry and others grumble about how painful electricity bills also bite on them, but most within manufacturing sector will also be outside the fold. Food and drink manufacturers, which are still a substantial part of the economy, are not a priority, for example.

    Third, the savings for eligible companies will be “up to” 25%, raising the obvious question of how many will get the full whack. Net zero levies, such as renewables obligations for wind and feed-in tariffs for solar, will be removed from their bills, but those costs still have to be funded, and the government has simultaneously promised that other bill payers will not pay more. So the money will come from “bearing down on levies and other costs in the energy system” plus the proceeds from “the strengthening of UK carbon pricing”….

    The cat is well and truly out of the bag regarding the fact that the UK’s high energy prices are because of net zero and renewables subsidies. This wretched government has apparently recognised that now, but because it remains wedded to net zero, it hasn’t a clue what to do about it.

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49. This seems like an unusually sensible commentary from this source!

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50. Jit,

    I think the Guardian is a bit like the government – reality is beginning to dawn, but they can’t abandon the dogma, so they don’t really know how to respond. In fairness, Nils Pratley is one of the Guardian’s better journalists, but perhaps that’s because he covers financial matters, so has rather more understanding of the financial implications of net zero than do many of his colleagues.

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51. Kathryn Porter in the Telegraph:

    “Energy companies are not ripping you off – the Government is

    Ministers are placing unfair obligations onto suppliers, which are passing on the costs to customers”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/06/30/energy-companies-are-not-ripping-you-off-the-government-is/

    A week ago, the Government announced with great fanfare that “millions more families” would get £150 off energy bills this winter. This sounds great. Unfortunately, what the Government failed to mention is who would pay for this. The answer is everyone else.

    The Warm Homes Discount (WHD) is one of several non-energy obligations placed on suppliers. Suppliers get a bad name, but they are forced to do a lot of things that have little to do with energy supply, and are given little money to do it. Meaning fewer resources to do the things people expect them to do well….

    ...This is wealth redistribution, pure and simple.

    Suppliers take money from one group of customers in order to give it to another group. It is quite simply not the job of corporations to do this – if governments want to redistribute wealth, there already exists a tax-and-benefits process for this.

    Make no mistake, the WHD is a benefit for a small group of consumers and a tax on the rest, and with over 6 million homes expected to be eligible, the overall cost will be close to £1bn.

    Another non-energy obligation imposed on suppliers is the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) that requires suppliers to help their customers cut energy usage through home improvements such as better insulation.

    What, you may ask, do energy suppliers know about building and construction? The answer is that they have had to learn, hiring builders and other contractors to carry out home retrofits. The scheme costs over £1bn per year. And how is this paid for? Through bills. Suppliers impose a charge on their customers to pay for the scheme….

    …Smart-meter installation is another unnecessary supplier burden.

    No other country in Europe expects suppliers to install network equipment. Network operators do it instead.

    But in the UK, suppliers are required to meet strict smart-meter installation targets, despite it being entirely voluntary for consumers to accept one or not….

    …Again, the costs – also estimated at around £1bn per year – are recovered through bills.

    Finally, suppliers act as tax collectors. Not just in the way most companies collect income taxes from employees and VAT from customers, as suppliers collect levies designed to pay for the subsidies given to renewable generators.

    These include the legacy Renewables Obligation and Feed-in-Tariff schemes, the Contracts for Difference scheme and the Capacity Market, which is the means by which renewables backup is paid for. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, these costs amount to some £10bn per year….

    LikeLiked by 1 person

52. “Hidden Costs of Renewables Going Up

    Grid balancing/expansion plus backup costs set to rise to double the price we pay for gas used to generate electricity.”

    https://davidturver.substack.com/p/hidden-costs-renewables-going-up

    Conclusions

    Renewables already cost us dearly. We pay about £7.6bn for Renewables Obligations, another £2.4bn on Contracts for Difference and a further £1.9bn on Feed-in-Tariffs. These add up to about ~£12bn/yr of explicit costs of renewables before we even consider the significant hidden costs that add about £32/MWh to the costs of intermittent renewables today.

    The latest figures from NESO, LCCC and Ofgem show that these hidden costs are set to explode higher in the coming years to up to £8bn on balancing and another £4bn on backup. Even if they manage to spend the money on the grid, we will be trading constraint costs for network costs and our bills will rise substantially, by up to £75 compared to today. We can expect Capacity Market costs to go up by about £44 by 2030. This represents a total increase of ~£119 by 2031, if we are lucky, plus the extra costs of renewables subsidies by that date.

