Consumers paid billions more for energy while providers increased revenues

A power plan at sunset - Consumers paid high energy costs while electricity generators saw enormous increases in revenues beyond their costs, finds a new report by UCL researchers that traces the revenues of the UK's electricity generation sector during the 2022 energy crisis. In the report, " Where does the money go? An analysis of revenues in the GB power sector during the energy crisis ", researchers found that electricity consumers in the UK paid £29 billion more in 2022 compared to pre-Covid levels, an increase of about £500 per person. The report draws on publicly available datasets and analyses the structure of revenues generated by different sources of electricity generation in the UK. Of the £29 billion revenue increase, about 70% went to natural gas, and renewable energy producers with 'renewable obligation credits'. The rest went to nuclear, biomass and coal generation. Gas generators tripled their total revenues from about £6 billion in 2018/2019 to £19 billion in 2022. These renewables doubled their total revenue from about £7.7 billion in 2018/2019 to £15.5 billion in 2022.