Energy giants are told to pay back billions

ENERGY companies are overcharging customers by as much as £1 billion a year in defiance of European Union rules, it was claimed last week.

Lawyers said the breach could lead to consumers taking their utility firms to court to reclaim hundreds of pounds, in an echo of last year’s revolt over bank charges.

The 10m customers who pay by cash or cheque every quarter are being charged £699m more than is justifiable, according to a report from a committee of MPs last week. Pre-payment meter customers, including those with second homes, are paying up to £400m more.

The excess is in breach of an EU directive which states that any difference between payment methods should reflect the cost to the supplier. This is only £20 even though suppliers charge up to £69 more, MPs say.

Graham Kerr of watchdog Energywatch said: “I expect consumers to demand lower payments or even ask for a refund in the same way as bank-charge customers.”

The MPs on the Business and Enterprise committee called for suppliers to be forced to lower tariffs through price controls if they fail to act in 12 months.

This follows British Gas’s decision to raise gas bills by an average of 35% and electricity tariffs by 9%, increasing the average bill by about £267 a year — the highest ever single increase. About 1.6m of the firm’s customers who pay by direct debit have seen a steeper increase of 42%. Customers in London, the Midlands and East Anglia have suffered a rise of almost 44%.

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Giant kites to tap power of the high wind

Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at Stanford University's Carnegie Institution, has estimated that the total energy contained in wind is 100 times the amount needed by everyone on the planet. But most of this energy is at high altitude.

The blades of modern commercial windmills sit around 80 metres from the ground, where the wind speed is almost five metres per second. At 800 metres, however, wind speed rises to seven metres per second, potentially generating considerably more energy.

It would be virtually impossible to build a standard turbine to take advantage of the wind at 800 metres, but kites could easily get to these heights. Furthermore, thanks to the high-speed jet stream, countries such as the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark are particularly suited to flying kites.

'Pretty much anywhere in the UK you could run a kite plant economically, but you couldn't run a wind turbine economically,' said Allister Furey of the University of Sussex, who develops computer control mechanisms to maximise the power generated from kites.

A kite generates power by pulling on a string attached to generators on the ground. When it has reached its maximum height, it is reeled back down to repeat the process.

Using computer models, Furey has worked out that flying kites in a figure of eight pattern means the air flowing over them travels even faster than the ambient wind speed. When a kite needs to be reeled in, it is angled so that it falls out of the sky like a glider, without the need for much power. Ockels's system uses these flying patterns to maximise the power the kites can generate. He is also looking at extending his basic prototype to use multiple kites that yo-yo: when one goes up, another goes down. Ockels estimates that kites could generate power at less than 4p per kilowatt-hour, which is comparable to coal power and less than half the cost of electricity from wind turbines.

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The 10 cheapest cars to run

Whatever type of car you need, choosing the right make and model could save you thousands of pounds in tax and fuel costs. Here are Money Central's top ten most fuel-efficient cars - whether you need a small runaround or a 4X4.
1. Small Runaround: Volkswagen Polo 1.4 TDI (80PS) with DPF BLUEMOTION
Price: £12,965
Verdict: Polos have a classy image, and because it is exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED) it is one of the cheapest cars to run. But be warned, What Car? says: “The ancient engines are noisy and gutless, prices are high and the drive is uninspiring.”
Co2 emissions: 99 g/km
Tax band/cost: A/ £0
Average petrol costs: £830 per 12,000 miles (the average distance travelled each year)

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Replacing Fridges 'Can Save on Energy Bills'

Customers worried about rising energy bills should look to replace their fridge-freezers and reduce household costs, the Energy Saving Trust (EST) said today.

According to figures from the firm, which advises householders on how to boost their energy efficiency, a new cold appliance could save around £34 per year. Moreover, around £1 billion is thought to be wasted annually on customers leaving other appliances such as tumble driers and washing machines on standby rather than switching them off entirely.

The EST's recommendations come as rising wholesale prices spark a new round of price rises among Britain's energy firms. EDF became the first of the big six providers to hike bills last weekend, imposing 17 percent and 22 percent increases on electricity and gas respectively.

Other firms are expected to follow this lead over weeks to come, bringing annual fuel costs to well over £1,000 for most families.

Caroline Rams at the Energy Saving Trust commentedd: "Replacing an old, energy inefficient fridge-freezer with a new energy saving recommended one could save you up to £34 every year. If we all made the change to more efficient cold appliances this week, together we'd save around £700 million every year."

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