Posts Tagged ‘prices’
For many people electricity is just a service that they take for granted – they plug in their appliance, flick the power button on, and away they go. Most people only think about electricity when they have a power cut or a particularly high utility bill because of increasing electricity prices.
Understanding how electricity prices are determined requires a little bit of knowledge about how electricity works. Electricity is delivered to millions of homes through a network of power lines called the National Grid. Power plants generate electricity through various sources of energy and feed the grid in order to transmit electricity through the power lines to your home.
Some utility companies generate all their own electricity but – more often than not – the utility company will purchase their power supply from the wholesale electricity markets, which can come from domestic suppliers or abroad. Your electricity prices can fluctuate depending on how much your supplier has to pay for the electricity from foreign markets.
A poor exchange rate or shortage in world power supply will push electricity prices up as suppliers pass on increased costs to consumers. Often a ‘power pool’ is created to conglomerate neighbouring resources which increases reliability of power supply and prevents power outages.
Electricity prices are based mainly on the current availability of fuels available used to generate electricity for the grid. Most of our electricity comes from coal and oil, but natural gas is a growing commodity as it is the cleanest burning of the three fossil fuels. The more fuel there is, the cheaper electricity prices get. Electricity prices can also be affected by construction costs incurred by utility companies to build new power plants, as well as outside factors such as major international events and the weather.
Electricity prices are most expensive during the day during peak times, usually in the afternoon and early evening. Where possible, if you are on a variable rate, use your electrical appliances early in the morning and late at night to get cheaper electricity prices.
TalkTalk’s takeover of Tiscali could result in some ex-Tiscali customers facing higher monthly bills for their broadband.
TalkTalk will commence moving customers onto its own broadband platform this week after completing its takeover of Tiscali.
Customers on Tiscali’s popular unlimited broadband package received a letter last month which explained that they could either move onto TalkTalk’s phone and broadband package for £14.99 a month or pay an extra £5 per month or £60 per year to remain on their current broadband deal.
Many recipients of the letter are unhappy faced with the choice of a new 18 month contract with TalkTalk or an increased bill with no extra benefits in return.
When questioned about the possibility of price rises, TalkTalk’s spokesman Mark Schmid told The Guardian: “Our aim is to have one set of clearly understood prices, that will mean that no one is paying more than the TalkTalk tariff.”
Tiscali operated a set of near-identical broadband and home phone packages to TalkTalk, the majority at lower prices.
The effect of the switch means that many former Tiscali customers could see monthly bills rise to match TalkTalk pricing.
Customers on Tiscali’s top package which included all call costs, broadband and line rental face an increase of around £10 per month if prices are raised to match the TalkTalk product of the same nature.
In an attempt to capitalise on the publicity, other broadband providers have announced special promotions specifically targeted at ex-Tiscali customers.
PlusNet launched a broadband deal which offers ex-Tiscali customers 3 months free broadband as well as a free wireless router and free connection.
Former Tiscali customers need to sign up online before the end of the month with the promotional code ’tiscalisave’ to benefit.
BT is also offering a special £9.99 package for any Tiscali customers looking to leave the company when it is taken over.
The BT broadband offer can only be accessed when ringing 08000497843 and interested customers need to mention the Tiscali promotion to qualify.
Elsewhere, other broadband providers are offering deals which are unconnected to the events surrounding Tiscali and TalkTalk yet represent significant value.
Many broadband experts suggest that anyone looking for a good broadband deal at present, whether ex-Tiscali or not, should compare broadband deals online at a comparison website.
Julia Kukiewicz of ChooseISP.co.uk says: “Be broadband now offer a very similar broadband package for just £7.50 per month. This is significant value and much cheaper than many inferior broadband deals on the market at present.”.
As a part of the on going financial problems in the UK gas and electricity prices were one of the first vital expenses to go up in cost in 2008, scaremongering in late 2007 proved to hold weight when people’s prepay utility bills skyrocketed by over 100%. As other areas of our lives increased in cost things like food and petrol also began an upward trend.
The thing is that whilst we can’t do much about food costs rising, (you can either put up with the prices or starve to death) but with the advanced warning we got about energy consumption and the increased spotlight on energy and recycling we have been lectured about in the media many people were intentionally using less energy, turning off lights and not leaving TVs on standby.
Despite all these extra steps we’ve taken this year our bills are set to rise yet again as early reports come in. Some residents in parts of the country have been informed of their new monthly costs and they don’t make for pleasant reading, the majority of customers of the main energy companies have received notification that their energy bills are set to rise for 2009.
Why is this happening? Well some may argue that the cost of oil and coal rising has evidently pushed the by-products of gas and electricity up, but not since the cost of oil has dropped over the past few months. The evidence of this is that petrol and diesel have dropped well below their early 08 prices, who would have thought five months ago that Unleaded would be below £1.00 again?
The case for this seemingly wrong rise in energy costs is further exacerbated by energy firms like E-on and British Gas reporting booming profits. Many customers who are adamant they have not consumed more energy have smelt a rat and contacted their energy company and demanded a reading of their meters. The result? The energy company realised they had over-quoted these customers and dropped the proposed increases.
So is the energy industry bleeding their customers dry? Or is the pricing of our gas and electricity bills just a crapshoot? It seems at the moment with the prospect of energy going up again now may be the time to enquire about your bills and even consider switching your supplier to get a better deal.