Energy news in general

JKenH

It is interesting looking at this from a statistical point of view as OFGEM look at the median consumer. What a millionaire does in his 500sqm house or what a singleton living in a small flat does are unlikely to impact the median. My quite wealthy next door neighbour ditched his hot tub but still leaves the ground mounted floodlights on. I doubt that hot tub owners constitute the median consumer but they could, of course, have been above the median before ditching the hot tub and below the median afterwards. That could have an impact as the household
that was using 1kWh below the median as now been bumped up to be the median.

Weren’t the heated throws a reaction to the 2022 energy crisis? Yes we are consuming less but are these behavioural changes we are adopting just a short term reaction to higher prices and will consumption increase if prices fall again? I have been a lot less careful since I went onto Octopus Go in January and since March have been paying just 4.99p/kWh for the energy to heat my hot water and fill my battery. I haven’t even worried about the cost of aircon (20kWh) as except for a couple of days I have needed to buy any peak rate electricity. With export rates falling I feel less inhibited about self consuming solar.

With more EVs and heat pumps being rolled out we would expect electricity use to be increasing not dectreasing but again EV and heat pumps being users are likely to be way to one side of the median so not impacting the statistic. Possibly rolling out more roof mounted solar panels is shifting the median down as may plug in solar. LED bulbs were probably the biggest factor historically in bringing median electricity use down as everybody bought these but the low hanging fruit has already been picked.

Edit; I suspect the big driver to cut energy consumption was the email from their energy supplier telling them their direct debit was rising and at the same time consumers were told to turn their thermostats down. Hence, my suggestion that rising prices is the biggest driver of the reduced TDCV rather than wide scale improvement to the thermal efficiency of the housing stock.

michaels

Just saying, before we go casting around too far for explanations for reduced energy usage since 2021: heating degree days

• 2016: 1,960
• 2017: 1,890
• 2018: 1,910
• 2019: 1,895
• 2020: 1,805
• 2021: 1,990
• 2022: 1,620
• 2023: 1,640
• 2024: 1,745
• 2025: 1,595

Scot_39

I had to google heating degree days - a metric of average difference below 15.5C.

I wouldnt typically be heating at all at 15.5 external - but then i now run a colder house than used to and than many i suspect (16 living room/14 C elsewhere) due to increased unit rate costs.

Given recent power scares like June freq dip being blamed on ac demand - is their an opposing measure of excess temps above a threshold ?

Westertonbilly

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82109876#Comment_82109876

Just the benefits of that wonderful global warming

QrizB

For anyone keeping an eye on domestic energy debt, UK households collectively owe their energy suppliers £6 billion and this is forecast to increase to £7 billion by the end of the year.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/24/households-in-great-britain-could-owe-energy-suppliers-7bn-by-end-of-year

With ~25 million households in the UK, that's an average of ~£240 per household increasing to ~£280 per household.

Alnat1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116624#Comment_82116624

I wonder though what percentage of households actually owe money to their energy company that is considered a "debt". I'd imagine it's probably 5-10% of households who will owe considerably more than £240 each.

If only the energy companies were allowed to quickly put prepayment meters into any property that owed more than say £500, without having to follow procedures that drag on for several years before action can be taken.

bristolleedsfan

More detail of what Energy UK said.

https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/news/energy-debt-hits-6-billion/

"The latest data illustrate that over three million customers are now in debt or arrears and the average amount owed is around £1,800"

JKenH

Perhaps a slightly cynical and controversial take on this but the more we make excuses (cost of living crisis etc.) the more people will consider it ok to pass on paying their bills. Compared to previous generations there is little stigma attached to being in arrears.

Arrears are not solely a function of higher energy prices. There was a trend of increasing arrears that started long before the Ukraine war.

It is virtually impossible for a supplier to cut someone off and suppliers have to jump through increasing regulatory hoops before a pre-payment meter can be forced on a customer. On top of this the OFGEM Energy Debt Relief Scheme, while well meaning, does not discourage impecunity. Interest is no5 chargeable on utility company debt, so why rush to pay? There are several utilities schemes to reduce debt or even write off some off the debt but you have to be in debt and demonstrate an inability to pay - if you are employed cash in hand, on paper that may not be so difficult. Loopholes have long existed but it is only in relatively recent times that it has become socially acceptable (in fact encouraged on some social media sites) to exploit these to maximum advantage.

