| Utility company Scottish and Southern Energy to hike gas, power rates |
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LONDON: Utility major Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) is hiking household gas and power rates in January. The company said power bills will go up 8.9 per cent to 12 per cent, while gas will become costlier by 13.6 per cent.
SSE, with 6.1 million customers and a market share of 12 per cent, said wholesale gas costs have led to the increase.
The wholesale gas prices have risen sharply on apprehensions that output from a maturing North Sea fields is actually dropping and there will be reduced supply. Forward prices too have touched record highs in the summer.
Increase in gas prices affect electricity prices as nearly 40 per cent of Britain's power stations rely on gas.
SSE said poor liquidity and a lack of transparency in forward gas markets were some of the reasons for the wholesale price increase.
SSE's energy supply director Alistair Phillips-Davies said the company had increased the rates in a slower manner than its competitors in the last three years. Electricity prices for its domestic customers would still be lower in real terms after the increase than they were in 1996 and that SSE would try to help its most vulnerable customers.
SSE had increased the rates in February this year and at that time clarified that the next rise will not be there until at least 2006.
In recent months, other utilities Powergen, EDT Energy and Scottish Gas had increased the rates.
Energywatch, the NGO working in power domain, criticised the timing of the rise, coming just after Christmas, which was an expensive time of the year for consumers.
Posted
on : Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:05 GMT | General News
By : Chris Rowe
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