UK businesses are bracing themselves for a winter energy price surge after costs have already significantly risen compared to last year. The wholesale cost is currently around £7.00 per megawatt-hour, or 16 percent higher to be precise.
UK businesses have already faced an onslaught of price fluctuations over the spring, and these price rises give a grim prediction of what could be in store for this coming winter.
Winter Energy Price Surge – Possible Causes
The rise in prices may be affected by France’s impacted nuclear plants, coupled with Germany’s reliance on coal which at the time of writing was trading 50 percent higher than last year. Now you may wonder how Germany’s rising coal prices would affect UK businesses winter energy, so allow me to elaborate.
The UK burns very little coal in its production of power, however, Germany does rely on this resource to generate a quarter of its power, which will have an impact on trading prices. Being Europe’s largest energy market, the UK imports a large amount of its electricity from Germany, and the German wholesale prices are currently 40 percent higher than last autumn.
Following last year’s winter energy price surge EDF’s 58 nuclear reactors were ordered by the French regulator to audit many of its plants following safety concerns. Businesses are justifiably concerned that a similar crisis, such as the Rough closure, could trigger another significant rise in prices, with France’s power prices up 34 percent compared to this time last year.
The UK has already seen a sharp increase in gas prices following Centrica closing its Rough facility, after a decade as Britain’s largest gas storage centre.
However, experts are a little more confident that we have enough supply flexibility to avoid winter prices getting out of hand.
Chris Jovic, one of our Black Sheep Utilities Energy Experts advises one way of avoiding these concerns is to switch your provider and lock down a lower rate before it’s too late. With the expected increase in costs, it makes sense to shop around for your energy, or better yet, have one of the Black Sheep team shop around for you.
“There‘s some great deals out there for business gas and electric but its knowing where to look. It‘s time consuming for business owners but the last thing they want is to be paying way over the odds. Thankfully we can help find the best prices out there, without it taking hours or even days”
Chris Jovic – Black Sheep Utilities.
