Ofgem Reports record profits for energy suppliers

The profit margin for energy firms has risen to £125 per customer per year, from £15 in June, says regulator Ofgem.

The profit margin figure measures the amount suppliers would make if energy prices and bills were to remain unchanged for the next year.
Ofgem predicts these profit margins, which apply to dual-fuel bills, will fall to about £90 a customer next year.
Ofgem has also confirmed it will force suppliers to simplify tariffs to make it easier to compare prices.
As part of the simplification plan, suppliers will be forced to have no-frills tariffs, which would consist of a standing charge - fixed by the regulator - plus a unit charge for energy used.
It means that the only number consumers would have to compare between suppliers would be the unit energy charge.
"The process of trying to switch from one supplier to another is hideously complicated - very off-putting even for quite intelligent people," Tim Yeo MP, chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee told the BBC.
He also criticised the rise in profit margins to a three-year-high as, "evidence of absolutely crass behaviour by the energy companies, with a jump in prices announced in the last few months ahead of what will be a winter in which most families face their highest ever electricity and gas bills".
Market reforms More complicated tariffs would still be available, but they would have to be for a fixed period, with price increases not being allowed for the duration of the deal.
The regulator will publish its detailed proposals for consultation next month and hopes to have implemented some of its reforms in time for winter 2012.
The average dual-fuel bill is now £1,345 a year following recent price rises from all the big suppliers.
"When consumers face energy bills at around £1,345 they must have complete confidence that this price is set by companies competing in a fully competitive market," said Ofgem's chief executive Alistair Buchanan.
"At the moment that is not the case."
In addition to trying to boost competition by simplifying tariffs, Ofgem is looking at how to reform the wholesale energy markets, which are the places suppliers go to buy their energy.
Ofgem wants to reform those markets to allow greater competition with the big suppliers and will publish proposals in December.
The bigger suppliers have an advantage because they generate their own power, selling most of it to consumers, with little of it going to wholesale markets.
But earlier in the week, Scottish and Southern Energy announced plans to auction all of its power on the open market.
Ofgem has proposed that utilities must auction 20% of their electricity by 2013.

The World’s first green electricity company:

With the Green Energy movement increasing in popularity on an almopst daily basis we have a look at once of the main companies looking to supply green energy into the future.

Green Electricity didn't exist in the world back in 1996. When Ecotricity offered it for the first time, they became not just Britain’s but the world’s first Green Electricity company – and kick-started the now global Green Electricity movement. Ecotricity's mission was and remains to change the way electricity is made and used in Britain.
Ecotricity chose this focus because conventional electricity is responsible for 30% of Britain’s carbon emissions – it’s our biggest single source as a nation – and therefore the biggest single thing we can change.

Ecotricity operate a unique model. Using customers’ energy bills to fund the building of new sources of Green Energy. They like to refer to this as turning ‘Bills into Mills’ – energy bills into windmills.
With no shareholders to answer to they’re free to dedicate all their attention to the task of building new sources of Green Energy. And that’s just what they do, on average spending more each year per customer on new sources of Green Energy than any other energy company in Britain - bar none.

Energy is the key:

Electricity is the biggest single source of carbon emissions in Britain – but it’s not the only one of course. The big three are Energy, Transport and Food: between them accounting for 80% of all of our personal carbon footprints. The one thing they have in common is that Energy plays a vital role in them all. That’s why Ecotricity extended their work beyond the boundaries of traditional energy companies.
In Transport they built the Nemesis, Britain’s first electric super car – to demonstrate how cars of the future could actually be wind powered. Next came our Electric Highway, the world’s first national network of charging stations - to kick-start the electric car revolution in Britain.

Ecotricity also built the first national charging network for electric cars. For first time electric vehicles will be able to travel the length and breadth of Britain using the world’s first national charging network at motorway service stations across the country.
Every charging post will be powered with 100% green energy made at Ecotricity’s wind and solar parks across the UK, and means that electric car drivers (and motorcycle riders) will be able to drive from London to Edinburgh or Exeter completely free and with vastly reduced emissions.
This breakthrough in electric car infrastructure removes one of the main barriers for people wanting to buy electric cars – range anxiety – which currently restricts people to driving within their own city.

With Ecotricity looking to take bigger and bolder steps into the forefront of producing green energy, with the world's first dual-fuel green tariff and plans afoot for mills to produce green gas and even more wind turbines, sun parks and other renewable energy, it may not be long before you consider switching from a conventional energy supplier to one that truly has Green Credentials.