The UK is set to experience further energy price hikes next winter. This news comes from Centrica, which is British Gas’ parent company, after it announced that due to unrest in the Middle East and the disaster in Japan, wholesale gas prices have gone up by a quarter compared to last year.

The Japan disaster has meant that the country has had trouble producing enough energy for its people as a result a great deal of liquefied gas supplies have been diverted to make up for the shortfall in power production.

"In the UK the forward wholesale prices of gas and power for delivery in winter 2011/12 are currently around 25% higher than prices last winter, with end-user prices yet to reflect this higher wholesale market price environment," said Centrica.

Due to the rising cost of gas a number of energy suppliers in the UK including Npower, First Utility and British Gas, which has over 16 million customers have already had to increase prices and take away some cheaper tariffs. 

Even though this is not good news for homeowners they can do something now to protect themselves against the hikes and bigger bills during the upcoming winter. Most of the largest gas and electric providers do offer fixed-price tariffs, however suppliers are already increasing prices and withdrawing cheap deals so time is running out.

Homeowners can use sites such as GasBoiler-Buyability.co.uk, Moneysupermarket.com and Uswitch.com to compare the best energy deals on the market.

Although these price hikes are unfortunately unavoidable due to rising wholesale prices they are nonetheless coming at a poor time with record petrol prices and other increased living expenses this is yet another blow to the average household’s dwindling disposable income.

The price hikes are not only affecting domestic users either with businesses set to be hit as well. But the recent Renewable Heat Incentive launched by the government will allow commercial and domestic users later on to receive subsidies and cash back. And with the new price hikes this will surely spur many companies to look at more cost effective forms of energy supply.

The RHI scheme will initially be funded by the government using £860 million and is set to be available to the public and commercial sector as of July 2011. The scheme will provide financial incentives for installing and using renewable energy. This will be done by paying an annual subsidy to the person who owns the installation. The funding will be available for systems such as ground source heat pumps and solar thermal. British Gas has teamed up with Sainsbury’s to promote renewable energy installation by providing advice and information to shoppers. This will help to promote the incentive to the public.

It is predicted that inflation and energy prices could double over the next decade and with the RHI scheme this could mean a new revolution in renewable energy production for businesses and homeowners.

Guest Article by Louise Goldstein

One of the UK’s major energy companies has shocked its customers with a huge 19% rise in its gas prices and a massive 10% uplift in electricity tariffs.

Scottish Power has rocked the energy sector with the scale of its rises and will bring down upon itself the wrath of consumer groups already wondering how people can cope with such inflation.

The rises will come into effect on 1 August, but will only affect those not on fixed deals. This has prompted a number of experts to recommend people to sign up fixed deals as quickly as they can.

It’s feared that others will follow where Scottish Power has led and that the other big five energy companies in the UK will make similar rises soon.

British Gas, EDF, E.ON, npower and Southern and Scottish will make announcements soon as to their pricing intentions in the run up to winter. And British Gas has made strong hints that rises are inevitable, given the continually increasing wholesale costs.

But the extent of the Scottish Power increases has stunned customers and energy pundits alike. For the average bill, it has added about £170 which means over a year, the bill has climbed from £1,150 to £1,320.

Scottish Power has over five million customers and has never been adverse to leading the way in announcing price rises. Industry observers had noticed that for the last few weeks the company had been dropping hints about price changes, but the scale of the change has shocked many.

The company were quick to lay the blame firmly at the door of rising wholesale costs, but consumer groups were less impressed with that view, saying that the protection of margins was the real reason behind the rises.

People are being told to get themselves into long term fixed agreements before they might be withdrawn over the coming months.

In a case of almost shutting the door after the horse has bolted from the stable, the regulator of the energy industry is looking at the whole question of whether companies are justified in using wholesale price fluctuations as an excuse to raise their prices, especially when it appears to many that they don’t cut them when they fall again.

The energy companies claim that the situation is more complicated than people believe and that the process of buying energy some months ahead is complicated, and does not always follow what the wholesale market is doing.

One thing is for sure though, Scottish Power won’t be alone for long.

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

The parent company of British Gas has published its 2010 corporate responsibility report which sets out what it believes to be its progress as set against its objectives.

British Gas is owned by Centrica and both concerns believe that they have made significant advances with their environmental ambitions. The overall objective is to mitigate the effects of its environmental impact.

