Why are green energy bills affected by fossil fuel prices and the energy crisis?

The government’s response has been to land the cost of that failure – some £2 billion so far – on surviving, well-run energy companies, and make them, and their customers, pay for that failure. Ecotricity’s share of this cost is nearly £7 million.

Every energy company, whether deep green or fossil fuel brown, has to take part in the balancing market – even if it that company is properly hedged, like Ecotricity.

In this system, each day is divided into half hour chunks, and every energy company has to balance its supply with its demand within these half hours – every half hour of every day. It is impossible to predict with complete accuracy exactly how much energy will be used every half hour, and there are penalty costs to cover for any gap that there is between supply and demand. These balancing costs have also been reaching record highs under the energy crisis.

The way things are right now, green energy costs can’t escape the overall energy market costs. Even though renewables are a significant part of Britain’s electricity mix, we’re still being hit by the same market costs as fossil fuels, and the costs of policy failure.

This situation is madness – and the government can and should be doing so much more to lift the burden off customers, and fix the energy crisis. For example, a windfall tax on the North Sea oil and gas companies could make a huge difference.

As a deep green energy supplier, we use our profits to build new sources of green energy – we call it “bills into mills”. This is the way to become energy independent and price independent – by making all the energy we need in Britain from the wind and sun, and sustainable, carbon neutralised green gas from grass.

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