[bko]

> Edit: Big power retail companies in the UK are making record profits, and so is generation.

The largest gas provider in UK (British Gas) profits in millions of pounds:

2009 147

2010 226

2011 258

2012 291

2013 153

2014 96

2015 73

2016 43

2017 11

2018 8

2019 -5

2020 27

I couldn't find more recent data but please provide it if you have it. These are in millions of pounds. Suppose their profit jumped to 100 million pounds (4x the 2020 profits). Do you think 100 MILLION pounds would solve the problem? To put this in context, public sector fuel and energy expenditure in 2021 was 456 BILLION. And this is only public sector. Profits aren't even a rounding error.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/521474/centrica-energy-e...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/298887/united-kingdom-uk...

[minimaul]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-28/profit-bo...

As an example for more recent information.

[bko]

I would look at the company's financial statements. The article doesn't really provide much insight. I took Centrica, which was mentioned in the article and looked at their 2022 results ending on June 30th 2022:

> British Gas Services & Solutions adjusted operating profit fell by 88% to £7m.

> The reversal of a £50m Covid-19 and industrial action impact from H1 2021 was partially offset by an increase in customer compensation following disappointing service levels over the past winter, continued higher absence rates earlier in the year, and increased workload, which we believe is a function of customers choosing to have non-urgent jobs they had been delaying during the Interim Results | Group Overview (continued) Centrica plc Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2022 7 Covid-19 pandemic completed. These temporary factors negatively impacted adjusted operating profit by approximately £25m

It's difficult to tease out, but the profit numbers are so tiny compared to the aggregate increase in price experienced by consumers. I think focusing on profit makes for good headlines but underlying issues are a lot bigger. Taking away the tiny sliver of profit these companies have will reduce innovation and new entrants while doing absolutely nothing to alleviate higher consumer prices.

https://www.centrica.com/media/5723/centrica-2022-interim-re...