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Categories
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- Commercial and market outlook 135
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Home supply and services
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Home supply and services
A Q&A with our price cap specialist, Principal Consultant Dr Craig Lowrey
We recently held an interview with our price cap specialist, Principal Consultant Dr Craig Lowrey. This discussed recent concerns over the price cap, what makes these predictions useful for domestic and non-domestic consumers and more. Dr Craig Lowrey has over 25 years’ experience in the energy sector, building upon academic...
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Home supply and services
New forecasts for the January Default Tariff Cap rise to over £3,000 for a typical user
This week Cornwall Insight released its updated forecasts for the Default Tariff Cap. Q1 2023 which runs from January to March rose to over £3,000 for a typical user, the highest Cap we have ever seen, with the last quarter of 2022 Q4 running from October to December predicted to...
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Home supply and services
Windfall taxes are not the only solution to the energy crisis
The energy market is in a state of transition, with geopolitical concerns threatening to undermine energy security and subsequent wholesale energy rises pushing up bills. It is inevitable that policymakers will look at how best to deliver an affordable energy system for consumers. The temporary, targeted energy profits levy, or...
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Home supply and services
Tapestry: Ofgem’s new quarterly Default Tariff Cap
This article was extracted from our Energy Spectrum publication published 23 May 2022. Energy Spectrum is a weekly news service which keeps you up-to-date with developments in the market. For the full article please contact Jack Hunt at j.hunt@cornwall-insight.com The announcement by Ofgem of its minded-to decision in respect of...
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Home supply and services
Determining how we fund, not just what we fund, is critical
This article was extracted from our Energy Spectrum publication published 23 May 2022. Energy Spectrum is a weekly news service which keeps you up-to-date with developments in the market. Find out more and request a free trial here. Last week I was on a great panel for Mott Macdonald and...
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Energy storage and flexibility
Oil prices are dropping, so why are bills still high?
https://youtu.be/kEvKyeFGZb4 Video transcript Oil prices dropping… why are my bills still high? Last week, in particular, gas and power prices were very low. Gas for one day was 35p/th similar to what we were used to The drop is because Britain is now a major transit point for gas to...
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Home supply and services
What is the Market Stabilisation Charge?
The Market Stabilisation Charge (MSC) requires all domestic suppliers acquiring a customer to make a payment to the supplier that is losing the customer. The charge applies to all switches, so suppliers are not obliged to inform competitors which tariff the consumer switched to or from. It is comprised of...
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Announcement
The Energy Security Bill explained – from the Queen’s Speech
On Wednesday 11 May, the Queen's Speech was delivered which announced that an Energy Security Bill will be introduced at some point over the next parliamentary session. What is the Energy Security Bill and what does the Government state the benefits will be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfmkM0mAqc What are the main elements of...
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Business supply and services
Wake-up call: Cost pressure in the GB energy market
This Energy Perspective was published in Issue 791 of Energy Spectrum on 10 January 2022. The current crises afflicting the energy supply sector, driven by rising energy input costs, are of economy-wide concern. The price of energy has always been an issue of significance for national economic competitiveness, inflation, monetary...
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Home supply and services
The risks of short-term interventions distorting long-term incentives in the energy market
Christmas 2021 was not a time of cheer for the energy industry and its customers. There is acute stress on energy suppliers and consumers from current bills - let alone where they may move to in the coming year. And it seems the political and regulatory debate has moved on...
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Business supply and services
With great power comes great responsibility – what can be done for customers and suppliers in these challenging times?
Given that the situation in the wholesale markets shows no signs of abating, both the government and Ofgem have a shared responsibility for helping to steward the energy sector through a period of profound challenges for suppliers as well as for their customers. Furthermore, the risk of structural damage to...
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Business supply and services
Wholesale energy prices see new record highs as 2021 comes to a close
In what continues to be a particularly tumultuous period for the wholesale energy market in the lead up to Christmas, prices have continued their crusade of setting record highs in a final send-off to 2021. On Wednesday 22 December, day-ahead gas prices reached a new all-time record high (on our...
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Commercial and market outlook
Price cap set for 46% rise for Summer 2022, Winter 2022-23 cap may exceed £2,000
Following further highs in wholesale prices and the costs associated with the raft of supplier failures seen in the last few months, Cornwall Insight is forecasting that the domestic default tariff price cap for Summer 2022 will increase to approximately £1,865 per annum for a typical dual fuel customer, with...
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Commercial and market outlook
Cliff-hanger: supplier new entry in volatile markets
The extraordinary developments that have occurred in the energy sector in recent months have led to a tumultuous time for all participants. We have taken a look back through our archives to where we highlighted our concerns a number of years ago that this outcome was, unfortunately, a real possibility. This...
