Warning issued to British Gas, EDF, EON, Ovo, Octopus customers who use gas A damning report has been released explaining why the UK’s electricity costs are so high – and what can be done about it. A damning report has been released explaining why the UK’s electricity costs are so high – and what can be done about it. A warning has been issued to British Gas, OVO, EDF, Eon and Octopus customers who use gas. A damning report has been released explaining why the UK’s electricity costs are so high – and what can be done about it. “Great Britain’s dependency on gas imports has been the most important factor behind higher gas and power prices in the market,” Kate Mulvany, the principal consultant at the energy advisory company Cornwall Insight said. ‌ Prof Michael Grubb of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources said although fossil fuels used to be cheaper than renewable energy sources, “that has turned on its head as gas prices shot up and the cost to produce renewables such as wind and solar power has plummeted”. Article continues below READ MORE 14 counties in England set to roast in new UK mini-heatwave next week He said: “If we actually paid the average price of what our electricity now costs to produce, our bills would be substantially cheaper.” One way the UK could reduce its energy bills is by using less gas, it has been advised. ‌ “There’s no magic number below which bills will suddenly fall lower,” Mulvany said. “But the effect of gas markets on electricity costs would gradually fall,” she said. If the UK starts getting more of its electricity from renewables and nuclear power, we could see energy bills go down—mainly because we’d be using way less gas, which is expensive and unpredictable. In France, over two-thirds of its energy comes from nuclear reactors. Because of that, gas power stations only end up deciding the market price about 7 per cent of the time, which helps keep electricity cheaper overall. Article continues below In Germany, meanwhile, half of their power comes from renewables, but gas still sets the price around 25 per cent of the time. This makes the European Union holiday hotspot's prices can be a bit more sensitive to gas market swings. The UK government wants gas to make up just 5% of our total electricity use for the year by 2030. Based on one of the National Energy System Operator’s plans, that could mean gas would only set the electricity price about 15% of the time.