It must be so worrying for people who are with these firms… I’m one of those people who have never switched , find it all too complicated for me. Stayed with British Gas and hopefully they will be ok . That’s not too say they won’t have problems. Obviously we will end up paying more . Strange times we in.

I'm with Ovo for gas and electric - had a reassuring email from them today, they're one of the firms who do buy in advance, so fingers crossed. Must be a worry for anyone with the small firms though. I had absolutely no problem changing supplier when I moved from Ebico to Ovo, by the way - it was a perfectly smooth transition.

Nothing to worry about as long as its the smaller firms going under, as a customer your supply continues and you automatically get transferred to one of the big companies unless you want to transfer elsewhere, the price rise was going to hit you either way and you have already paid in advance to cover the overhead of the company going bust.

If the bigger companies go bust they are nationalised if there are no other companies big enough to take them over.

The market should be better regulated, if you go into a fixed price contract the energy supplier should be forced to buy your gas on the futures market or have insurance to cover your contract.

Some of these companies were still taking on new customers less than a week before they went bust, surely there should be oversight to ensure their future viability.

Our whole energy policy is flawed.

What is the point of spending so much money on solar when for a continuous number of months of the years it produces virtually zero electricity?

What is the point of spending so much money on intermittent unpredictable electrical supplies (solar, wind and wave) without spending a lot of money on storage?

What is the point of investing in a massive amount of gas storage facilities without filling that storage when the price is continually rising, especially as we are approaching the heaviest usage period?

Why did we sell our gas off? A quick buck in the short term for a long term loss!

Why are we not investing heavily in predictable energy sources (eg tidal turbines)?

Tell me those flawed policies weren't dreamt up by a three year old!

And the Messiah led us from Europe into the promised land and told us that things would be better in this promised land, the people rejoiced, many are still crossing the sea in rubber boats to see and hear the wisdom in this land of plenty.

It’s a global crisis and Europe is suffering too.

It is global , Cools. I was just about to say good morning to Casper, in a nice way of course.

Russia being Europes biggest supplier, is being blamed for the problem, but oddly enough Russia is not the problem. The US are intent of supplying Europe with Liqufied Natrual Gas, and have been working towards it for long enough. Hence they are in opposition to Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline .

A Dutch natural gas field is shutting down next year, due to environmental concerns. Halting production in 2022 I think, we got a lot of gas from the Dutch field.
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/...sure-possible-as-early-as-2023-dutch-gts

Maybe the lifting of sanctions against Russia, Syria, Iran, might just start the delivery of gas once more to Europe, but that would certainly put US nose out of joint and LNG on hold so it won;t happen.

Then of course, Israel has it's new Natural Gas fields in the Med, discovered in 2010 which will be piped to Europe, no longer as hoped through the Syrian/Lebanon /Turkey route, but through Cyrprus /Turkey/Greece/ route. ( the picture begins to come clearer when we think back and ahead ! ) That should be operational in about 2025

So US increase their LNG to Europe,
Dutch Gas Field shutting down 2022/2023
Israel will start gas production to Europe in approx 2025 maybe earlier.

That's my understanding , and much the same problem with HGV dirvers. Europe shortage too, so we can blame the Governments all we wish, but not one Government throughout Europe is in control of this and countries like Greece have suffered high prices for energy for years and years, even when we had it cheap.
The less they used, the higher the price went.

One more point, if the supermarket shelves become empty due to people being threatened with no food for Christmas, then so be it, because that is not the fault of Governement either, it's the fault of the people, and may I add the people who don;t even believe in reason we celebrate Christmas.

I spent years with British Gas, until last year when I changed to Octopus.. saving £50 per month at the moment. That's a big amount !

Last but not least, good morning Casper.. our boats sail in different directions over this., but I'll wave as we pass in the night. XXX

Good morning granny,I shall keep a sharp lookout on the fo'c's'le and wish you fair weather, my heart shall go on, oop's got a bit carried away. still love you. xxx

DD, tidal power in the UK is an absolute no-brainer. Nobody's going to turn the Moon off, there will always be tides. Carefully chosen locations will minimise impact on marine wildlife. Why is tidal power still at the small-scale experimental stage?!Grrr,,,

I think we have just got one tidal turbine in its production phase which might still be the biggest in the world (the Orkney Orbital O2), every trial they've done has been a success with a number of different conceptual models.

We are still looking at wave power which is madness, no wind, no waves.

The Mersey barrage is still on - I really can't believe this is not going to silt up the Mersey. The Mersey is the second fastest flowing river in the northern hemisphere (fastest in Europe), suddenly changing the peak speeds has got to have a significant impact, the sediment will drop. All that silt that normally gathers in the estuary will end up in the Mersey basin which is considerably less efficient to dredge.

I see we are having a further look at floating wind turbines now. We already have one small farm of them. It would make much more sense if they combined a floating wind turbine with a tidal turbine if they want to go for floating structures but I haven't spotted any significant mention of that.

(why do I keep typing "turbal turbine" instead of "tidal turbine" doh!)

The rise in energy prices is going to affect those more who will be working from home this winter. One of the perks of an office based employment, or any other, is the utilities and energy costs . It's a big saving.

Water will be the next thing we can't afford. In fact I find the charges for water pretty appalling tbh. We can't live without it, but it's on a par with electricity and gas charges.
For young families , it must be hard, although I'm not sure if they get any help with water bills. More and more people have water meters now to reduce the costs, but I don't think it makes much difference,unless no one flushes the toilets or leaves the dishes to be washed. Ideal conditions for germs to fly.

Maslows hierarchy of needs theory,places food, water, warmth,rest at the base of his triangle of psychological needs, yet we pay the most for the basics, these basics enable use to reach the peak of his triangle of self actualisation, yet many struggle to afford the very basics which we know affects lifestyle and advancement.

Turbal turbines - I like that, DD! I'd be worried about a barrage interfering with the flushing effects of the Mersey tides; maybe something more offshore (that doesn't mince fish) needs to be developed. Edit: The idea of building tidal turbines into the base of wind turbines is very appealing; don't know how feasible that would be.

As for water, you're really paying for the storage of it, treatment to make it drinkable, and the transport of it to your taps, rather than the stuff itself, although cubic metres is the only practical way to measure it. Living alone in a Band B property, I made a saving by changing to a water meter; it works out at a bit less than £1/day for all fresh water supplies and disposal of sewage (I shower rather than have a bath and have a dual flush loo, also a saving), which seems a good deal to me. United Utilities used to produce a questionnaire that you could fill in, which would show whether or not changing to a meter would bring savings in your particular circumstances; it's worth anybody checking, just in case.
https://www.unitedutilities.com/you...%20a%20water%20meter%20save%20me%20money