Britain's power companies have been accused of profiteering, with calculations that household bills could have been reduced by £1800 on average last year.
Companies across the UK energy sector, from North Sea oil and gas production, electricity generation, transmission networks and Big Six supply companies made a combined £45bn profit in 2022, according to research by Unite.
It was suggested that if that amount had been kept in public hands, it could have been used to save each household £1,800 on their energy bills.
Using the ‘book value’ approach, which compensates companies for their spending, the report estimates a total cost of £90bn to nationalise the sector, equal to just two years of profits at the 2022 level and suggesting the process would "pay for itself within a few years".
Purchases would have to be made of North Sea producers including the UK arms of Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) and BP PLC (LSE:BP.); transmission network operators National Grid PLC (LSE:NG.) and Cadent Gas, energy supply companies including Centrica's British Gas, French-owned EDF and German-owned E.On; and various other power and gas networks including those owned by SSE PLC (LSE:SSE), Spain's Iberdrola and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK.A).
As Labour draws up its manifesto for the general election expected next year, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham will present Labour with the union's report, which sets out how it believes taxpayers would benefit from the state purchases, such as by greatly reducing inflation.
With household energy bills having been one of the biggest contributors to high inflation, state-owned energy companies could have frozen bills in the summer of 2021 when prices started to surge, Unite said, meaning inflation was at least 4.1% lower last year.
The current energy system which “allows profiteers to pocket billions while workers and communities are left in the cold”, said Graham.
She said it was the first time that the full costs and savings had been analysed of taking the entire energy network into public ownership.
“It’s a tragic missed opportunity that, if the energy system had been run for the benefit of all not the profits of a few, households could have saved £45 billion, avoiding high bills that have left millions in the cold or searching for ‘warm banks’.”
The calculations, she said, showed it is “no longer a question of ‘can we afford to’, it’s how long can we afford not to”.
This report follows the historic profits recorded by BP and Shell, who made a combined profit of £55 billion and British Gas owner Centrica.
Unite has previously exposed rampant profiteering by electricity and gas distributors, who made £6.3 billion in 2021 with huge long-term operating profit margins of over 40 per cent