Energy companies could be forced to open books

[charitynjw]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ene...pen-books.html

Energy companies could be forced to open their books to consumers because of a lack of evidence to justify a rise in prices, the head of the Commons energy and climate change select committee has suggested.


Tim Yeo admitted that average increases of nearly £200 a year on energy bills announced by Scottish Power may not be "acceptable and reasonable" in relation to wholesale prices.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "They certainly have not provided evidence to show that they are [acceptable and reasonable].

"There is a very strong public suspicion, probably justified, that prices tend to go up faster than they come down. What we need is clear transparency from the companies to show that the prices they have had to pay on the wholesale market in the past three or four months justify this enormous increase, and the companies so far have not provided that.".............

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Energy companies could be forced to open books

Fully supported by me those increases are just obseen and why do they have to increase more than once a year.

[charitynjw]

Re: Energy companies could be forced to open books

If it's not too controversial, the sound of a cash register may be appropriate here!

[CleverClogs]

Re: Energy companies could be forced to open books

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ene...pen-books.html

Energy companies could be forced to open their books to consumers because of a lack of evidence to justify a rise in prices, the head of the Commons energy and climate change select committee has suggested.

And pigs could fly if they grew wings. :flypig:

[charitynjw]

Re: Energy companies could be forced to open books

And pigs could fly if they grew wings. :flypig:

Good job they don't - pigeon crap is bad enough, lol

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Energy companies could be forced to open books

Are they taking advantage of the low BoE base rate I think so and about time the government cracked down.

The Government opened up the energy market for fair competition and it seems they are doing the opposite and closing ranks to keep prices artificially high.

[Caspar]

Re: Energy companies could be forced to open books

I too would support this entirely. We pay around £120 a month for our gas and electric via DD, so the cheapest way. We are very careful what we use, though we do have a biggish house.

[shamen]

Re: Energy companies could be forced to open books

A lot of the price rises are not just down to wholesale energy prices. Renewable energy certificates are a legal obligation of the energy industry to provide to the government (to pay for subsidies on wind, solar etc), so they are buying them and passing the cost on to consumers

this made an interesting read

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06...p_leccy_price/

The first of these schemes is the Renewables Obligation, which compels anyone supplying electricity in the UK to present Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) equal in number to a given percentage of the total 'leccy they supply (in megawatt-hours) each year. This percentage has been steadily climbing since the RO was introduced at the turn of the century: today it is 11 per cent and it will climb to a bit more than 15 per cent in 2015. After that it will persist until at least 2037 - it was supposed to stop in 2027 but the scheme was extended last year.


...


In essence the ROC scheme is a hidden tax on electricity which is used to subsidise renewables. But a flat tax like that - one which hits poorer people, to whom the electricity bill is a noticeable expense, disproportionately hard - would be politically difficult to implement, so the way it is kept off the government's books is particularly cunning.