Have Ofgem blundered?

Gerry1

Ofgem's Typical Domestic Values were revised in 2020.

For properties with single rate electricity metering (typically houses and flats which also have gas) the Medium use was 3,100kWh per annum but was revised down to 2,900kWh.  For all-electric properties with two registers (typically small flats), the Medium TDCV use figure remained at 4,200kWh per annum.

However, the Benchmark Consumption per annum for this October's price cap still uses the old 3,100kWh figure.

Does Ofgem's price cap left hand not know that Ofgem's TDCV right hand revised their figures 20 months ago, or am I missing something?

hydratoad

They explain this in the letter (your first link) on page 3.

The median usage for the updated TDCVs are still below the new mean values, which gives suppliers a small additional margin which is used to recover costs from higher energy users. As such, they chose to keep the prior values for use in the price cap calculation.

I imagine it was also motivated by a desire to "help" explain the effect of the change in the price cap to the public. Otherwise we might end up with headlines indicating that their bills will be going down as prices are going up.

How the price cap works is already clear as mud to most consumers, and Ofgem hardly help the matter in the way it is communicated as it is.

Gerry1

hydratoad said:

How the price cap works is already clear as mud to most consumers, and Ofgem hardly help the matter in the way it is communicated as it is.

Well spotted !  Ofgem will never win a Plain English award.