Electricity Price Hike

[Bazza Smurf]

28 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

I stand to be corrected on this but I'm sure that Alex Allinson in his then capacity as MUA Chair previously stated that a fall in wholesale gas prices would not result in a fall in local electricity prices.

I'm not sure his answer was that simple but there was no clarity as to whether the price would lower. Debt repayment and a move toward a greener future was included in his responses to me. 

I posted his responses on this tread some time ago I think. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Bazza Smurf

[GD4ELI]

4 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

I stand to be corrected on this but I'm sure that Alex Allinson in his then capacity as MUA Chair previously stated that a fall in wholesale gas prices would not result in a fall in local electricity prices.

Maybe MUA bought 6 month / 12 month futures?

Wholesale market indicators | Ofgem

Look at Wholesale Forward Delivery Contracts Price Trends. one would expect prices to be dropping, maybe MUA has some debt to repay?

[GD4ELI]

1 minute ago, Bazza Smurf said:

I'm not sure his answer was that simple but there was no clarity as to whether the price would lower. Debt repayment and a move toward a greener future wax included in his responses to me. 

I posted his responses on this tread sone time ago I think. 

Indeed. Myself, I'm a smug git with solar panels, last month's bill was just £24.55 of which £16.55 was standing charge. Mind you, £14.6k for the panel + battery installation.

[Bazza Smurf]

10 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

I stand to be corrected on this but I'm sure that Alex Allinson in his then capacity as MUA Chair previously stated that a fall in wholesale gas prices would not result in a fall in local electricity prices.

 

FOR ORAL ANSWER

Hon. Member for Arbory, Castletown & Malew (Mr Moorhouse) to ask the Chair of Manx Utilities

 

What will happen to electricity tariffs from 1st April 2023; how the losses accumulated as a consequence of the additional costs of production over the last 18 months will be managed; and if he will make a statement?

 

 MR SPEAKER 

I CAN CONFIRM THAT MANX UTILITIES ANNOUNCED ITS TARIFFS FOR 2023 YESTERDAY.  DURING 2022 WE ENGAGED AN INDEPENDENT FIRM OF PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS TO ASSESS OUR FINANCIAL POSITION AND AT THE START OF THIS YEAR THEY RECOMMENDED THAT A SIXTY PERCENT TARIFF INCREASE WAS NECESSARY FOR MANX UTILITIES TO CONTINUE TO FUND PURCHASES OF ENERGY.  THE BOARD DETERMINED THE INCREASE SHOULD BE APPLIED AS A TWELVE PENCE PER KILO-WATT HOUR INCREASE AND HAS WORKED WITH GOVERNMENT TO APPLY THIS IN TWO STAGES, IN A SIMILAR MANNER TO LAST YEAR’S INCREASE.

THE DEFICITS ACCUMULATED OVER THE LAST 18 MONTHS HAVE BEEN MET PRINCIPALLY FROM A TOTAL OF £25 MILLION OF WITHDRAWALS FROM THE BOND REPAYMENT FUND AND ALLOWING OPERATIONAL CASH BALANCES TO REDUCE.  THIS HAS SIGNIFICANTLY WEAKENED MANX UTILITIES’ FINANCIAL POSITION AND IT HAS BEEN LEFT IN A POSITION, REGRETTABLY, WHERE IT HAS HAD TO FURTHER INCREASE ITS TARIFFS.  THE INCREASES ANNOUCED WILL MEAN THAT ISLE OF MAN DOMESTIC ELECTRICITY TARIFFS REMAIN LOWER THAN THOSE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

[Bazza Smurf]

Recent correspondence from the Treasury Minister. I had permission to share. 

 

 

Our Island Plan includes a commitment to ensure energy security for our island and manage the transition to carbon net zero by 2050. Part of this will require legislation on a range of energy issues and more tighter regulation of a range of activities carried out both by individuals and companies.

I believe that the current status of Manx Utilities as a Statutory Board, and the scrutiny from Tynwald regarding their pricing structure, operations and future plans provides for the reassurance that the public have a “transparent vision into where their money is going” in terms of electricity tariffs but also for water and sewerage charges.

This scrutiny has recently been quite public with respect to oral evidence given to various Tynwald scrutiny committees;

https://www.tynwald.org.im/news/no-clear-energy-policy-committee-reflects-on-evidence-from-the-manx-utilities-authority

and late last year;

https://www.tynwald.org.im/spfile?file=/business/hansard/20202040/eprcmua221128.pdf

Yours sincerely

Edited May 16, 2023 by Bazza Smurf

[Bazza Smurf]

6 minutes ago, GD4ELI said:

Maybe MUA bought 6 month / 12 month futures?