    The total of grid balancing/expansion plus backup costs are going to rise so much we will end up spending twice as much on these hidden costs as the whole bill for the gas we use to generate electricity. The way to avoid these costs is to stop building unreliable wind farms hundreds of miles away from the source of demand. Then we will not need to pay them to switch off, we won’t need back up and we won’t need to connect them either. That would be fairer, cheaper and more efficient.

    Labour and Miliband’s promise to cut bills by £300 lies in tatters. It is time to Stop Net Zero.

    LikeLiked by 2 people

53. Even Labour MPs are becoming concerned by high energy prices, though most still seem to believe in Net Zero:

    “More than 100 Labour MPs urge Ed Miliband to explore radical energy bills overhaul

    Living Standards Coalition writes to energy secretary calling on him to do more to help struggling households”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/22/more-than-100-labour-mps-urge-ed-miliband-to-explore-radical-energy-bills-overhaul

    …In the letter to Miliband, the 103 MPs said British families were facing “some of the highest energy bills in Europe” and the government must go further with policies that would reduce bills quicker. “We strongly support policies that will get energy bills down immediately so our constituents will feel the benefits of a Labour government as quickly as possible. Our constituents rank getting energy bills down as the No 1 way to improve their cost of living,” it said. “For the poorest households, £1 in every £10 goes on paying their energy bills.”…

    …The group, which launched with a letter to the prime minister last week, has said it is a strong backer of net zero policies, though a small number of Labour MPs have begun to question the party’s commitment to no new oil and gas licences.…

    ...But the Basingstoke MP, Luke Murphy, a founding member of the Living Standards group who is also on the energy and net zero select committee said the answer was not more fossil fuels. “The high energy costs which we inherited from the Conservatives are a barrier to higher growth and living standards. Yet the Conservatives and Reform want to make us more reliant on fossil fuels, which are the main cause for high and volatile energy bills,” he said.

    “The government must instead continue to drive towards clean energy 2030, which will lower bills for good and focus on reforms that will also bring bills down in the near term. This should include looking at the role of smart energy market reform, a social tariff, reforming standing charges, and reforming regressive levies.”...

    Reforming regressive levies…..Yet they’re still in favour of net zero.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

54. Translating the code:

    “Smart energy market reform” = ?time of use tariffs

    “a social tariff” = people not on benefits paying more for the same product

    “reforming standing charges” = people with a second home who use it for a fortnight a year can get a great deal

    “reforming regressive levies” = moving the cost of renewable subsidies onto general taxation to make electricity look cheap.

    Meanwhile, M. Miliband is still blathering on about “cheap home-grown energy that we control,” or whatever his ridiculous mantra is. When what he means is expensive energy built in China in vulnerable positions in the middle of nowhere.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

55. “Middle classes face threat of higher bills to pay for net zero”

    That’s because Net Zero is so cheap!

    Telegraph link.

    The fixed cost element of the leccy bill, owing to all the paraphernalia that will have to be attached to the grid, is going to rise. But the standing charge disproportionately affects lower users. [Fair? After all, they are paying to have their homes connected to the grid.]

    My rather out-there idea is that we could make the bill cheaper for everyone. Where does this leave M. Miliband’s -£300?

    LikeLiked by 1 person

56. Miliband is the Bing Videos

    LikeLike

57. As in the UK, so in NYC:

    “New York energy company ramps up disconnections as it seeks 11% price hike

    Con Edison, city’s monopoly utility, cut off 88,000 households in first half of 2025 as climate crisis drives extreme temperatures”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/08/new-york-con-edison-disconnections-climate-crisis

    …New York is among the most expensive places for electricity, with families shouldering above-inflation price hikes in recent years…

    Meanwhile:

    “NYC’s Green Economy Action Plan marks a year of success”

    https://trellis.net/article/nycs-green-economy-action-plan-marks-a-year-of-success/

    …We’re also leading the way in developing a clean and renewable energy system. In April, NYCEDC approved four battery energy storage sites in Queens and Staten Island — a critical piece of infrastructure that will strengthen the resilience and reliability of the New York City electricity grid as it transitions to a clean energy future. And we followed that up in May with the approval of the East River Energy Storage Project, capable of holding up to 100 megawatts and powering tens of thousands of households once completed.…

    Coincidence?

