How HeatingSave Helps Businesses | Page 18

The government has been warned that there will be a 30 per cent rise in consumer energy bills by 2020 as a direct result of the coalition’s policies. The projected figure is blamed on policies like carbon pricing which are designed to promote the use of renewables.

Energy giant Npower blamed the “volatile global wholesale market” for making a big hike in its prices. Npower will raise gas prices by 15.7 per cent and electricity prices by 7.2% from the first day of October, it said. The firm said customers with a dual fuel tariff would see prices rise by 12.2% from October.

Energy regulator Ofgem has stepped up its investigation into the ‘big six’ suppliers. Five months ago Ofgem said it had evidence the leading energy companies had pushed up prices in response to rising costs more quickly than they reduced them when costs fell.

Unleaded petrol is close to its record price at the pumps, even though there has been a sustained fall in the cost of oil in the medium term. Since April, the cost of Brent crude has dropped by 18 per cent while this week unleaded petrol cost an average of 136.58 pence a litre across Britain’s forecourts. The petrol industry responded that prices are only partially dependent on the cost of crude oil.

The Government has announced big changes in the way Britain organises its electricity production partly in a bid to cut high fuel bills. It will offer generating companies long-term contracts at fixed prices to produce low-carbon power – in other words, from renewable sources and nuclear installations.

A council says it is saving more than £3,000 a month by turning off some street lights after midnight. Carmarthenshire council ensures that 3,000 of the lights within its jurisdiction are dimmed in the early hours of the morning.

In a move which has been widely predicted but is still unwelcome nevertheless, British Gas is putting up gas prices by 18 per cent and electricity prices by 16% from August 18, 2011. The utility last raised its rates back in December 2010 by 6.9% for gas and 6.7% for electricity. This means British Gas customers will have seen their bills increase by one-quarter in the last year alone. The firm has blamed the rises on the increasing wholesale cost of gas.

In what it has called the continued rationalisation of its windfarm portfolio, one of the ‘Big Six’ energy providers has sold off assets – but this is not likely to prevent it raising bills later in the year.

The owner of British Gas has hinted that it will raise prices for its gas and electricity customers again. Centrica’s statement to investors warned them to expect lower profits for the first half of 2011. The energy giant said “retail margin recovery” would boost its profits in the second half of the year to make up for this. Already in May Centrica said its customers were not paying enough to reflect the increased cost of gas on the wholesale market.

More details have emerged concerning the Green Deal scheme which is designed to help people pay for home insulation and other energy saving measures. The plan is for authorised companies to pay for the insulation work and homeowners will repay the money, plus interest, through additional charges on their energy bills. Climate change minister Greg Barker said: “The Green Deal is the government’s flagship energy saving plan to transform the country’s homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run.”

The solar industry is disputing claims on the comparative cost of solar and nuclear power. A report from the recent parliamentary Climate Change Committee backed new nuclear as the cheapest option for the green power the UK needs to hit its carbon-reduction targets. Solar firms disagree, claiming that solar costs should be compared with retail prices, due to the scale of the technology. The industry has taken its fight over plans to slash the feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme to the House of Lords.

Consumers are being urged to implement green home improvements and waste less energy as a means of avoiding imminent expensive energy bills. “The Green Deal will help householders upgrade their homes to waste less energy, and our electricity market reforms will bring on investment in clean energy sources that are not vulnerable to global price shocks,” said energy secretary Chris Huhne.