Standard Variable Tariff(SVT) 5 October 2021 at 2:31PM in Energy 41 replies 3.7K views

MWT

coupleuk said:

As I thought, my Standing Charge for electric is up 96% and kWh is up 20% (on existing cap).

As others have said, penalised for low usage.

Some non-consumption costs are shared equally to access the network, not penalised, just a cost of being connected to the grid...

ihatetrump

@QrizB

Thanks you so much for your clear and concise explanation - very much appreciated

I've commented in other threads (often quite contentiously) and have provoked a backlash from some about the failures that we're now all paying for. Like this one from back on 20/09/2021:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6298311/how-can-so-many-energy-companies-fail-whos-next-avro-igloo-symbio-colorado-neon-reef/p1

I certainly wasn't the Sage of Omaha, but many of those suppliers listed did in fact fail. I now count myself as being one of the extremely lucky ones because as a result of my own research in early September (I was with Igloo at the time) I made the choice fearful of the coming storm, to pay a bit more at the time and go with the longest fix I could find. Fixing until September 24 with EDF. I'm in the East Midlands, and here's the result of that decision:

	Gas			Elec
	EDF 3Yr Fix	Price Cap		EDF 3Yr Fix	Price Cap
Standing Charge PPD	26.12	27.2		23.77	44.8
pKwH	3.927	7.28		19.98	27.63

I'm not gloating (although I do have a cheerful grin on my face) but I've learned a lesson from this whole painful fiasco that in future I will never ever ever ever accept a cheap short term deal that maybe looks too good to be true. OFGEM should be held to account for allowing so many unregulated and inexperienced cowboys to enter the supply market in the first place. 

Gerry1

ihatetrump said:

OFGEM should be held to account for allowing so many unregulated and inexperienced cowboys to enter the supply market in the first place.

Although it could be argued that it was Ofgem's price cap that caused all those smaller companies to go bust !

ihatetrump

Although it could be argued that it was Ofgem's price cap that caused all those smaller companies to go bust !

Maybe a contributing factor - but without the price cap, many would have just continued to use customer advance deposits to fund their ongoing businesses - some of which never made an operating profit - according to the last filed accounts for AVRO, they sold their energy at over 99% cost - hardly a business model built to last - once the cash ran out, they crumbled.

Gerry1

ihatetrump said:

Although it could be argued that it was Ofgem's price cap that caused all those smaller companies to go bust !

Maybe a contributing factor - but without the price cap, many would have just continued to use customer advance deposits to fund their ongoing businesses - some of which never made an operating profit - according to the last filed accounts for AVRO, they sold their energy at over 99% cost - hardly a business model built to last - once the cash ran out, they crumbled.

When I become DG of Ofgem I'll insist on Variable DD or Pay On Receipt of Bill.  That'll stop 'em ! 

Allanr

QrizB said:

QrizB said:

In brief:

New cap, new explainer. Most of it the same as the last one, TBH.

Here is how it works:

• Ofgem publish a set of tables here showing maximum annual costs for the standing chage (SC) and for typical users. There are different tables depending on how you pay and whether you have single-rate or multi-rate electricity (eg. E7).
• The tables for a dual-fuel, single-rate customer are based on 3100 kWh/yr elec and 12000 kWh/yr gas
• If you divide the SC cap by 365 you get the daily SC cap
• If you subtract the annual SC cap from the 3100 kWh/yr electric cap, then divide by 3100, you get the kWh price
• Ditto for the 12000 kWh gas cap.

In practice there's a little bit of flexibility as suppliers can charge less SC and then bump their kWh rates up proportionately. The hard cap on electric kWh is the cap/3100, and for gas kWh the cap/12000.

Ofgem's published figures don't include VAT so add 5% to whatever you calculate (assuming a residential property).

Here is my own calculation of how the rates work out for each region, including VAT in the final steps:

If you've got Economy 7 or Economy 10 or some other multi-rate tariff, it's more complicated and I can't produce a simple table with rates. See this post for an explanation of why.

If you don't trust my sums and would like confirmation of the above rates, here is EDF's standard variable rate card.

Many thanks for the explanation and the tables, the unit costs and daily standing charges shown for my region lines up with the information recenetly supplied by my supplier.

What I'm  unclear on is that if I add the costs for each element for a couple of the regions  in the table they don't line up with each other and they exceed the price cap of £2069 (i.e. £1971 +5% VAT).

I assumed the price cap was standard across all regions with regions being able to tweak the standing charges and unit costs so long as the overall price cap of £1971 + vat isn't exceeded. Is my undersatnding of the same price cap all regions incorrect?

molerat

The price cap is not standard across all regions, it is the average price across all the regions.

QrizB

Allanr said:

I assumed the price cap was standard across all regions with regions being able to tweak the standing charges and unit costs so long as the overall price cap of £1971 + vat isn't exceeded. Is my undersatnding of the same price cap all regions incorrect?

As molerat says, the price cap varies by region. £1971 includes VAT and is an average.

By my calculations, the price cap varies between £1937 (East Midlands) and £2015 (North Wales & Mersey).

Allanr

QrizB said:

Allanr said:

I assumed the price cap was standard across all regions with regions being able to tweak the standing charges and unit costs so long as the overall price cap of £1971 + vat isn't exceeded. Is my undersatnding of the same price cap all regions incorrect?

As molerat says, the price cap varies by region. £1971 includes VAT and is an average.

By my calculations, the price cap varies between £1937 (East Midlands) and £2015 (North Wales & Mersey).

Thanks to both of you for clarifying the averaging of the price cap. this wasn't too obvious from looking at the OFGEM page on price cap..

How for example did you arrive at £1937 for the East Midlands Region?

QrizB

Allanr said:

How for example did you arrive at £1937 for the East Midlands Region?

For East Midlands, Ofgem's ex-VAT cap values for a dual-fuel customer paying by DD are:

• Gas: nil kWh £94.62, 12000kWh £926.91
• Electricity: nil kWh £155.56, 3100kWh £971.23

The headline cap rate is for a dual-fuel customer paying by DD and using 12000kWh of gas and 2900kWh of electricity per year.

• Gas. This one is easy, the bill is £926.91 +5% VAT = £973.26
• Electricity. This is more difficult, we have the standing charge of £155.56 plus the cost of electricity, which is [29/31 of (£971.23-£155.56)] ie. £763.05 = £918.61 +5% VAT = £964.54
• Total £973.26 + £964.54 = £1937.80
  

Hope you can follow that?