Energy news in general

michaels

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108487#Comment_82108487

The percentage change is always quoted based on the same usage. Simply comparing per unit pricing is a different misrepresentaiton given how much they have played about with adding what shoudl be general taxation to the standard charge.

And your suggestion that he average person in the street can understand price per unit - hmmm? (Care to do a random survey of people on what they pay for gas or electricity, I suspect very few would be able to help you beyond their monthly DD or that they put a tenner on the key card way too often)

debitcardmayhem

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108496#Comment_82108496

The answer will be too much, but hey what is an average person, indeed the average is either mean or median , perhaps the mode.

If you say the price is going up by 4% what does that mean to the reader of the Sun,Express,Torygraph,Daily Fail, or Grauniad, let alone those who get their news from Faceache,MuskX, or the bloke down t'pub. What will it be if you don't use gas, or if you use coal,oil,wood. Welcome to the real world of who gives a Ess one IT

bristolleedsfan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108487#Comment_82108487

"The gas unit rate actually rose by 27.7% but because of the 17% reduction in TDCV the gas element of the price cap rose by much less"

Calculating % increase in unit rate is not related to level of TDCV, if there was no TDCV method of calculating % increase in unit rate would be the same as would result of calculation.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/energy-price-cap-will-rise-13-july

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108496#Comment_82108496

If you were the median OFGEM consumer on which the price cap is based and used the same electricity and gas in July 2026 as you did in January 2022 then your annual bill would have increased from £1277 to £1944 (a 52% increase) rather than the £1663 (30% increase) indicated by the headline price cap which has seen two downward revisions of the TDCV over this period.

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108548#Comment_82108548

Agreed, but the price cap is affected by the TDCV.

QrizB

The TDCV used has progressively fallen as prices have risen but isn’t the fall in consumption a direct impact of rising prices. It’s like calculating supermarket price inflation based on the cost of a typical shopping basket when people are putting less in their basket because prices have gone up.

That's an interesting way of looking at it.

I'd always assumed that the main reasons the TDCVs had fallen were (a) better insulation, both privately funded and via the various ECO schemes, and (b) more efficient appliances with older pre-2000-ish boilers being replaced by condensing ones, with smaller contributions from rooftop solar and heat pumps (both available via grants as well as private purchase).

Also we haven't had a properly cold winter for a few years (there were a couple in the twenty-naughts and -tens when we saw double-digit negative temperatures here in southern England, but not yet in the -twenties).

You're probably right though that demand is price sensitive to a degree, and higher prices make people put up with worse standards of living.

I wonder if Ofgem have published anything on the reasons for the TDCVs dropping?

bristolleedsfan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108574#Comment_82108574

"I wonder if Ofgem have published anything on the reasons for the TDCVs dropping"

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-05/Review%20of%20typical%20domestic%20consumption%20values%20decision.pdf

QrizB

"All of the above" then 😀

I was hoping for a research paper, but that's good enough for this time of night.

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108590#Comment_82108590

This paper discusses the fall in consumption following the 2022 energy price shock and I believe that similar observations might be made about consumer behaviour in 2026.

Losing energy • Resolution Foundation

“In fact, falling energy use this decade can largely be attributed to a two-year period, 2022 to 2023, which accounts for over a third (36 per cent) of the fall in electricity consumption and almost two-fifths (39 per cent) of the fall in gas consumption experienced since 2010.”

Although the paper doesn’t go into detail on the most recent causes of the TDCV reductions it does point out that gas consumption fell a further 17% since the last TDCV review effective October 2023. That is a very rapid reduction. 

Another observation about 2022 suggests that (if subsequent trends continue) home energy improvements are unlikely to be a major driver of the 17% reduction in gas consumption. 

“In 2022 only 64,000 houses received energy efficiency measures from the government’s flagship insulation scheme ECO, the median energy efficiency score increased by just 1 point (from 66 to 67), the share of boilers that are condensing (and therefore more efficient) rose by 2 percentage points, and only another 0.5 per cent of households installed solar panels. It is hard to believe that changes of this magnitude can drive down median demand as much as happened in 2022.”