    Perhaps Guardian journalists should read the Manhattan Contrarian:

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-8-8-the-climate-cult-takes-on-resiliency-in-manhattan

    He has much more in similar vein about the fact that the people in charge of NYC are following the same approach as those in charge of the UK when it comes to energy and renewables. How odd that both the UK and NYC have very high electricity prices. It’s such a great success story (sarc).

    LikeLike

58. “Energy bills will rise in October to subsidise poorest households”

    That will be the Warm Homes Discount.

    According to Cornwall Insights, as reported in the Telegraph, bills are going up £17, and most of the increase is due to the WHD. It’s not much (c. 1% of the annual bill, these days).

    Mr Cornwall – not his real name – said:

    “The real hope for lasting relief lies in the longer-term transition towards clean power and energy independence, which offers the greatest prospect of both stability and lower costs.”

    Proving perhaps that his insights are not, after all, that insightful.

    The Telegraph is wiser:

    These [Climate Change Levy and Emissions Trading Scheme] are controlled by the Treasury rather than the global energy markets, meaning that most of the responsibility for high bills lies with the Government.

    That is, the bills are not high because of the wholesale cost of gas, but by mad choices by the dribblers up top.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

59. “The ‘zombie’ net zero levy adding billions to Britain’s energy bills

    Households are still paying the price for a fateful decision made by Tony Blair’s government”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/23/zombie-net-zero-levy-adding-billions-to-britain-energy-bill/

    LikeLike

60. Kathryn Porter in the Telegraph:

    “Ofgem has exposed Miliband’s gaslighting on energy bills

    Gas is explicitly not the reason for the latest increase in the price cap – government policy is”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/29/ofgem-exposed-milibands-gaslighting-energy-bills/

    This week Ofgem announced a small increase in [the energy price cap from £1,720 to £1,755] for a typical dual-fuel household.

    Predictably a string of MPs and ministers popped up to blame gas prices, but this is very much not what has driven the increase. Gas prices are falling and the wholesale component of the cap has reduced from £734 to £720.

    This is a problem for Ed Miliband, who has staked his political career on the claim that ditching gas in favour of renewable energy can deliver lower bills. In fact, the opposite is true.

    As gas prices fall, it is increasingly difficult for Labour to continue to blame the fuel for rising household energy bills. Gas is explicitly not the reason for the latest increase in the price cap – government policy is.

    Miliband and his Cabinet colleagues need to stop gaslighting the public over the cost of energy and have the courage of their convictions.

    If they are convinced these additional levies and costs are justified, then the Government should make the case transparently, rather than hiding behind tired old narratives that no longer apply….

    LikeLike

61. Rumours swirl of a reshuffle. Will Ed – one of the most popular ministers in the eyes of Labour’s supporters – be for the chop? He is now a liability (well, has been since the beginning), but his popularity makes it hard to get rid of him.

    LikeLike

62. Starmer seems to be ruthless when it comes to sacking people. However, I have no doubt that he is a true believer in net zero, so he won’t ditch the policy. He might sack Ed if he decides he’s a liability, but the policy will remain. There are plenty of true believers on the Labour back benches who could take his place and carry on taking us over the cliff edge.

    LikeLike

63. Seriously?

    “Energy users ‘could save £5bn a year’ if gas plants are removed from market

    Former energy tsar suggests the ‘radical step’ as one of the few options the government has for cutting bills”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/04/electricity-users-save-5bn-a-year-gas-fired-stations-removed-from-market

    The government could save energy users £5bn a year by overhauling the electricity market to stop gas-fired power stations from setting the wholesale price for electricity, according to the former energy tsar.

    Britain relies on gas plants for about a quarter of its annual electricity use, but they play a much greater role during spells of low wind and low solar generation.

    Removal of gas plants from the market could lead to a drop in household electricity bills by up to £1.7bn a year by 2028, according to a research report. Energy costs for businesses and industrial users could fall by £3.3bn a year, it says.

    The report co-authored by Adam Bell, the government’s former head of strategy at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, argues that the UK’s gas plants should be held in strategic reserve, available to be fired up when needed without distorting the overall cost of electricity in the wholesale market..…

    I worry greatly that people who think in this way are anywhere near the levers of power.

