Britain paying highest electricity prices in the world

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/26/britain-burdened-most-expensive-electricity-prices-in-world/

Posted by Humbly_Brag

32 Comments

  1. Cottonshopeburnfoot on

    I’m sure there’s some unique circumstance that applies to Britain because we are special which makes this entirely logical and fair.

  2. Illustrious_Guava_8 on

    We can’t expect energy company execs and major shareholders to cope with only 3 yachts each.

    Pretty inhumane of you. 

  3. Let the Brits complain about immigration, they’ve being getting swindled since the millennium

  4. Ed Miliband will sort its out with some… erm… windmills or something. Or Great British Energy. No north sea oil drilling though. Forget nuclear we want more windmills. Prices will go up probably but Ed Miliband knows best.

    We just get crap government after crap government in this country.

  5. Set aside the “but steel” thrust of that article and consider this:

    The government keeps announcing plans to “make us a world leader in AI” and the like – but “AI” and the algorithms behind it consume absolutely insane amounts of electricity – if the cost of the electricity is 4x as much as the US, you aren’t even founding or bringing your AI company to the UK.

  6. NowThatHappened on

    I was reading this article a week ago

    [https://www.gen.uk/index.php?page=Home&option=Blog&article=20240904](https://www.gen.uk/index.php?page=Home&option=Blog&article=20240904)

    and even though its business energy, the profits these generators are making is truly shocking, and yes we’re paying more than anyone else in the world to enrich these companies. Why doesn’t the government do something? back to enrich these companies who lobby and donate, and support. Bloody Brilliant that!

  7. They should be turning up at the commons with pitchforks but that’s never going to happen. A truly apathetic nation. I guess the conspiracy theory could be true about fluoride.

  8. terrordactyl1971 on

    We have thousands of wind turbines on land and off shore……and yet our energy prices are the highest in the world. Broken Britain again. Is anything in this fucking country run properly?

  9. So you appreciate the need for cheaper electricity to charge electric cars, renewable energy is cheaper, but the push for net zero will increase energy costs? That doesn’t make sense

  10. NauticalNomad24 on

    We have the tories – specifically the witch Thatcher to thank for this.

    They sold the family silver in the 80’s and have been renting it back to us (with interest for their cronies) for decades.

  11. I emigrated to Canada. I pay 6.7c per kwh (which is about 3.7p) for the first 40kwh used per day. Also, houses are much better insulated because of the cold winters. I’d dread to think how the UK would cope with winter at -20°.

  12. LauraPhilps7654 on

    which most major, developed nations are part of):

    – We have the highest industrial energy prices in the IEA. FOUR times, yes FOUR, as expensive as the USA. 46% above the IEA median.
    – We have the highest domestic energy prices in the IEA. 2.8 times that of the USA. 80% above the IEA median.
    – Between 2004 and 2021, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the industrial price of energy tripled in nominal terms, or doubled relative to consumer prices.

    Yet another blessing of neoliberalism and privatisation. The market will provide. Water, energy, rail and housing are so much better because of it.

    Remember it’s only a cost of living crisis for the poor. For shareholders it’s a bonanza. And they pay politicians to keep that way.

    >Energy profits hit £420bn in recent years as standing charges rise

    https://www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk/energy-profits-hit-420bn-in-recent-years-as-standing-charges-rise/

  13. This is what happens when you flog off critical national infrastructure so it’s owned by shareholders, investors and hedge funds. Asset stripping, profiteering and aggressive cost shaving, to the detriment of price and service.

    After all, who’s going to put their hand up and say actually, fuck you, I’ll manage without electricity?

  14. >Scotland paying the highest electricity prices in the UK, and therefore the world, despite generating enough electricity to power all of Scotland’s homes.

  15. >*Nuclear won’t come on stream until 2021-22 so that’s not an answer -* ***Nick Clegg 2010***

    We could have been building the next generation of nuclear power plants during a historically low period of interest rates, that would have come online in time to help mitigate the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine’s effect on energy prices. if it weren’t for short sighted thinking like this

  16. Because of the Tories and probably the previous Labour government and probably the current one, we live in a land of soaring capitalism (profiteering and exploitation) and the slow eradication of human rights and welfare.

  17. The summer before energy prices shot up Germany spent months retro-insulating properties. The UK was like stuff that, well just borrow some money and give people a short term subsidy. Mustn’t do anything to hit corporate profits.

    For the life of me i don’t know why this country can’t provide government backed loans to fit solar, wind, heat pumps and the finance is secured on the property so that when you sell it is recovered then or passed onto the new owner.

  18. HorristheHungryOgre on

    So personally, I don’t think net zero is entirely to blame.

    BUT

    Theoretically, if it was to blame, would people be willing to reverse it, or would they argue it we should stick with net zero with on principle.

  19. What is the cause of this? Higher dependence on natural gas?

    I’ve seen people reference corporate price gouging, but why would this be more of a problem in the UK than say Germany or France, perhaps its to do with regulatory structure?

  20. Only about 35% of the cost of the bill is the wholesale cost of the electricity.

    Network/distribution costs (26%), social and other environmental commitments (15%), VAT 5%, operating costs 19%.

    We have a lot more added costs compared to other countries.

    I don’t actually think it’s the wholesale cost which is a concern here although it’s a factor. We just have an overly complex energy system which needs simplifying