Advice guides- Co-operative Energy now cheapest offline energy supplier in the Midlands area
- E.ON launches E.ON Fixed Price 5
- British Gas launch WebSaver 12
- Domestic energy prices are falling
- British Gas launch OnlineSaver 4
- Npower launch Go-Fix 6
- Green Energy UK increase electricity prices
- ScottishPower launch cashback on energy transfers
- April Fool, it is no joke energy prices are on the way up!
- Euro Millions or Energy Savings at Energylinx?
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- July 2010
- May 2010
- December 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- May 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- June 2004
- April 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- October 2003
Syndicate our News
Energylinx UK Energy Industry News Service
May 10, 2005
British Gas considers gas price hikes
Centrica, parent to British Gas, announced yesterday at their AGM that gas prices may have to be increased again. Sir Roy Gardner, Chief Executive, announced that whilst their financial performance was good in the first quarter of 2005 that looking forward they still see further volatility in the gas curve.
Gardner believes that wholesale prices are running some 25% higher than at the time of their earlier 2004 results announcement. As a result, his view is that an appropriate retail price increase may yet have to be taken during 2005 to protect their gross margin.
Energylinx has updated the analysis of British Gas residential results originally carried out in December 2004, when interim results for British Gas were available to June 2004.
Again it is notable that even while British Gas continues to lose residential customers that it’s operating profit for the energy segment of their business has increased from £136 million in the year to December 2003 to £249 million in the year to December 2004.
From this it would appear that the profit from the million customers who left British Gas in this period has been replaced by an increased operating profit per customer of 94% in the same period.
In the first four months of 2005 British Gas has lost a further 382,000 energy accounts, it will be interesting to see the interim results at the end of June to understand whether again the remaining customers will fill the potential profit gap.
Since September 2004 British Gas have been attracting customers to their capped price energy product where an additional fee on top of the existing cost allows the domestic customer to cap their energy prices until July 2007. Conceptually this sounds like a good offer for the consumer until you consider that its means that an average domestic** consumer is paying over 14% more than they need to should they have changed to the least cost supplier for their home.
| British Gas Analysis | Dec-04 | Dec-03 | Dec-02 | Dec-01 | |
| Customer numbers (period end) (000s): | |||||
| Residential gas | 11,771 | 12,590 | 12,839 | 13,451 | |
| Residential electricity | 5,950 | 6,189 | 5,795 | 5,374 | |
| Total | 17,721 | 18,779 | 18,634 | 18,825 | |
| Operating profit (£m): | |||||
| Residential gas | |||||
| Residential electricity | |||||
| Total | 249 | 136 | 218 | 19 | |
| Operating profit per customer (£s): | |||||
| Residential gas & electricity | 14.05 | 7.24 | 11.70 | 1.01 | |
Our advice for anyone considering moving energy supplier to British Gas is that they first compare the prices of all gas suppliers available to their home. Standard British Gas gas customers would also financially benefit from comparing prices. Unfortunately, customers who have already transferred to the British Gas capped price product would be advised to consider any move carefully as British Gas will charge a hefty penalty for departing capped price customers.
These Energylinx calculators are unique in that they allow you to compare the prices of all energy suppliers.
Energylinx will arrange the whole transfer process for you, including notifying your existing supplier of any planned change and tracking the transfer to ensure that it occurs on time and accurately. Energylinx provides its services completely free of charge to the domestic consumer.
Posted by energylinx at May 10, 2005 12:44 AM Technorati: Energy Prices