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Business supply and services
Webinar | Energy supplier exits: managing the fall-out
In our webinar last week, Adam Boorman, Craig Lowrey, Robert Buckley and Jacob Briggs discussed a range of topics in light of recent market developments. They were joined by over 70 attendees join and discussed: the changing wholesale market engagement for smaller suppliersthe challenges of managing exiting companies,the commercial impacts...
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Home supply and services
Will customers pay for suppliers reconsolidating?
There’s been a lot of media about Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson’s comment about a “massacre” in the retail energy market. The spectre of a return to a handful of domestic energy suppliers has been raised. We are certainly going to a world of many fewer suppliers, in my...
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Home supply and services
Shaken, not stirred: The fate of the supply market
This Energy market perspective was taken from our Energy Spectrum publication on 4 October 2021. To find out more about a free trial to Energy Spectrum, find out more here or contact Robert on r.buckley@cornwall-insight.com. As we enter the winter 2021-22 trading season, the energy supply market remains in intense...
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Home supply and services
The gravity of the default tariff cap and the impact of the SOLR process
With wholesale gas and electricity prices continuing to reach new records, successive supplier exits during September 2021 and a new level for the default tariff cap (£1,277 for a typical dual fuel direct debit customer) for Winter 2021-22, the GB energy market remains on edge for fresh volatility and further...
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Home supply and services
Introducing the Green Gas Levy
In Autumn 2021 the Green Gas Support Scheme (GGSS) will be launched, supporting decarbonisation of the gas grid as the UK aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The GGSS will predominately focus on providing financial incentives for biomethane (green gas) injection in the grid and, in order to...
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Home supply and services
37 suppliers remain in domestic energy market
2021 has seen 14 domestic supply market exits to date, including the most recent three companies to use the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process on Wednesday 29 September 2021: Igloo Energy (0.59% market share), Symbio Energy (0.04% market share) and ENSTROGA (0.09% market share). In September alone, nine suppliers...
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Home supply and services
Rocketing energy prices and failing suppliers—what is happening?
Sky high gas prices and energy suppliers going out of business have been key headlines in the news over recent weeks, but what is actually happening? Through the COVID-19 pandemic we saw much lower gas prices, which have been surging upwards since the spring and risen rapidly through the summer, a time...
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Home supply and services
The default tariff cap and the law of unintended consequences
With all eyes on the immediate challenges facing the energy supply market and the impact of the default tariff cap as a contributing factor, it is important to note that the cap for the coming winter period should not be considered in isolation and that attention will swiftly turn to...
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Business supply and services
Have we given up on competition in the retail market?
“Q: How does 2pm on Wednesday sound? A: Assuming we still have a functioning energy market that'd be great”. It’s not really what you expect to see in an email at 5pm on a Friday when trying to arrange a call. But then these are certainly not normal times. In this Energy Perspective, we will...
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Home supply and services
Consolidation in the energy market predicted to continue
It has been a turbulent time for the retail energy market, experiencing a period of consolidation with mergers and supplier exits. This supplier consolidation is expected to continue in the near term. If suppliers fail to shift their business models for the new world it is likely to continue, according...
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Home supply and services
“Green” tariffs in the spotlight as BEIS commences review
With the announcement on 16 August of a call for evidence on Designing a Framework for Transparency of Carbon Content in Energy Products, consultant Josephine Lord looks at the issues being considered and what the future may hold for so-called “green” tariffs. The call for evidence is the first step...
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Heat networks
Reallocating electricity policy costs to incentivise low carbon heating technologies
Funding the cost of decarbonising the power system has mainly been through the consumers' electricity bills. In fact, in 2020-21 these costs amounted to a whopping £10bn. But is this method of raising revenue for decarbonisation still fit for purpose when faced with the need to decarbonise the nation's heat?...
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Business supply and services
Energy suppliers must be ready to demonstrate compliance with new principles
From 22 January, energy suppliers were required to follow new principles resulting from Ofgem’s Supplier Licensing Review (SLR), which initially kicked off nearly three years ago. Such was the breadth of the SLR, changes were introduced in two rounds, with the first round of changes bringing the introduction of tougher...
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Announcement
BBC interview | Robert Buckley discusses Ofgem’s price cap
Robert Buckley spoke to Felicity Hannah on BBC Five Live’s Wake up to Money programme ahead of Ofgem’s announcement to increase the default price cap by £96 to £1,138. Robert explained that a combination of a rise in wholesale prices and policy costs for renewable electricity, as well as the inclusion of £23.69...
