Super El Niño could add HUNDREDS to your household energy bills: Looming climate event

The looming Super El Niño could add hundreds to your household energy bills, experts have warned.

The Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) says that the impending climate event will compound global gas shortages and send prices soaring.

El Niño is poised to trigger an exceptionally hot summer in Asia, spiking energy demand as people turn on their air conditioning.

At the same time, this powerful weather event threatens Europe with a freezing winter that will raise demand for gas used to keep homes and businesses warm.

The ICIS says that this will intensify the fraught competition between Asia and Europe, as both rush to supplement dwindling supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The experts warn that Asian countries are already snapping up massive shipments of LNG that would normally be used to fill up winter storage tanks in the UK and Europe.

Andreas Schroeder, of the ICIS, says: ‘El Niño means a wetter, warmer start to winter, but a colder, drier first quarter in 2027.

‘We have estimated for Europe that it will need up to seven billion extra cubic metres of gas over the whole winter, just because of these cold weather effects.’

With El Niño officially declared by the NOAA, experts warn that the looming weather event could add hundreds of pounds to your gas bills 

Experts say that El Niño will compound global pressures from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is already causing gas shortages. Pictured: UK LNG storage in 2026 (green) compared to last year (blue) 

El Niño is part of a naturally occurring weather cycle called the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which shifts between hot and cool phases every two to seven years.

Normally, the trade winds blow westwards across the Pacific, transporting warm water away from South America towards Australia and allowing colder water to well up along the coast.

During the El Niño phase of the cycle, these winds weaken or reverse, allowing warm water to build up in the tropical Pacific.

That concentration of warm water can raise the global average temperature and disrupt weather patterns on a global scale.

Scientists warn that the current El Niño, which is just beginning, could be the strongest ever recorded, making it a so–called ‘Super El Niño’ event.

Typically, the UK is only indirectly affected by these weather–changing effects, but such a strong event will have consequences that spill across the entire globe.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Schroeder now warns that one of these effects will be a massive increase in energy prices for UK homes.

‘A record El Niño is due this summer,’ says Mr Schroeder.

Experts say a hot summer in Asia and a cold start to winter in the UK and Europe will lead to increasing competition for LNG supplies and increase prices. Pictured: the cities most at risk of extreme heat as El Niño approaches 

‘Soaring temperatures could drive Asian buyers back into the market for power generation fuel even as Europe looks to step up injections.’

This comes just as the world is already reeling from the energy shock caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has cut off about 20 per cent of LNG supplies.

ICIS says that this has already triggered energy shortages, as Asian nations massively outbid for supplies coming from the US.

For example, countries such as Japan and Taiwan are paying approximately a fifth more for LNG than Europe.

This week, US President Donald Trump declared that the Strait is ‘partially open’ as a new peace deal has been signed with Iran.

Speaking at the G7 summit in Évian–les–Bains, France, Trump said that the deal was ‘all signed’ and predicted that the shipping lane would be ‘completely opened’ by Friday.

Trump added: ‘They are doing a little hunting for a couple mines that they already found.’

However, Vice President JD Vance suggested that more work needed to be done to keep the strait open permanently.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz (pictured) has stopped a fifth of the world’s supply of LNG, causing energy prices to soar 

Speaking at the G7 summit, US President Donald Trump (pictured) said that a deal was ‘all signed’ to open up the Strait of Hormuz, but it is unclear whether LNG supplies will return to pre–war levels

With prices already sky–high, it remains unclear whether supplies of LNG will return to their pre–war levels in the near future.

This is particularly worrying ahead of an especially cold winter in the UK, where LNG is used for heating in 27 million domestic boilers.

Ofgem, the government’s energy regulator, recently announced that a 13 per cent increase to the energy price cap would come into force in July.

This raises the limit on the maximum amount that suppliers can charge households on standard or variable tariffs for each unit of gas and electricity they use.

That is expected to add £211 annually, or £18 per month, to average energy bills.

The vast majority of the increase comes from consumers’ gas bills, which are rising by 24 per cent compared with just five per cent for electricity.

In its announcement, Ofgem says that this was ‘a result of higher wholesale gas prices, caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East’.

While this remains well below the £2,500 price cap during the 2022 energy crisis, the added stress of a Super El Niño could push prices even higher.