    LikeLiked by 2 people

64. I wonder whether anyone has calculated how much money would be saved by ending the carbon tax on gas generators!

    LikeLiked by 1 person

65. Mark – just a few quotes from your link –

    “The report co-authored by Adam Bell, the government’s former head of strategy at the department for Energy Security and Net Zero”

    “Bell, policy director at the consultancy Stonehaven, said: “Taking gas out of the power market is a radical step, but these are radical times. The government has very few options to cut bills, and none with as high a return as our proposal.”

    “Under the plans put forward by the report, which was commissioned by Greenpeace, operating a gas plant would be regulated so its owners would require a licence to be able to recover the cost of running the plants from bill payers at a level agreed by the industry regulator. This could be an attractive option for power plant owners, according to the report, because it would provide revenue certainty as the UK radically reduces its demand for fossil fuel electricity in the 2030s.

    It would also prevent the cost of gas power from influencing the overall electricity market price, and put an end to the multimillion pound payouts handed to gas plant owners to keep the lights on when supplies are tight.”

    Seems to me Adam “former head of strategy at the department for Energy Security and Net Zero” has joined the revolving door brigade – People – Stonehaven

    LikeLike

66. “UK Industrial Electricity Prices Still Highest

    Strain showing on Ed Miliband as latest data shows the UK still has the highest industrial electricity prices in the IEA.”

    https://davidturver.substack.com/p/uk-industrial-electricity-prices-highest

    Conclusions

    It is easy to see why Ed Miliband is feeling the strain. Jobs in heavy industry, oil refining and the North Sea are being lost at a rapid rate. It is obvious that Net Zero policies are driving this economic decline.

    Industrial electricity prices are 63% of the IEA median, yet industrial gas prices are below the median. It is not gas that is driving electricity prices higher. It is the £12bn per year in subsidies, another £2.7bn in grid balancing and £1.3bn in capacity market back up costs. These costs are added to our bills and are set to rise further.

    Moreover, gas-fired electricity is lumbered with extra carbon costs from the Emissions Trading Scheme and the Carbon Price Support mechanism. These costs make up almost a third of the wholesale price of electricity.

    There is an extra £112bn of transmission network costs in the pipeline to connect remote, intermittent renewables to the grid that will continue to push up prices. The first £80bn by 2030 is set to add another £74 to our bills.

    These energy prices represent an existential threat to the economy and to broader society. The highest industrial electricity prices in the world ought to be considered a national emergency. The Government’s primary mission should be to cut energy prices because cheap energy is the key to unlocking growth. They should focus first on ending subsidies for renewables, cutting carbon costs and cancelling any further auction rounds. This would stop the rot at source.

    The Government should also encourage investment in new sources of gas supply by encouraging more North Sea drilling and lifting the moratorium on fracking. In the longer term, there should be a renewed focus on nuclear in the form of conventional reactors, small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced reactors. These will need to be supplemented by gas-fired generation for the time being until nuclear is able to respond effectively to rapid changes in demand.

    We can but hope that reality dawns on Keir Starmer and he follows the advice of union leaders and finally sacks Ed Miliband before it’s too late.

    LikeLiked by 2 people

67. Today on the 1 o’clock news, Sir Keir Starmer recommitted to the -£300 on energy bills (apparently from an interview on the BBC’s breakfast programme, whatever it’s called).

    Newspoint – whoever they are – describe the scene at MSN here. To his credit, John Kay pressed the PM on the topic.

    Unfortunately, the news reporter at 1 o’clock, in mentioning the £150 Warm Homes Discount, did not mention that it derives from a whip round by everyone else.

    As we know, the -£300 is not going to come about by quadrupling down on renewables.

    [Edit: typos x2]

    LikeLike

68. Thanks for the link – well worth a read.

    He’s toast, isn’t he?

    LikeLike

69. “Why Is My Energy Bill So High?

    And what to do about it.”

    https://davidturver.substack.com/p/why-is-my-energy-bill-so-high

    LikeLiked by 1 person

70. A few posts back there’s a quote from David Turver: “Industrial electricity prices are 63% of the IEA median, yet industrial gas prices are below the median. It is not gas that is driving electricity prices higher.“

    I am not sure that comparison is valid because, afaik, there aren’t many other countries that rely so heavily on gas as we do. The obvious exception is the US but that’s a very different market. Closer to home, do any of our European neighbours have a similar reliance on gas? France’s mix is essentially nuclear and hydro, for example.

