Woman 'fined' for low power use

Woman 'fined' for low power use

news.bbc.co.uk

An energy-conscious pensioner claims she is being "fined" by British Gas for using too little electricity.

Margaret Pracy, from Brighton, who has a pre-payment meter, made her home as energy efficient as possible and uses only about £5 of power a week.

Now British Gas is to charge her 54p extra a week, because her consumption has fallen below the minimum threshold.

(visit the link for the full news article)

"It's complete madness and makes a mockery of insulation programmes," said Councillor Bill Randall.

Too damn right .....

I am gobsmacked as to how they are even allowed to get awa with adding charges.. you dont go into a shop and buy a 10p chew only to be charged 50p because you're only buying one item..

These big companies have got many of us by the proverbial 'short and curlies'...

Not only are the banks ripping us off, but so are all the power copanies.. and then every other company below them are forced to fleece the customers in orer to satisfy the demands of the bigger boys.

What a scam.

Mrs Pracy said British Gas was undermining the government's attempts to save the planet.

I wonder if these companies could be jailed for crimes against humanity by doing such thngs as this.. if they insist on making everyone use thier supply, then they should pay for it...not he consumer. They should pay for the damage it does to each and everyone and everything in between.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Extralien


Forgive my lack of knowledge in the UK's monetary system, but is 54p equivalent to 54 pounds? In other words, are they charging her 11 times her bill per week in fees?

I was outraged and incredulous at this until I remembered that the same thing happened to us here in Portland, Oregon. Back in the 70's there was a gasoline shortage (contrived, as we know now) and somehow that became a "power" shortage and we were all urged to conserve electricity (even though our is mostly produced by hydroelectric plants) and there were programs to insulate your house and wrap your water heater and turn down the water temp in that heater and all sorts of things. They put a graphic on your bill so you could see how you were doing compared to last month all the way back to last year. We did a great job! Really cut out power usage. So what happened? were they thrilled to bits? no, the power company complained that they weren't selling enough power so prices had to be raised, which they were, and it's been going up ever since. we still get that friendly graphic on the bill though i don't know why because obviously they don't want us to use less power.

and they wonder why people get cranky.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
reply to post by Extralien

 

Forgive my lack of knowledge in the UK's monetary system, but is 54p equivalent to 54 pounds? In other words, are they charging her 11 times her bill per week in fees?

54p ? 0,54 Pound. P = Pence, 100p= 1 Pound

Yup, happened here in Cleveland, OH with the water company. The bozo actually came on the radio and said, "The amount of water being used today is significantly less than what was used 30 years ago, as a result we need to increase our rates."

Yes, THAT is exactly what he said! I was like... , Huh???

Now, I understand that the cost of maintaining the utitlity and the service needs to be covered, but if LESS is being consumed then the wear and tear should be less - yes? No? And the cost to generate should be less as well - yes? No? Yet rates are already at an all time high. So, I just don't get it.

Seems to defy the very principles of supply/demand based economic theory.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


54p as in 54 pence i guess its like charing an extra dime ? a month for not using enough power. The point isnt the cost which is very low its the principle.

That oughta teach her. Doesn't she know we all need to do our part to spend ourselves out of this economic mess(and into a total collapse). Power company execs have a right to their expensive lifestyles and people like her are cheating them out of their vacations and new cars. Maybe a stretch in jail will straighten this rogue woman out. Or send a few cops by with the taser to show her how to be a good little consumer.

Time for change.
Real change -
This is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.

The mentally ill are controlling the land.

"We will speak to Mrs Pracy to explain these charges and discuss any other energy efficiency measures for which she may be eligible."

I roared with laughter at that one. Already she's using "too little" for their liking and they want to talk about her using even less? Perhaps to offset the extra money they're going to charge her for using less in the first place?

Man, gotta admire the logic there.

Firstly they are FILTHY SCUM KILLING OUR PLANET!!!!

ok now that's out the way - economies of scale, to make the infrastructure requires an initial outlay of capital which must be paid back, say this is £100 and ten people use the system they must pay £10 plus the wages of the people, running costs, maintenance, raw materials,etc -say an extra £10 as the total cost to make ten items is £100. Now if a thousand people are buying the items and the same £100 outlay results in a £1 per person charge, running costs would be slightly higher due to extra material, staff, etc required so assume it doubled to £200 -shared between 1000 people this is much cheaper costing them only £3

The power people build in the relative cost of infrastructure and the costs involved in the act producing power into the cost per KWH, however if this person uses less power than the 'minimum' she isn't paying enough to pay for her share of infrastructure, thus she is costing the company money to send her power -they can't have this, shop keepers don't sell stock lower than retail price do they?

You could argue that large users of power overpay for their share and thus it balances out but they are industrial users who demand discounts because they understand how it works and they make enough difference to the cashflow of the power company to get what they want.

This woman needs to either just pay the TINY fee or get a few solar cells, a VAWT, ethonol geny, bike dynamo, etc and make those few KWH she uses -she could even charge some spare batteries in her car on the way to work each morning -if she doesn't want to pay for the privalige of having power on tap then DISCONNECT.