britain s largest energy supplier, centrica, is to reveal record profits today on the back of a surge in wholesale gas prices linked to the war in ukraine, just weeks after suspending the forced installation of prepayment meters over concerns of its treatment of vulnerable customers. many families are struggling to pay their energy bills, with a quarter losing sleep over it. centrica s boss chris o shea has been urged to waive his bonus. kathryn porter is an energy consultant and founder of watt logic. by by any one s numbers, £3 billion, it is a huge amount of money and it s going to mean a huge amount of criticism today as well from people across the board. is centrica profiteering in your view? board. is centrica profiteering in your view? no, i don t think the are in your view? no, i don t think they are profiteering, - in your view? no, i don t think they are profiteering, the - they are profiteering, the record profits are driven by its upstream business, production o
again for the site to remain safe and that would require significant investment. at that time, centrica wasn t making any money from selling the storage capacity and the government wasn t prepared to support that investment which is why it closed. you mentioned other countries, they have access to quite extensive salt caverns underground. we have some but nothing like the same amount. so it is a geological difference as much as a political difference. but do ou political difference. but do you think political difference. but do you think centrica - political difference. but do you think centrica is - political difference. but do | you think centrica is holding the government to ransom over this issue? this issue? no, i don t, it is not centrica s this issue? no, i don t, it is not centrica s job this issue? no, i don t, it is not centrica s job to - this issue? no, i don t, it is not centrica s job to protect the security of supply in the country, that is the government s job. c
way but that didn t fit within the safety framework. did propose. it wasn t a question of holding anybody to ransom. if the government wanted to take that over, it had the option to do it, but it didn t at that time. it thought simply waiting and importing when we needed it was the right way forward. and to be fair, no one has really carried out an analysis which says otherwise. no one has gone back and said, had we made that £1 billion investment in 2017, would we have recovered that cost in the past winter to using it as a storage site or not? it wasn t an infinite amount of storage, it had a certain capacity and deliverability rates. if you couldn t benefit within those parameters, may be that investment wouldn t have been justified. we investment wouldn t have been ustified. ~ ., ., ., justified. we are going to leave it there, justified. we are going to leave it there, thank - justified. we are going to j leave it there, thank you. those numbers will be out in