Nowadays utilities debt is almost universally regarded as an indicator of systemic failure - it is not the customer’s fault. There has been a societal change favouring those in poverty. It is almost virtuous to be in debt - it is beyond criticism in institutions like OFGEM.

I am not disputing that there are many genuine cases of hardship but it is too easy to take the soft option of blaming everybody except those who run up debt. How often do OFGEM ever point out publicly that there may be an element of bill dodging in a (small or significant?) number of cases. They don’t - because that is being judgemental. Meanwhile organisations like Don’t Pay UK encouraged people not to pay their utility bills.

There has been huge societal change in favour of those who seek to evade financial responsibility. It is hard to believe that this is not having an impact on the number of customers in arrears.

The reality is the responsibility for meeting unpaid energy bills is simply shifted from those who don’t pay to those who do; i.e. arrears end up on the bills of those who accept they have a moral as well as a legal obligation to pay for goods and services they choose to use - i.e. the likes of me and you.

Scot_39

Ofgem data charts for their debt in repayment and 90day+ arrears without a repayment plan yet in place - are still only updated to end Q1 2026.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/data/debt-and-arrears-indicators

And their total debt in repayment+90days arrears a lower £4.79 bn at end of March 2026. Up £240m in that quarter. Suspect we might see headlines soon quoting them going over £5bn at that rate for Q2.

There are over 1.1m electric customers in their arrears stats - so not yet in formal dept repayment - and 851,000 - in actual debt repayment plans (as of end Q1).

Lets call that a round 2 million - out of c29 million homes (my guess - figures Ive read vary wildly from 25m to 33m) in last couple of years.

There are lower numbers for gas - but no idea if they are the same households or not (I'd guess they would be - but only a guess) - given way Ofgem chart the results.

And the problem is we all - when Ofgem last produced the new single figure debt cost - paying £50 - to try and keep control of the growing debts of others.

Ofgem were also consulting last year - adding more debt specials - writing off debt - paid for by you guessed it other consumers. Not sure where thats at now.

Its ironic that the govt - after 2 years of EM and others policy continually loading our bills - has started to accept - at least temporarily - bills are no longer suitable place to indiscriminately recover - regardless of peoples energy needs and ability to pay - at least some green levies (but remember 25% of RO remains and other scandals like 3% on unit rates for FIT subsidies remain).

But still load the bills of all - including those getting or for those genuinely in debt needing help (the cant not the wont pay - if any) - like the 6.1m with WHD and those 0.85m in repayment if not all 2m in both Ofgem catagories - with supplier debt. WHD and debt aid - around another £100 combined (iirc £96+VAT) as of Apr 26 on the top line at cap levels.

Energy debt isnt new - the Ofgem charts show spikes in past.

The only glimmer of hope in Ofgem charts - but too soon to claim victory - given the July 13%, Oct 4% (despite 5% vat cut on electric) and others including MSE forecasting as much as 10%+ to come in Jan rises in prices - is the potential recent plateau on the numbers in arrears.

Simply passing the debt onto other bill payers arguably suits govts, suppliers and of course (if they exist in any real numbers) the deliberate wont payers.

Govts (of both hues in WM over recent decades) have loaded £100s onto the bills of all of us - including no doubt many of the 2m in Ofgem stats - over many years - like the £122 RO - the first scheme on that started 24 years ago - the last 9 years ago iirc - in GB, Eco, other net zero, WHD etc - making the problem far worse for those struggling with costs.

You do have to wonder - how much lower debt levels for many of the current 2m would be (and historically would have been) - if they hadn't.

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82109876#Comment_82109876

The Guardian article linked by QrizB in the comment below made this observation about the fall in TDCV.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116624#Comment_82116624

“The average bill under the price cap was calculated assuming lower annual energy use than in previous years, because the high cost of energy has forced many households to use less gas and electricity as debt levels rise.”