Back in October, it was bleak.
The government introduced an energy cap with the aim of giving a degree of protection to consumers in January 2019. The cap was originally set at £1,277 per year, then £2,500 for 2 years starting in October 2022.
However, the UK Government is having to pay the Energy Co’s the wholesale price for gas and this is estimated to total £120 Billion over the next 2 years. The government will charge a proportion of this back to the consumers over the next 20 years via their energy bills.
Whilst the cap is welcome and does at least help consumers, it’s just going to plough huge profits into the pockets of energy companies shareholders. Consumers are going to continue to suffer. Our SmartGrid is designed to break this cycle and democratise the generation and distribution at a community level.
The Energy Market is clearly broken. It is being driven by global wholesale Gas prices and this is driving an estimated 7 million households in the UK into energy poverty. Figure 1 illustrates, for 2021, the demography of households and the Average Fuel Poverty Gap. (The fuel poverty gap is the reduction in required spending which would take a household out of fuel poverty.)
*Figure 1 Demography of households and the Average Fuel Poverty Gap https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1056842/fuel-poverty-factsheet-2020.pdf*