UK money saving website VoucherCodesPro.co.uk has today released new details on energy statistics across the UK. This is seen as an important topic, as energy expenditure is a major cost for all UK households. Additionally, it is a hot topic due to sustainability being such a major issue.
UK money saving website VoucherCodesPro.co.uk has today released new statistics on energy across the United Kingdom. The data covers data based on 2014s fourth quarter. It creates a reasonable estimate on what to expect this year, as well as showing key differences from last year.
The research looked at energy trends as well as energy consumption, both by fuel and in total. Additionally, it analysed what the main changes were from the past year. It looked at various different factors, including what prices were for commercial and domestic users, comparisons of international fuel prices and prices of oil products.
A number of key points were raised from the research, including:
- Total production of energy had been reduced by 1.5%. While this is positive, drops in consumption had been much higher in previous years. Additionally, it was noted that the output of gas was higher for the first time in 14 years. At the same time, renewables also drove a lot of growth.
- Energy usage overall dropped by 6.4%. However, there were also notable differences in weather, which means actual usage drop is more likely to be 2.4%.
- Final energy consumption dropped across the board, with the highest drops being experienced in domestic usage, at 14%. This was also due to the weather being much better and a lack of a truly cold winter.
- Low carbon electricity also saw a significant rise, from 34.6% to 38.3%. This is mainly due to the fact that people are turning to renewables.
- Because of several nuclear outages, the use of gas was increased tremendously.
- Renewable energy production overall increased by 20%, which is a very positive piece of information.
- Average electricity bills rose by £15 per year on average for electricity, and £23 for gas. This includes the rebate of £12 that all consumers received across the UK, however.
There were a number of other interesting points, particularly for the energy production market. For the domestic market, however, the results continue to be reasonably bleak. While consumption is down, it is down less than was expected, particularly when taking into consideration the fact that the winter was unusually mild, meaning people had less requirements for heating. Additionally, since more and more people are in fact switching to renewables, it would suggest that overall energy usage is actually on the rise, or bills would have dropped more significantly.
There has also been a significant rise in comparison shopping, and people are advised to switch their supplier as soon as they see a better deal elsewhere. However, for consumers, this is often a complicated hassle and there have been horror stories of things going wrong, which means they prefer to stay with a supplier that works, even if it is more expensive.
“Energy usage is one of the highest bills people in this country face on a weekly basis”, says a spokesperson for VoucherCodesPro.co.uk. “While most people are committed to going green, what they really care about in the interim is making sure they are able to live. The UK has been lucky for the past two years with mild winters, which meant most people did not have to choose between heating and eating. However, if we have a harsher winter this year, this may change dramatically.”