    Also, do other countries use the same bizarre auction system whereby the bid which completes the power requirement sets the price paid to all bidders? For the life of me I cannot understand why the system does not pay each bidder the price they submitted, once demand is met.

    LikeLike

71. MikeH, you wrote, “For the life of me I cannot understand why the system does not pay each bidder the price they submitted, once demand is met.” In my simple world I had assumed – but oh! how I would love to be wrong – that this part of the payment scheme for renewables had been designed to hide the real extent of the subsidies going to renewables ….

    Since renewables get a “top up” or subsidy from market price to strike price, that “top up” is smaller to the extent that the renewables bid price has, in effect, been increased to the market price (set by gas when demand is high). In short, it is a smoke and mirrors ‘zero sum’ exercise: the overall sums going to renewables are the same, but the division between covert subsidy (= market price minus bid price) and overt subsidy (= strike price minus market price) varies.

    The total subsidy (paid by taxpayer and electricity bill payer) going to renewables is hidden by this sleight of hand.

    A further great advantage of the current scheme, as far as renewables advocates are concerned, is that they can blame the price of gas-generated electricity (hiss! boo!) for the astronomical cost of those green electrons. Regards, John C.

    LikeLike

72. “Energy bills likely to rise by 20% in next four years, says Britain’s biggest supplier

    MPs told that even if wholesale prices plummet, consumers face higher bills owing to costs of government policies”

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/oct/15/britain-biggest-energy-supplier-octopus-bills-on-track-to-rise-by-fifth-in-next-four-years

    Britain’s biggest energy supplier has told MPs that bills are on track to climb by a fifth in the next four years, even if wholesale markets plummet, because of the rising cost of government policies.

    An executive at Octopus Energy said household energy bills were likely to rise by 20% unless the government took radical action to address the burden of increasing “non-commodity costs”, even in a scenario where wholesale electricity prices fell by half.

    Rachel Fletcher, its director for regulation and economics, made the stark warning before MPs at a select committee hearing on Wednesday.

    Fletcher, who has held senior positions at Britain’s energy and water industry regulators, said “serious and urgent consideration” was needed to address the rise in non-commodity costs, which include levies paid through bills to support upgrades to gas and electricity networks, running the energy system and subsidising low-carbon power projects. This could include delaying investments that were not needed by the UK energy system in the short term, she added.…

    …Chris Norbury, the chief executive of E.On UK, said the supplier’s own modelling had suggested that even if the wholesale price was zero bills would still be where they were today because of the increase in non-commodity costs.…

    …Other costs that have risen over recent years include the price of upgrading Britain’s energy networks, which has increased by more than £140 annually in the last four years to £396 a year under the cap. Policy costs, which include supporting low-carbon electricity projects, have climbed by £86 a year to £215 under the current price cap.

    “It’s time we got this burden under control,” Fletcher said. “There’s no budgetary control of this and yet it all ends up on household bills or contributing to making our electricity some of the most expensive in the industrialised world.

    “We need to get the growth of this burden under control with some proper budgetary control like we have over other taxes.”…

    LikeLiked by 2 people

73. Mark – you have to love the dismissive reply by some unnamed spokesperson at the end –

    “Chris Norbury, the chief executive of E.On UK, said the supplier’s own modelling had suggested that even if the wholesale price was zero bills would still be where they were today because of the increase in non-commodity costs.

    A government spokesperson said: “We categorically reject this speculation. Wholesale gas costs for households remain 75% higher than they were before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the main reason energy bills remain high.”

    ​”The only way to bring down energy bills for good is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, which will get the UK off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices and onto clean, homegrown power that we control,” the spokesperson said.”

    God help us all with people like that in charge unwilling to heed warnings.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

74. John C; You are right, of course. The present system lets wind submit bids at very low – or even negative – prices, secure in the knowledge that they will always be paid the strike price or receive their ROCs, depending on which regime they are under. There is a forum (on a motoring website!) which discusses power generation in the UK. Several of the commenters are directly involved in Grid operations and I have seen remarks such as “lots of cheap wind on the bars today!”

