XFool wrote:funduffer wrote:Perhaps the best commentary on why we have an energy crisis currently, from Dieter Helm, an Oxford professor on energy matters
http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/assets/secu ... .10.21.pdf
Worth a read as he explains almost everything about the current crisis.
Quite so. I already referenced this elsewhere. Worth quoting the last paragraph again, in full, IMO:
"What the gas crisis has really done is to highlight where customers are coming from, and to knock down the pack of cards that is supply competition. Instead of simply assuming that customers want to switch and that suppliers have the interests of their customers in mind, ideologies have trumped these. The implication of supply competition has always been that customers who do not switch are just stupid, and therefore in the end it is their own fault that they are landed with higher prices. The alternative – that customers are the best judges of their own interests, and do not want to spend their evenings searching the internet amongst the bewildering claims of 70 companies offering them such “good deals”, and what they really want is a secure stable and not volatile supply at a price with a fair rate of return, and to spend as little time and effort on this – has clearly escaped ministers’ and regulators’ minds. As one of those “stupid” customers, I am very glad that I did not switch to the latest bunch of companies going bust. Frankly, like most customers, I have better things to do."
I'm not sure Dieter Helm's right? I've used the "Which" energy comparison website over many years whenever a fixed price tariff expired. Using around the average household energy consumption of gas and electricity, it only took a few minutes to check comparative prices and now looking at my records, it has saved me well over a thousand pounds in energy costs. I've usually chosen large suppliers like Eon and EDF, although I admit I did have a year with People's Energy which saved over £500 in 2020. Perhaps this is the reason they went bust!
I'm now with Octopus and paying 5p per kWh for off peak electricity to charge a BEV and run other high demand appliances. Will the tariff last when it ends in the middle of next year, I doubt it! But following Dieter Helm's advice would have cost a lot.
Obviously if one is wealthy and not prepared to spend a few minutes each time a one or two year fixed price tariff expires then it is one's right to disagree.
This is an investment site and a lot of contributors seem reasonably prepared to spend a little time on managing investments so might feel it's worth it.
regards
Howard