{"id":398175,"date":"2025-08-27T17:15:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=398175"},"modified":"2025-08-27T17:15:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:15:52","slug":"wholesale-electricity-price-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=398175","title":{"rendered":"Wholesale Electricity Price\u00a0Trends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Graphic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We looked at long term gas price trends the other day \u2013 if you missed it, it is <\/strong>here.<\/a> Now let\u2019s do the same with electricity:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OFGEM show the raw data, that is frequently used to pretend that wholesale electricity prices, usually based on gas, have risen substantially since pre-Ukraine crisis days:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Graph
https:\/\/www.ofgem.gov.uk\/news-and-insight\/data\/data-portal\/wholesale-market-indicators<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But as we know, general inflation has also been running high in the last decade:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Line<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Line
https:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\/economy\/inflationandpriceindices\/timeseries\/chaw\/mm23<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we strip out the effects of inflation, we get a very similar story to gas price trends- something that would be expected given the close relationship between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prices in the last year so are running at similar levels to 2017 and 2018. Prices obviously fell sharply during lockdowns before spiking in 2021\/22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In short, wholesale prices are not exceptionally high by historical standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In actual monetary terms, retail electricity prices have roughly doubled since 2017 \u2013 note the prices in 2022 and 2023 were suppressed by government subsidies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bar
https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistical-data-sets\/annual-domestic-energy-price-statistics<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

DESNZ have helpfully though presented the same prices at real 2010 levels, using the GDP (market prices) deflator. Even after stripping out inflation, prices have risen from 12.89 to 21.69p\/kWh, a rise of 68% since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistical-data-sets\/annual-domestic-energy-price-statistics<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clearly this increase has not been caused by any changes in wholesale prices. The prices are for domestic users, but presumably follow similar trends for other users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In overall terms, the increase from 12.89p to 21.69p equates to around \u00a324.6 billion \u2013 nearly \u00a31000 for every household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why have retail prices gone up when wholesale prices have not? We don\u2019t have far to look:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About \u00a316 billion is being added this year to your electricity bills to pay for subsidies to renewable energy. To that we can add another \u00a33 billion to pay for grid balancing needed because of the intermittency of wind and solar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years ago, renewable subsidies ran at \u00a33 billion a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hardly rocket science, is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About \u00a316 billion is being added this year to your electricity bills to pay for subsidies to renewable energy. To that we can add another \u00a33 billion to pay for grid balancing needed because of the intermittency of wind and solar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":398203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"Discover the truth behind rising UK electricity prices, examining wholesale trends and the impact of renewable energy subsidies.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"UK Electricity Prices: Analyzing Trends and Subsidy Impact","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820686,691819691,691837542,691820065,691818181,691818299],"class_list":{"0":"post-398175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-desnz","9":"tag-electricity-prices","10":"tag-gdp-market-prices","11":"tag-ofgem","12":"tag-renewable-energy","13":"tag-subsidies","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ChatGPT-Image-29.-Apr.-2025-19_39_40-1.png?fit=1024%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1FAb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":218860,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=218860","url_meta":{"origin":398175,"position":0},"title":"Texas Grid Reliability: Gone with the Wind (and solar)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Texans can have an ample supply of reliable and affordable electricity if our politicians will get out of the way and let the Texas energy market do its job.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-714.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-714.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-714.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-714.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-714.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":224397,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=224397","url_meta":{"origin":398175,"position":1},"title":"Lone Stars: Texans Count Colossal Cost of Wind & Solar \u2018Transition\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"18\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Crushing power costs and power rationing follow wind and solar reliance, like night follows day. 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