centrica's new boss feels the heat as home energy bills top £1,000 - residential energy storage systems

Centrica's new chief executive, Sam Laidlaw, went through a fire baptism yesterday as the UK gas sector announced a new round of price increases, raising the family's annual average energy bill to more than £ 1,000 for the first time.
Even the government has begun to criticize Britain's biggest energy company, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry has called on customers to shop around for another supplier.
UK gas lost 432,000 accounts in the first half of this year, and consumer group Energywatch urged more of its 16 accounts.
Defects of 6 million customers.
It calculates that UK gas customers can save £ 276 in gas and electricity on average every year by switching to npower, the cheapest supplier in the current market.
The British gas company has confirmed that its gas price will rise by 12 from September.
4%, electricity price 9. 4 per cent -
Company's sixth growth since April 2003
Protests and calls on the government to step in.
The typical annual gas bill for customers who make direct debit payments per month will increase to £ 634.
According to the website uSwitch, for power customers, the average annual bill will rise to £ 409, an additional £ 884 per year. com.
Ledra, who has been working for less than a month, defended the price increase, saying that Centrica had no choice in the face of the 71 increase in wholesale gas prices in the past 12 months.
He said that although the UK gas company recently raised tariffs
When the bill goes up 22
In the first six months of this year, its residential energy business still lost 143 pounds.
"Our current agenda is clear.
We must restore the core business of residential energy in the UK to an acceptable level of return . "
The increase in residential energy losses led Centrica's operating profit for the six months ended June to drop by 692 to GBP, although the group's wholesale energy, natural gas storage and North American division had higher profits.
Mr. Laidlaw believes that price increases are essential for Centrica, as price increases are the basis for the substantial investment needed to ensure long-term stability.
As the UK increasingly shifts to net importers, the long-term supply of natural gas.
Centrica has contracted to spend £ 18 to secure future gas supplies through a series of deals with Statoil, the Dutch gas University and Petronas, and hopes to negotiate further
Sign regular contracts with other overseas suppliers including Gazprom.
However, Mr. Laidlaw said that due to the high cost of purchasing upstream oil and gas operations, Centrica's goal of purchasing 35% of gas demand from its own field is under review.
About a quarter of Centrica's gas comes from its own production sector.
Mainly in the north of Mokham Bay. west coast.
Rising prices are a factor in driving residential business back to profitability.
The other is the group's cost of £ 200. cutting plan.
So far Centrica has moved 1,000 jobs from 30,000 to overseas
The UK's labor force is strong and is expected to drop further by 1,100 by the end of this year.
Further savings will be made once all customers are transferred to the new single billing system.
Mr. Laidlaw even pointed out that with the new pipeline capacity put into production, the possibility of natural gas prices starting to fall back next year is very small.
The BBL and Langeled pipelines from the Netherlands and Norway, as well as the expansion of existing connectors in Belgium, will bring in new capacity equivalent to half of UK annual demand.
"I hope the price will drop, but it will depend on how much gas there is in the UK and what will happen to the oil price, which is very unstable," he added . ".
The biggest challenge for ryslow is the price of gas, but it's not his only challenge.
His last job in running the company's oil suddenly ended, Royal Dutch Shell bought the company, and his new employer was in the wrong position to continue buying speculation, gazprom publicly admitted that he was in the bid.
But lylow played down the possibility of a move by Russian gas.
"I think we can provide more shareholder value in a more traditional way," he said . ".
"You can never rule out the bid, but there is no indication that this is going to happen and there is no discussion with Gazprom.
"Part of the growth will come from further expansion of the US market, where Centrica has 5 million customers and the group has a foothold in the Netherlands in Europe.
Centrica's chief financial officer, Phil Bentley, said the US market has great potential, noting that Texas alone consumes more power on a hot day than the UK on a cold day.
In the past year, Centrica has entered five new states, if there is a market that Mr. lydlow thinks is the United States.
Prior to joining Centrica, he served as a senior executive at the US oil giant Chevron for three years.
He said progress in Europe could slow due to the slow pace of the Continental monopoly operators opening up their domestic markets.
"We will continue to lobby for greater transparency and open access to European wholesale markets and to accelerate the progress of real competition in retail markets," Mr Laidlaw said . ".
He hesitated to criticize the previous management for taking a strategy to acquire AA and financial services through goldfish experiments to diversify Centrica into roadside fault services, and perhaps it should focus on energy.
In fact, he said that his predecessor, Sir Roy Gardner, was "quick" to act in the event that wholesale energy prices began to soar to buy power stations at competitive prices, the North Sea crude natural gas storage facility was acquired for 304 m.
The latter deal is now seen as theft by City analysts, who expect to profit from roughly 200 m in a rough year.
There is no indication that Mr Laidlaw will do anything but insist on weaving.
A senior investment banker and energy expert believes that the dream merger will be to combine Centrica's vast customer base with the same large power generation that the UK energy company operates.
But lylow was dismissive of the idea.
He is also very cautious about how easy it is to replace Britain's nuclear fleet with a new generation of nuclear power plants without government support.
"There are still some major problems in the economy of nuclear power," he said . ".
"First of all, there is also the cost of retiring and processing spent fuel, which the government has said must be paid by the private sector.
Then there is the whole issue of carbon pricing, and what will happen to the system after 2012.
We will see if supporters stand up, but without greater certainty about carbon pricing, it is difficult for new nuclear power to be competitive in price.