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European electricity prices tumble into negative territory amid glut of green energy
(markets.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Any Europeans to tell us how it is over there? Last I heard the gas prices were so high some dishes like fish and chips doubled in price.
Gas prices were high last autumn and then it was clear that there is a limited supply, but no shortages. Renewables and energy savings worked much better then most predicted. So it is not like things are completly awfull. What is a problem is the high inflation, especially in energy and food, which obviously hurts the poor the most. Obviously it is still Europe and there are system to take care of it a bit, but it is much worse then usual.
Next winter might be tight again, especially if it is a cold one, but basicly all new gas consuming projects have been rethought and are now not happening or some green alternative is being used. So propably a good thing it happend.
Electricity prices were crazy last winter (over 20c/kWh) but now they have been about what it was before the war (6c/kWh). Diesel price went from 1.4€/L to 2.2€/L and has now come back down to around 1.8€/L since the spring. All food prices are up too. Haven't really affected my life but I make a good living and live cheaply anyways.
My monthly electricity budget is fixed at ~200€ per month, regardless of the electricity I use.
Then at the end of the year I get a bill for an extra 2000€ even though I didn't use much at all and the company claims that I used 99.99% of my electricity during the one most expensive month of the year.
Then we have to call them and say "that is literally impossible, you are scamming us." To which they reply "we can't see what electricity you use, we can only estimate it." (How are they even an energy company in that case of all of their numbers are made up guesses?)
Then we go through a song and dance of using our smart meters monthly tallies to prove definitively that our usage was much lower and evenlt spread so we should actually be barely paying any extra or getting money back.
To which they reply "we will lower it to only a few hundred, we do so much for you and you should be greatful we worked so hard to get you this price."
This is Belgium. This is a real service conversation. Fuck Mega, Fuck their lying scamming bullshit "service" and I hope every executive of mega gets their bedroom infested with wolf spiders and gets bedbugs.