The good old days

In the old days—before Thatcher—you paid for your domestic energy every quarter in arrears, generally based on your usage (depending on how often the meter reader came round). Now, as I find myself once again changing my supplier, you pay up front one month in advance based on what your supplier tells you they think is a reasonable amount to pay. The idea is that you will build up credit with them in the summer months (effectively lending them your money) so that the accrued surplus covers your extra winter usage. As I have discovered with my last, nearly departed supplier, if they demand (as they did) you pay a monthly sum based on 12 months winter average usage, you’ll end up lending them a lot of money. I complained about this to that business, pointing out that I had consistently given them monthly meter readings, so they had precise data. In reply  I got emails, allegedly written by a human being, meticulously ignoring the specific points I had raised with them.

​On top of that, I have always tried, over the last 15-20 years to stick with a ‘green’ tariff. Now it turns out that many of these so-called green energy suppliers are merely buying carbon credits, rather than investing in green technology directly. There is very little transparency. The current incarnation of the carbon credit system is severely flawed, and I am in no doubt that the market is plagued by double counting. This whole privatised energy market is heading towards a reckoning. I hope. That would have come sooner rather than later if Jeremy Corbyn had been elected. As it is, I suspect Kier Starmer has already decided against nationalising energy. Come the next election we’ll probably get some mild proposals to tweak the regulator’s remit, which will of course be described as ‘radical proposals.’