Standing Charge Cut.

Not so sure. In the simple view the per unit charge would pay for the fuel, and the standing charge would read meters,  maintain cables transformers, keeping the machinery oiled and so forth, except perhaps for network upgrades ('reinforcement') where more load is added for car chargers and so on.

  As far as I can tell in the last year only the fuel part has gone up in price by  a large multiple. 

Simplistically then the changes to standing charges should have beene modest compared to the cost per unit rise. And costs dominated by the per unit pricing does aid those who do not use very much as the standing charge is a larger fraction of their bills.

However the whole thing is distorted by govt price controls, and as soon as they are adjusted, the companies all expand to meet that limit pretty much in all available directions.

I'm sure if we could generate at a rate that was too cheap to meter, we'd still have standing charges.

Right now, to trigger reduced consumption, we need the per unit charges to rise - if the standing charge dominates you may as well put the heating on and open the windows.

Mike.

It's the total which is capped, so right now I don't think that it makes a lot of difference.

Pretty sure the cap is on the price per unit (and standing charge), not on the total you will pay.

mapj1  “I'm sure if we could generate at a rate that was too cheap to meter, we'd still have standing charges.“

That what we were told would happen when we were at school in the late sixties and early seventies, electricity from nuclear power stations would be so cheap it would not be worth metering, we would simply pay a standing charge for a connection.

The classic example of how it can all go wrong is Sark and the imposition of a maximum price which made running the generators unsustainable.

No, the per unit prices are capped, and the standing charges are capped, seperately, and to locally adjusted values that reflect the cost of living and the cost of delivering energy in those areas.

The media, think we are incapable of grasping this, and say ' the bill for a typical semi is capped at XX' Which is true, but your typical semi may be less well insulated than mine.

Most of the increase in the electricity standing charge was to pay for the suppliers that went under and to cover the increase in funds that are made available to help those in fuel poverty.