Wholesale market indicators | Ofgem

Look at Wholesale Forward Delivery Contracts Price Trends. one would expect prices to be dropping, maybe MUA has some debt to repay?

They have. Agreed. The NERA report published 2019 however seemed to indicate (although it's a long tough read, even more difficult than here, was that whilst debt must be repaid, the continually changing wholesale price should have a reflection on retail prices. I do not currently see any effort to ensure that the public see a transparent pricing mechanism currently. 

I see an outdated Electricity Act, a complex difficult to understand NERA report, cancelled out by the Curran Report which led to the 5 year Action plan whilst now concentrating on going green. Hope that makes sense? 🤔 It doesn't to me but it might to you. I'm not sure it does to the average MHK either so it's probably a safer bet to politically ignore it and let the public turn the lights out. 

[Ham_N_Eggs]

1 hour ago, GD4ELI said:

Indeed. Myself, I'm a smug git with solar panels, last month's bill was just £24.55 of which £16.55 was standing charge. Mind you, £14.6k for the panel + battery installation.

You can add an extra £4k to that on the Island and that's with the cheapest installer.

[woolley]

2 hours ago, GD4ELI said:

Maybe MUA bought 6 month / 12 month futures?

Wholesale market indicators | Ofgem

Look at Wholesale Forward Delivery Contracts Price Trends. one would expect prices to be dropping, maybe MUA has some debt to repay?

Thanks, GD4. You saved me the trouble. This is the crux of the matter. We need all of the information about what was bought when and for what price to be published as a matter of routine, before we can make any judgment about the actual cost of producing what we are being charged 28p/34p per kWh for. There should be no reason to withhold this information. It's a publicly owned monopoly so there is no market advantage to be gained or lost.

I think that getting this information into the open should be the focus of any campaign because while it remains secret the retail pricing doesn't need to be justified. It can simply be spun to suit a narrow agenda.

One thing that seems clear to me is that 34p a unit is going to be unsustainable if the average price in the UK falls much below 30p. The clamour to follow from households and businesses will become deafening, and they won't be able to hold the line. Or at least not without justifying it in the way I've described above.

[hissingsid]

When businesses start closing at the back end and customers get in debt they will have to rethink this suck it up attitude.

[hissingsid]

When a business closes the owner suffers, the staff suffer and the government suffer as they will not be getting the VAT the business tips up to them it is the restaurants etc that will fall first.

[Not just you who sees it..]

On 3/8/2023 at 1:06 PM, Ham_N_Eggs said:

 

Like I said the other day have Manx Utilities ever reduced the price of electricity? 

Even when gas prices have dropped previously they just kept the additional money as profit or to service the ridiculous debt they were saddled with. 

Government owned entities should not exist to make profit from the citizens of the country that owns them.

The lack of regulation is a big problem. 

Yes, pretty much, so, blatantly and flagrantly overcharging is wrong.  However, and it's only a few ideas here, ~ a bit like rum chundering in to a strong headwind, feels a bit better at first, horrible to clear up, yet it can be done, yet defo., not at all nice, far from it~ the huge sums spent on the MUM'S Pully Pwr Sttn way back, oh, was it only a couple of decades ago by rather surreptitiously sought loans, the inquiries found out about later on, were not strictly at that time legal, and are to be paid back in full, and yet, AND YET.., 'The Pulrose Power Station is quite a robustly designed and a functional bit of kit, i.e. it is strongly designed by it being incredible functional. It does

what it is meant to do, generate electricity.  The eras now, a couple of decades on from it being built as is, we are now more aware of environmental factors than ever before. It's a continual learning curve, and quite rightly so, too, I think.  Feel free to reply with critical comments. Water off a duck's back.

[Cambon]

Gas price hovering around 25 year low, regardless of inflation. 
 

[Albert Tatlock]

1 minute ago, Cambon said:

Gas price hovering around 25 year low, regardless of inflation. 
 

Yeah but oil producers planning production cuts to ramp it up again.

[Cambon]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:37 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Yeah but oil producers planning production cuts to ramp it up again.

They always say that. It is cyclical. Petrol prices will go up now until mid summer. Heating oil will go down. Come July/August, futures will reverse. It is cyclical and repetitive. 
Gas prices will be low. Very low until the Ukraine war is resolved. Not because of buying gas from Russia, but because of the threat of it. Anything to not finance Russia’s unknown objective. 

[Anyone]

I’ve started learning to speak Russian. I think I’ll find it very handy in the next couple of years comrade.