Renewable porkies

[Andy Burns]

Twenty suppliers (some now ex-suppliers) overstated the amount of renewable energy they supplied

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes often if you went into the small print you found caveats like estimation based on currently accepted growth forecasts, or similar. I guess its a bit like the internet speeds up to but not guaranteeing them. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

ROFLMFAO!

[newshound]

Further follow-up here on OFGEM

[Andy Burns]

I thought I'd seen somewhere they'd headhunted a poacher-turned-gamekeeper to re-write the price cap rules from April?

[Andy Burns]

Daniel Norton (ex- Colorado Energy and ex- Centrica)

[newshound]

You mean next April, presumably? I think Katherine's point that they have shown a serious lack of competence in the past is well made.

It's all made me think a bit, and in fact the whole retail supply business is really just another financial service, like insurance, banking, and pensions.

And it's tweaked for political ends, with the "suppliers" (i.e. electricity consumers) having to pick up the social costs: poor pensioners, insulation, heat pumps, smart meters, business failures. None of this is covered by general taxation. Add a price cap on top (government protecting the consumer!) so that it's no longer a free market. It actually all becomes a gambling business. And the government can stand back from it and say "not our fault, inefficient businesses" when, as Katherine points out, their actual freedoms, especially for small companies, are rather limited.