The cost of "green" – the outgoing UK Conservative Government is giving some money back! Household electricity prices remain twice as high the US – Germany even worse
For the TLDR readers:
German households pay more than three times that of US households for natural gas and UK households more than double. German and UK households pay more than double for their household electricity. That is what the “Net Zero” climate cultists want to inflict on the US – energy poverty.
Ok, for those who like to read! Here are some workings on household energy prices.
Keep in mind that all prices include a fairly hefty mark up to generate profits for the utility companies whose fixed AND variable costs hardly change.
I haven’t provided ay equivalents for oil, but from here:
“1 barrel of oil equivalent is equal to 1699.4064444444 kilowatt hours
Which, with the price per barrel currently of around 75 bucks, means that one KWh from single barrel of oil costs around 4.4 cents. You can compare that to the different electricity and natural gas costs below.
Before cracking on, I am still baffled as to why “renewable energy” is not virtually free, except for maintenance costs. Taxpayers around the world have already bought and paid for the construction and transmission lines of the ugly and environmentally hostile forests of windmills and plantations of solar panels. Ok, nature can destroy these with tornadoes and hailstorms, but the majority stay up and transmit electricity down the bought ad paid for transmission lines. So why is there anything other than maintenance costs being incurred, leaving households getting a reduction in their electricity bills? Imagine if all those windmills in Holland incurred the same costs as “milling” grains as the methods used before someone came up with the idea of using wind power!
The UK Government energy regulator has decided to “lower the price cap” for electricity and gas prices for households. “Lowering the price cap” means that energy companies cannot charge more than this price – which of course means that all energy companies charge this price.
UK readers will know that French companies, like French company EDF, advertise “green” energy supply – at the same price as supply generated from hydrocarbons – still laughingly referred to as “fossils” – since when has natural gas been a fossil? Or nuclear, or hydro, let alone coal?
The UK Government has long “rigged” the price of energy -the onset of the era of environmentally hostile “renewable” or “green” energy has only seen this “rigging” explode into the stratosphere.
Massive subsidies for renewables and penalties for “fossil fuels” has severely distorted prices and investment decisions whilst punishing the consumer (voter/taxpayer). The distortions are an additional tax. UK household energy is paid from net income by consumers who must also pay a 4$ VAT transaction tax on consumption AND a ubiquitous “standing charge” for supply – not for their homes but for “maintenance” and “development. More like a transfer payment to “renewable” providers.
Energy standing charges explained - British Gas
“Standing charges cover the suppliers cost of:
· Maintaining the energy supply network that delivers gas and electricity to your home.
· Visiting homes to take meter readings.
· Supporting government social and environmental schemes like the Warm Home Discount
· Failed suppliers exiting the energy market – electricity only
· It’s the cost of having a gas or electricity supply – like line rental for energy
A flat daily rate = for the costs of the pipes and wiring. Customers can go for a decade without ever seeing an employee of the utility company and certainly without any upgrades or maintenance on internal work – so this is paying for a national grid network and mostly to someone else’s supply.
Here are the latest UK price caps:
A unit is a KWh. The standing charge is a daily rate.
The electricity charge rate of 23.537p equates to 29.89 US cents at the spot rate of around One pound = 1.27 dollars.
Notice how the charge for natural gas IS A QUARTER OF THE CHARGE FOR ELECTRICTY? Now cast your mind back to the irritating and from a French supplier I the UK, EDF, that they will charge you the same rate as other suppliers of non-renewable energy ad blithely omit the price discrepancy with natural gas.
How does this compare to the US and Germany?
Starting with Germany – purported to be the most expensive in Europe. A little dated:
Germany - Household electricity prices 2023 | countryeconomy.com
“The average price of electricity in Germany, in December of 2023, has been 0.402€ per kilowatt hour. Electricity price has decreased € 0.0105 kWh, 2.55% since the last semester. Meanwhile, the average price of electricity without taxes in Germany in that period was € 0.2882 per kilowatt hour, €3.06% less than in the previous period, in which the price of electricity without taxes was €0.2973kWh.”
Note the 40% tac mark up!
€0.4026 = around 44.3 US cents using the US$ per € rate of 1.10 on 31 December 2023.
44.3 US cents for Germany and a new lowered charge of 39.89 cents for the UK
Electric Power Monthly - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
Households in Hawaii pay a whopping 46 cents, California 32 cents, whilst Idaho and Utah pay just 11 cents. – around 22-30 cents on the northeast Atlantic coast – prices paid elsewhere are in the region of 15-20 cents per KWh.
Now for natural gas in the same countries.
Germany first, with the slightly even more out of date numbers from end September 2023:
Germany natural gas prices, September 2023 | GlobalPetrolPrices.com
“Germany, September 2023: The price of natural gas is 0.106 U.S. Dollar per kWh for households and 0.103 U.S. Dollar per kWh for businesses.”
The UK up to date UK household cost is 5.766 pence = 7.32 US cents per KWh.
Natural Gas Rates by State | June 2024| Choose Energy
Numbers are in thousands of cubic feet which you can convert by multiplying by around 0.3.
Hawaii coms out the most expensive again at 16.44 cents per KWh compared to say, Wisconsin and other States that charge households less than 3 cents per KWh. Any challenge to these numbers welcome!
Hawaii really needs to talk to its “cuzzy bros” in Rotorua, New Zealand to see how they use geothermal energy!
So, for natural gas, the US charges around 3 cents (Hawaii is an outlier), Germany charges 10.6 cents and the UK now charges a little over 7 cents per KWh.
Let’s show the electricity comparisons again:
44.3 US cents for Germany and a new lowered charge of 39.89 cents from the UK
USA “prices paid elsewhere are in the region of 15-20 cents per KWh.”
Onwards!!!
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So my $141.02 gas bill would be even higher in the UK, and higher still in Germany.
Great, thank you Georgia Natural Gas.