Imagine ordering a pint of beer which normally costs £4 and being asked for £30 - that's the scale of the energy price rise for a leading arts and studios group in Wales, according to its director. Jonathan Powell, co-director of Elysium Gallery and Studios, Swansea, wonders where it will all end.
"Everything is just really uncertain," he said. "What do you do? People are waiting until after Christmas to see what happens."
The Elysium building, between Orchard Street and High Street, has 70 studios for artists, writers, photographers and craftspeople. The not-for-profit enterprise also runs a gallery in High Street and has studios in College Street and Mansel Street. Mr Powell said the monthly energy bill for the main studios building went up in October from £600 to £4,500 per month.
He is hoping that UK Government support will kick in soon. "They said they would help, and we were hoping it would come into effect by now, but everyone is still in the dark," he said.
Mr Powell said the new energy bill came via the building's owners, Coastal Housing, whereas Elysium arranged its own energy contracts for its other locations. "Coastal Housing have actually been quite good and we have been trying to negotiate the rent," he said.
Elysium has raised studio rents by £70 per month to try to balance its books and Mr Powell admitted it was impacting lower-income artists particularly. The nearby gallery has a bar, which brings in revenue, but Elysium otherwise relies on studio rents as well as some public sector grants for projects and exhibitions.
Mr Powell said: "We have been building this up for 15 years - from a pop-up gallery to Wales' largest studio provider - for it to be jeopardised is heart-breaking really."
The energy price hikes are also rampaging through the public sector. Swansea's 720-bed Morriston Hospital racked up a £3.2m electricity bill and £1m gas bill in 2021-22. Swansea Bay University Health Board, which runs it, said it expected the electricity and gas bills to be a whopping £5.8m and £2.2m respectively in 2023-24.
The health board has developed its own solar farm, which it said will cut the hospital's electricity bill by £1m based on last year's unit costs. It has also invested £2.5m in energy-efficient lighting, funded two further solar arrays and installed an air source heat pump - with a second one to follow - as part of a decarbonisation strategy.
Swansea Prison, on Oystermouth Road, had electricity and gas bills of £241,000 and £105,000 respectively in 2021-22. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it "hedged" energy purchases, meaning it would only understand the true impact of price hikes on the prison at the end of the current financial year.
Asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service what steps it was taking to reduce energy consumption at the prison, an MoJ spokeswoman said it had installed two efficient gas boilers and planned to install more. It also plans to fit low-energy lights in cells. The temperature in the cells themselves is set between 18C and 21C and cannot be adjusted by prisoners.
Keeping the water warm and the lights on in the Wales National Pool Swansea, Sketty, cost £373,000 in 2021-22 and is forecast to rise to £465,000 this year. The Olympic-sized pool is a training base for elite swimmers and its water temperature is lower than those of leisure facilities.
To reduce energy consumption the group Wales National Pool Swansea, which runs the pool on behalf of Swansea University and Swansea Council, said it had lowered the main pool temperature by 0.5C to 27.5C and the training pool from 29C to 28.5C. A spokesman said it had installed energy-efficient lighting and was looking at further measures such as pool covers. "Over the years we've continually been looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint as well as to reduce energy consumption and manage energy bills," he said.
For Elysium's Mr Powell, planning for the future is nigh-on impossible, although there are proposals in the longer term for a new health and well-being centre where the Orchard Street studios are.
He said he hoped things would improve but wasn't overly optimistic that the energy supply and price crisis would end if peace broke out in Ukraine. "Are they [energy producers] going to put their prices down?" he said. "I think it's going to be the new normal - I don't want to sound too pessimistic."
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