Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
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Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
1–10 of 353 posts
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#2Some of these are "costs" which reduce costs elsewhere.
Smart meters for example, though rollout has hit snags and they've become targets for weird conspiracy theories, they are basically designed to give better real time info on electricity demand which helps with managing the grid.
This in theory should save money elsewhere.
Similarly for CfD. Yes the government may on net be paying a subsidy to get wind power built but what was the next best option? If that costs more than the CfD then that's a win.
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#329p / kWh doesn't hold a candle to PG&E costs in the San Francisco Bay Area.
It's ironic that it's quite a bit cheaper to use natural gas here, since we're supposed to convert to electricity to save the planet.
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#429p / kWh doesn't hold a candle to PG&E costs in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's ironic that it's quite a bit cheaper to use natural gas here, since we're supposed to convert to electricity to save the planet.
I would say it's tragic, not ironic.
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#529p / kWh doesn't hold a candle to PG&E costs in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's ironic that it's quite a bit cheaper to use natural gas here, since we're supposed to convert to electricity to save the planet.
The cost of bailing out owners of burnt down homes in Paradise, CA worth $0 for $700k is rolled into every San Francisco PG&E bill.
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#6Third option not discussed: have the military leverage its existing nuclear reactor competency to build a fleet of nationalized nuclear power generation stations. I'm not saying that they should tile the island with submarine-scale reactors, I'm saying that their supply chain for building those knows how to build nuclear power stations.
The only thing which makes this prospect expensive, is the lack of political will to make it not expensive. So find the political will.
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#729p / kWh doesn't hold a candle to PG&E costs in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's ironic that it's quite a bit cheaper to use natural gas here, since we're supposed to convert to electricity to save the planet.
For reference, I think we get around 60-65c/kWh here...
I sometimes hangout on /r/homelab, and people are talking about their 600-700W homelab setup. That would cost about 300-350$/month here.
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#8Yeah the "network costs" bit should probably have a caveat about how they are a natural monopoly and are absolutely rinsing the UK for profits.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/20/unite-union...
"Supplier costs and margins" probably should take a fair bit of the blame too.
When Thatcher privatised the UK energy industry to make it "competitive", they basically created an entire complex web of middlemen. The systems they use to communicate is enormously complicated, still kind of stuck in the 90s (think CSV over FTP), and would be basically unnecessary if it were just one company.
Ok in fairness electricity makes more sense to privatise than water or railways - at least you can choose where to buy your electricity from, within reason.
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#929p / kWh doesn't hold a candle to PG&E costs in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's ironic that it's quite a bit cheaper to use natural gas here, since we're supposed to convert to electricity to save the planet.
For reference, I think we get around 60-65c/kWh here... I sometimes hangout on /r/homelab, and people are talking about their 600-700W homelab setup. That would cost about 300-350$/month here.
That'd be GBP 0.48-0.52
Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?
#10Third option not discussed: have the military leverage its existing nuclear reactor competency to build a fleet of nationalized nuclear power generation stations. I'm not saying that they should tile the island with submarine-scale reactors, I'm saying that their supply chain for building those knows how to build nuclear power stations. The only thing which makes this prospect expensive, is the lack of political will…
And how exactly would adding more of the most expensive way to generate power help reduce costs?
See: https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2024/may/24/...