    An honest system would show the true price of the wind and solar which are prioritised onto the Grid, together with nuclear, and then get bids from gas for the top-up. Of course that will never happen because it would show the real costs.

    DFH; that comment from the govt spokesman is a prime case of misdirection. Gas prices were unusually depressed in 2022 due to the impact of covid, to well below the historic average. They are now back to that long-term level. There’s a post on NALOPKT giving the details.

    LikeLiked by 2 people

75. “Source of Miliband’s energy bill pledge casts doubt on savings”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy7gj181k0o

    Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s promise to cut energy bills by £300 could be “wiped out” by rising electricity costs, according to the expert behind the savings estimate.

    Miliband’s pledge – which he has stood by in the face of fierce criticism from opponents who say it is unachievable – is based on a 2023 report, external by energy think tank Ember.

    But the author of the report, economist Pawel Czyzak, has told the BBC the analysis needs to be updated to take into account changes to the cost of offshore wind and other factors….

    …It comes as former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair’s think tank calls for the UK government to shift it focus from clean power to cheaper electricity.

    In a new report, the Tony Blair Institute says if the transition to renewable energy “continues in a way that raises costs, weakens reliability and weakens growth, it will fail both practically and politically”.…

    …when asked if the £300 savings estimate still stood, Czyzak said it was now “a much different situation than it was in 2023”.

    He said the projected savings in his analysis were dependent on a significant drop in the wholesale cost of electricity in a scenario where renewables become cheaper and the dominant source of power in the UK.

    “I think the question now will be whether the high cost of offshore wind doesn’t disrupt some of these wholesale energy savings,” Czyzak said.

    He said if the cost of upgrading the electricity grid increased, and wholesale prices don’t go down as much, “then it’s going to be hard to generate savings“.

    He added: “So then, yes, there is a risk of these savings being wiped out if we can’t get the actual electricity cost down, and that might happen if offshore wind is too expensive.”…”

    LikeLiked by 1 person

76. It was just as obvious in 2023 as now.

    LikeLike

77. “Keir Starmer prepares to miss key green target in effort to keep energy bills down

    Exclusive: Promise to remove almost all fossil fuels from UK’s electricity supply by 2030 may be quietly abandoned over cost”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/22/keir-starmer-green-pledge-2030-energy-bills

    Ministers are considering dropping one of their central green pledges in an effort to keep energy bills down, sources have told the Guardian.

    Government insiders say Keir Starmer is prepared to miss his own target of removing almost all fossil fuels from the UK’s electricity supply by 2030 if doing so proves much more expensive than building gas power instead.

    The issue will come to a head within weeks as Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, decides how much renewable energy to commission for the next few years. Allies say Miliband is willing to buy less than experts say is needed to hit the 2030 target, if paying for them would push energy bills much higher than their current levels.…

    LikeLiked by 1 person

78. But renewables are the cheapest form of electricity.

    LikeLiked by 3 people

79. Renewables are what the climate craves.

    LikeLike

80. There are so many places I could have posted this, but here is as good as anywhere:

    “£420 million bill cut for heavy industry as union attacks ‘obscene’ energy profits”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ype0gp7lgo

    Bills for some of the country’s most intensive business energy users will be cut by £420m from next year, the government has said.

    Speaking to the BBC, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said about 500 businesses in industries including steel, glass and cement would benefit from a 90% discount on their electricity network charges – up from 60%....

    …Last year, the UK’s energy costs were the highest in the G7 group of developed nations.

    For the same year, the International Energy Agency reported that UK industrial energy costs were almost double the average across its members….

    …The reduction is on network costs, which are what businesses pay to access the UK’s electricity network, and make up about 20% of a company’s energy bill – meaning a 90% reduction works out at about 18% of the overall energy bill.…

    …the bill reduction would be paid for through existing government tax revenue.…

    In other words, we all pay for it, but through taxation. My guess is that might be a forerunner to implementing the demands of renewables supporters that the costs of renewables be hidden from bill-payers by shifting the cost of the subsidies and associated costs to general taxation. The problem is that such a move doesn’t make the costs go away – we still have to pay them, but via a different pot.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

81. Mark, the Telegraph also reported yesterday that (I think) £500 million was being wiped off energy bill debts by Ofgem, to be passed on to the people who actually do pay their bills. It was badged as the first “write-off” in a series to reduce the debt pile.