It highlights a number of key points, including the fact that British Gas already installed 195,228 smart meters last year, which goes against the overall target of, by 2012, of two million installed.

Secondly, that the Group’s carbon intensity from its UK power generation has dropped by 25% in 2010, to 277g CO2/kWh. The target by 2012 is 270g CO2/kWh.

Thirdly, that in its desire to have achieved a 20% reduction in carbon footprint generated by its company vehicles, travel and offices by 2015, it has already gained just over a 11% drop.

Fourthly, that British Gas had throughout last year, supplied energy efficiency products to its customers that had the equivalent lifetime carbon saving of just shy of 16 million tonnes.

Furthermore, it revealed that in terms of its global position, it achieved a 13th position in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index for 2010 for achieving a 92% score.

Just what exactly that might mean for the environment is unclear, but experts recognise that blue chip companies have to take the lead in showing that meaningful carbon reduction is possible.

Environmentalists might have their doubts, but British Gas and its parent Centrica has at least made some big steps in the right direction. 

Guest Article by Neil Camp

 A leading consumer website is warning that half of the competitive online energy plans, including one offered by British Gas, have been pulled off the market and more are likely to follow.

The British Gas online tariff is priced at a very competitive £895 a year, but observers wonder how long they can keep this price at that level.

EDF Energy and npower have already pulled the plug on their most competitive online plans to new customers.

Their action has meant that the average price of the best energy deal has rocketed by nearly 4% to £947; up from £913, a hike of £34. The only reason why this average is not higher, is because British Gas has kept its cost down.

But with rumours that British Gas is about to pull their plan, users are being urged to take action before being disappointed.

The energy expert at uSwitch.com delivered the warning in no uncertain terms:
“This latest move by two of the big six suppliers to remove their most competitively priced plans off the market suggests that the current crop of best buy plans are not going to be around for long. I would urge people to snap up a deal now or risk seeing the last competitive plan slip through their fingers.”

And with energy prices set to rise further over the coming months, those that would appreciate the lower online tariff prices definitely need to hurry before all the best deals disappear for a very long time.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The recent nuclear scare in Japan has done more than frighten the life out of Western European governments who were just persuading their populations that nuclear, afterall, was now a tamed monster.

It has thrown the whole energy debate out of kilter. Latest conceived wisdom is that the world has about 20 to 30 years left of comparatively cheap fossil fuels (before they become very expensive with higher production costs).

Nevermind for a minute that they might be harming the environment, the fact is that at today’s estimates, the current stocks are at the wrong end of the tank: nearing empty.

Now, okay, Russia has lots left (oil, gas, you name it), as does parts of the Middle East which appears to have discovered plentiful natural gas. But Russia has a tendency to sulk when it comes to supplying energy, and the Middle East is undergoing radical political upheaval which might not stop at Libya.

But if the West wants true energy freedom and comfort, the frozen wastes of the poles will have to fall to the oil companies, despite the environmental howls of protest, and the US might just have to start drilling off their East coast where it’s said there’s buckets of oil.

So politicians across the West saw nuclear as literally a great white light ready to save their problems. Three Mile Island was just an ugly memory (and some say not a bad movie) and Chernobyl thankfully happened in a part of the world where people don’t go on holiday.

And for the UK Government in particular, who see that in 20 years time the country is going to struggle to generate little of its own power, nuclear power was a God send. And when the French company EDF came along and started buying parts of the UK nuclear infrastructure, the Government took shelter in their upbeat PR machine which had well groomed men in suits saying that nuclear power was now nice and clean.

Oh dear. What a difference a Tsunami half way across the world makes. And for every day that TV stations focus on hissing steam coming from the stricken plant, you can strike a year off the time before nuclear power once again becomes the power of the future. Think of the bowed heads in the EDF Boardroom.

And the mother of all problems now confronts the politicians. Nuclear is back on the naughty step, shale gas retrieval is about as popular as killing badgers and wind power is fine as long as it’s about a hundred miles offshore and out of sight.

Yet the country’s population craves ever more energy to run their iPods, cars and every other conceivable gadget you can think of.

In other words, the UK populace can’t have its cake and eat it. Nuclear energy is out (given the fear of meltdown); the new wonder fuel shale gas is getting people onto the streets in protest and wind turbines either make too much noise, or kill too many birds.

But if the population of the UK don’t wake up soon, they might find their energy is more expensive than they ever had imagined, and that’s the true cost of not in my back yard.

Guest Article by Neil Camp