A background into the Electricity Spike

French September Nuclear power is at its lowest output level since August 1998, after it was reported nuclear power stations were at risk of catastrophic failure. This failure centres around the Vessel and its Cap, as high levels of carbon are produced, making the steel framework brittle.

Yesterday a report was produced by Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (French ASN) providing an additional 5 sites that require testing within the next 3 Months, limiting output in that time. A total of 7 sites are currently being tested, limiting output further.

The French fuel mix is completely different to ours, as 75% of their mix relies on Nuclear Power. This places a huge burden on the French Power system limiting interconnector flows between France and the UK, to which imports account for roughly 6% of electricity available in the UK.

Also Coal Prices continue their rise, with Newcastle Contracts trading at $102.2/ton, its highest level since April 2012. The downward correction in temperatures over the next week is also pushing prices up, with the expectation of demand being significantly higher than seasonal norms.

Protect yourself from rising costs, visit our Domestic Switching Site

Water regulator postpones new connection charging rules

In order to provide more time for English water companies to consult and respond to feedback before final new connection charging rules are implemented, Ofwat has postponed the framework which was due to be implemented in April 2017.

The charging rules, which are now intended for introduction in April 2018, are for new connection services to developers and customers for: connections to water mains and public sewers, new water mains, public sewers and lateral drains, and pipe diversions.

The decision to postpone was taken after consultation, where stakeholders deemed that current arrangements are “too complex, unpredictable and unfair.”

The regulator has expressed the new rules will be published later this year. They are expected to “provide a more flexible charging framework, reduce arbitrary differences in companies’ implementation and permit companies to introduce innovative tariffs.”

Deregulation of the water industry occurs in April 2017, which will allow consumers to switch their water contracts in much the same way as they currently do with energy contracts.

Prior to April 2017, it is recommended that consumers audit their water account. Firstly, to check they are currently being billed correctly and ensure any new tariff accurately represents their usage and, secondly, if they may be entitled to recover any overpayments for a period going back up to 6 years.

For further advice or information submit your enquiry here.

Energy Market Report

Friday 30th September was a good day for policy makers, figures released from the Office of National Statistics showed an expansion of 0.4% in July for the UK’s service sector; a sector that makes up the bulk of the UK GDP, forcing a revision of the Q2 GDP figure to 0.7% from 0.6%.

This figure does show that post Brexit; consumer’s mind-set did not change; it may also point to the consistently warm temperatures we experienced during July. This figure however, was forgotten as the weekend wore on with the announcement from Prime Minister, Mrs Theresa May, that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty was to be invoked, therefore getting the British ‘divorce’ from Europe underway by March 2017.

This will do little to help the value of the British Pound, which has been under significant downward pressure for some time, losing over 11% against the Euro since the referendum result. In turn, this effects our Gas Prices, forcing them upwards as we import a chunk of our Gas supply from the continent.

Gas Prices are also very reliant upon Oil Prices, which have finally broken the $50 /bl mark after the OPEC Meeting last week, the announcement that a production cap was on its way was aided by a reduction in US Crude Oil inventories of 1.9m barrels, forcing a rise of $3 /bl.

More increases were limited after the Baker Hughes Rig count showed an increase of 35 rigs in North America to 684, however it is important to note that year on year that figure is down by 287 – a sharp reminder of how damaging low Oil prices have been over the course of 2016.

Electricity offers have been extremely volatile over the last few days, with a number of suppliers pulling their matrices. Whilst we can look to increases in the Gas and Oil Markets for a portion of the blame we must also turn our heads towards the continent and see what is going on with European Electricity Prices.

Due to lack of availability at its nuclear sites, French Power offers surged to a 13 Month High, having a knock on effect with other European Electricity offers.

A number of nuclear sites with steam generators in France are under investigation after reactor pressure vessels and their caps, contain a very high level of carbon, forcing the steel framework to potentially become brittle. These investigations may cause outages and disruptions as there is a potential for catastrophe, if the issues are not rectified quickly and correctly.

As a result, our Electricity offers are nearing a backwardation level and have increased violently over the last week or so, with an increase of 11.53 £/MwH or 26.92% over the last 9 days as can be seen on the graph below:

When in a rising market it is important to note that urgent action is needed at some point, therefore it is not advised to bury heads in the sand and wait for the ‘storm’ to pass. Take action and but please keep an eye on the market.

To protect your utility costs from rising markets, contact us

Reduce your costs this winter

Don’t be stung by rising energy costs this winter. You could save an impressive £204* by March 2017 by simply switching your energy supply through our GET Rewards Switching site. So why not start saving today?

With a growing number of UK household’s struggling with rising energy costs this winter period, we’ll make sure you’re not left out in the cold. Our Domestic Switching site scouts the market and generates the lowest prices in the UK.

Customers using our domestic service over the last sixty days have saved an average of £257.97** per annum with a maximum saving of £2,763.

Winter is almost upon us, visit our GET Rewards Switching Site and enjoy lower costs today.

*£204 saving by March 2017 is provided by Flow Energy available on our switching site.
**All figures provided are correct at the time of being published.

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