    What the two stories have in common is that the priority should be to get the costs down for everyone. Then heavy industry won’t need subsidies, and people with not much cash won’t run up large debts on their energy.

    LikeLiked by 2 people

82. Yes, shifting some small part of industrial electricity charges on to general taxation, and writing off electricity debts (but adding those costs to the bills of other users) in each case because electricity is too expensive, is not a solution. The solution is to address the reason why electricity is so expensive.

    Current government plans feel akin to re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

83. “SSE is a winner in the great grid upgrade. Who is looking out for consumers and small businesses?

    Nobody doubts chunky spending is necessary to improve the grid. But how much of that money will be funded through consumer bills?”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/nov/12/sse-grid-upgrade-consumers-small-businesses

    …it took a crew of energy suppliers at a Commons select committee last month to spell out the reality that the £80bn programme, with the charges front loaded to give the networks confidence to invest, would have an impact on bills.

    “If we continue on the path we are on, in all likelihood electricity prices are going to be 20% higher – even if wholesale prices halve,” said Rachel Fletcher, the director of regulation at Octopus Energy, pointing to rising “non-commodity costs” such as gas and electricity network charges.

    The government and Ofgem’s argument is that the spending is necessary to correct historic underinvestment, to pave the way for the grid to handle more renewable generation and to prepare for a projected doubling in electricity usage by 2050. That’s what Pibworth, in a similar vein, means by the “once in a generation” nature of the programme, complete with lots of jobs on the way.

    Nobody doubts that chunky spending of some size is necessary. A prime target in the grid upgrade clearly has to be a reduction in the wasted billions that arise from constraint costs, the payments to windfarms (often in Scotland, SSE’s patch) to turn off because the grid locally is overloaded.

    But there are still fair questions to ask about whether the full £80bn needs to be spent in just five years, and – crucially – how the front-loaded nature of the charges to bills will affect consumers and small businesses from next April....

    …Energy transition is happening but these are not trivial sums, especially for businesses, which sit outside the price cap. It’s about time Ofgem and the government acknowledged them more openly.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

84. “£80bn needs to be spent in just five years“, “these are not trivial sums” & “Nobody doubts that chunky spending of some size is necessary. A prime target in the grid upgrade clearly has to be a reduction in the wasted billions that arise from constraint costs, the payments to windfarms (often in Scotland, SSE’s patch) to turn off because the grid locally is overloaded.”

    So those who pushed for offshore wind in “SSE’s patch” never considered if the grid would be able to support/handle intermittent supply? What a joke. Just a reminder from Boris 2020 –

    UK can be ‘Saudi Arabia of wind power’ – PM – BBC News

    Partial quote –

    “Mr Johnson reiterated his government’s pledge to “build back greener” after the Covid-19 pandemic, through a green industrial revolution. He promised to deliver thousands of new jobs in the process. As regards wind power, Mr Johnson said: “We’ve got huge, huge gusts of wind going around the north of our country – Scotland. Quite extraordinary potential we have for wind.”

    LikeLike

85. Seriously?

    “Scrapping green subsidies is short-termist sabotage – and as usual the consumer will pay

    Weaning ourselves off gas is the only way to reduce energy bills long term. Cutting support for this is exactly the ‘sticking-plaster politics’ Labour promised to end”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/14/scrapping-green-subsidies-short-termist-sabotage-consumer-pay

    …People want relief from painful energy bills. In the long term, electrification is the only way to provide this. In practice, that means switching from gas boilers to heat pumps, shifting from petrol cars to electric vehicles: boosting access to technologies that are modern, cheaper to run, and are already becoming mainstream. At present, our energy system protects the legacy gas-based system, subsidising supply and penalising demand in ways that keep gas artificially cheap and electricity artificially expensive, even when electric technologies cost less to operate.…[my emphasis].

    LikeLiked by 2 people

86. Labour net zero levies now main driver of rising energy bills

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87. “Households face unexpected rise in energy prices in new year“

    Wholly unexpected. Almost as unexpected as mince pies.

    “While wholesale energy costs are stabilising, they still make up the largest portion of our bills which leaves us open to volatile prices,” said Tim Jarvis, from Ofgem.

    Not true – as shown above – for electricity. The wholesale cost was £310 out of £926 – a third.

