Tim Yeo: I’m with Which? – let’s simplify energy tariffs

I think we are talking about the wrong solution to this problem. Who wants to be bothered spending time thinking about constantly switching suppliers? What a boring thing to do! Yes the energy suppliers are very clever at thinking up more complicated ways of trying to confuse and dupe consumers into thinking their service costs less than the other fellow’s. Then they all change tariffs again and we are back where we started. This “beneficial competition” has resulted in figures that are now far removed from the actual cost of delivering the energy to our homes.

I still regard gas and electricity supply as a Public Utility duty. We need to go back to one supplier, one tariff. and the tariff should not have making a profit as an objective. The difference from previous ways of doing this must be to ensure that the service is run efficiently and not just to provide jobs for an unnecessary number of public employees. Instead of trying to make switching easier the government, and other politicians, would better represent the will of the people if they concentrated on how they could do this. If they succeeded, we could all forget this issue, not be bothered by pushy sales people and get on with using less energy as a means of saving money.

Its farcical marketing.Consumers are attracted to what appear to be reasonable tariffs but usually after a year when the contract expires are then placed on a somewhat less attractive tariff.These companies depend on consumers settling down with one supplier after being drawn by an initial attractive tariff.

Instead of Huhne trying to convince the consumer that he is taking action for the consumer by making it easier to switch suppliers (it is already easy enough to switch),he should be looking deep into the formation of energy prices that are being imposed on the consumer.There is little competition between the major companies.They are all vertically integrated companies.The consumer would be better served if the generators of energy were split away from the retailing of energy (both domestic and industrial) to creat a wholesale market.Additionally,there may be a case for spitting up the existing generators of energy to create more competion.

My other complaint is that as an Economy 7 consumer,I am penalised by having to pay a greater kwh day rate to receive a reduced night kwh rate.Economy 7 consumers assist the generator by keeping his plant in use at night when without night load,the generator would be forced into the more expensive operating regimes of shutting down plant and restarting when demand again increases.

I recently went on a comparison site to change supplier. Icould not find my SSE tariff listed. I contacted SSE to clarify my tariff and was told ” You need to check each of the ‘BIG SIX’ as comparison sites don’t have the latest information. I didand couldn’t find my tariff as listed on my bills on any site. I believe this is a deliberate attempt to confuse, divert and dissuade customers from switching. I suspect that ALL THE BIG 6 operate similar tactics. Let’s have a bit offair play in this market, it’s long overdue

The article in this month’s Which? is very good but alas there does appear an oversight in the calculations you asked individuals in your exams/tests to carry out comparing tariffs. Electricity Tier 1 amounts of 600, 720 or 900 kWh are not in my experience applied on an annual basis but on a quarterly/billing cycle basis so in practice you could have 2400, 2880 or even 3600 kWh charged at the higher Tier 1 rate over a year if you are a high electricity consumer. This makes a very significant difference to actual bills and is even more complicated to model (this really does need a spreadsheet).

I have had 2 suppliers who use a different factor for Calorific Value
Scottish Hydro 3.9
E.ON 3.6

Although E.ON do not show this on their bill I calculated it from their bill.
This might appear a small factor but in 100 units used it produces a difference of 8.5 Kw Hrs
I must admit I did not notice this until I tried to check my Bill form E.ON and was unable to find the factor used. I then used one from my previous supplier Scottish Hydro. As this gave the wrong answer I calculated the figure E.ON used from their bill.

Is this a common feature or it is it a one off and is it taken into account on Comparison websites.

British Gas prices soar. They need to because of their costs they say. But if that was so how come their profits have soared too? And how come (if their need to increase were genuine) when I told them I could change my supplier from them and their ‘cheapest deal’, pay their surcharge for ending the contract early, and still be considerably better off, they suddenly found they could offer me a reduction of £75 ! ! !
For Privatization read GREED and re-Nationalize.

I’ve read many of the comments above with interest from people who are very knowlegeable.
So please forgive me if the comment I make has already been covered.
I also “as a layman have tried to wade my way through the many offers made by the energy companies, and it might be that the way I approach the problem is “flawed”.But what I have done is worked out my average consumption for a quarter on dual fuel and given the exact same figures to each company then asked each company I have contacted to give me a bottom line cost for my dual fuel including all incentives etc. So for me the company that costs me the least on my quarterly bill I give the contract to.
I won’t believe that somebody more knowledgeable than myself hasn’t already tried this so I would welcome comments from Which or anyone else who may be able to put me wright.