Our energy market is anti-competitive
Over the last 37 years our home has been supplied entirely by electricity because fossil fuels contribute to the climate crisis (‘Insult to millions’: Shell and Centrica profits cause outrage as energy bills soar, 28 July). For years we have had totally renewable energy, significantly more expensive than fossil fuels. Our annual bill in December last year was £3,505. We have taken this on the chin as part of our responsibility to save the planet for future generations.
On 8 July they wrote to raise our annual bill to £7,373. When I protested that this did not reflect the production costs, my supplier, Good Energy, said: “The rate at which we pay our generators is influenced by the wholesale energy market. We have to raise the rates on our tariffs to reflect the higher wholesale cost of electricity and gas and make sure we’re paying our generators a fair price.”
Strangely, in previous years they did not reduce our renewables costs in line with the wholesale energy market. We are told the benefit of the market is that it allows competition. This demonstrates an absence of competition; the suppliers acting as a cartel, fixing prices which give them unearned profit.
Many people should be going over to renewables because production costs are now cheaper than fossil fuels, mitigating the climate crisis. Instead our supplier is pricing customers like ourselves out of the renewables sector.Esther HackWinchester, Hampshire
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