    Come on, BBC Verify. Hurry up.

    ASTERISK: He probably means the largest single item on the bill. Still, it’s misleading, I think.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

88. “Households face unexpected rise in energy prices in new year”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lplg7d9ewo

    Unexpected? I know they’ve been trailing the prospect of the cap going down in January, so that extent – and to that extent only – perhaps it’s unexpected. However, to anyone who’s been paying attention, it’s obvious that under current policies bills will keep going up (NB reducing VAT, or moving the subsidies into general taxation – options which have been trailed ahead of the budget – don’t reduce the cost of energy; rather they rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic).

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89. Electricity Up, Gas Down!

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90. Reeves has deleted the ECO scheme…

    But she also increased funding for the warm homes plan by £1.5billion to ensure those households don’t lose out. 

    In a sleight of hand that enables Ms Reeves to argue she’s reduced bills, some of the rest of the saving will be made by transferring costs for another scheme on to general taxation.

    She will also cut by 75 per cent the cost suppliers have to pay for certificates to show they have sourced electricity from renewable projects, the Renewables Obligation.

    Mail link.

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91. Reading further, although the ECO scheme is being scrapped, the rest of the “£150” saving she promised has not been deleted, but moved onto general taxation. (Why not keep going? We could all have “free” energy.)

    LikeLike

92. Paul Homewood’s take on this:

    Don’t Fall For Rachel’s Energy Savings Lies

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93. “Why is my Energy Bill Even Higher

    Gas prices down, but the energy cap has gone up. What is going on?”

    https://davidturver.substack.com/p/why-is-my-energy-bill-even-higher

    LikeLiked by 3 people

94. Quite an interesting read. What a mess our energy system is in the UK!

    “UK energy bill payers will hand £2bn a year to EDF for new power stations

    French government-owned company to receive funding for Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/28/uk-energy-bill-payers-edf-hinkley-point-c-sizewell-c

    Still, I’d rather subsidise reliable electricity than unreliable electricity, especially as the power stations involved won’t devastate vast swathes of the countryside, unlike renewables.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

95. I have just received an email from my dual fuel energy supplier, advising me that thanks to the price cap change coming into effect on 1st January, they estimate that my annual cost of electricity is due to increase by £27.32, while my annual cost of gas should decrease by £75.45.

    And they want people to replace gas boilers with heat pumps….

    LikeLiked by 1 person

96. “Billions in green energy subsidies excluded from Budget, OBR reveals

    Ed Miliband’s next auction for renewables projects will send household bills higher”

    https://archive.ph/o0YaQ#selection-2679.4-2683.87

    Rachel Reeves excluded billions of pounds in wind and solar subsidies from her Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has revealed.

    The fiscal watchdog revealed in its latest economic assessment that £1bn a year will be added to household energy bills to fund Ed Miliband’s next auction for renewables projects, known as “allocation round 7” (AR7).

    The scheme is expected to pile fresh pressure on households, particularly as the Chancellor failed to mention the impact of the subsidies in her Budget last week.

    The revelation was contained in a footnote to the OBR’s Fiscal Outlook report, which highlights costs relating to the contracts for difference (CfDs) scheme….

    …The OBR forecast that CfD costs are set to rise from £2.3bn in 2024-25 to £4.6bn by 2030-31, although it warned that the Treasury’s estimates excluded an additional £5bn for AR7.

    It said: “These [figures] exclude future auction rounds, including AR7 for which outcomes are expected in early 2026.

    “This is expected to auction CfD contracts up to £1bn a year (in 2025 prices) between 2028-29 and 2032-33.”...

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97. “Energy grid investment of £28bn to push up household bills”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp84yymxpjno

    Household energy bills will rise to help fund a £28bn investment in the UK’s energy network.

    Energy regulator Ofgem has approved the funding in its five-year plan on improving electricity and gas grids. Most of the money will go towards maintaining gas networks, but £10.3bn will be used to strengthen the electricity transmission network.

    Households will see an additional £108 added to energy bills by 2031 under the plan….

    It goes on to say (inaccurately, so far as I can see, given that gas prices are falling and forecast to continue falling):

    …But Ofgem said that what people would end up paying for energy will only rise by £30 a year, as the investment will help lower the reliance on imported gas and make wholesale energy cheaper.…

    LikeLiked by 1 person

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