Ecotricity and price cap

riotgoddess

Does anyone know what will happen to ecotricity prices as they are excluded from the price cap. I'm beginning to panic that the government two year price cap does not apply.

I've tried to talk to customer services, and all they say is they will be raising the unit price, and they are excluded from the price cap.

Cottage_Economy

I'd like to know as well.

I'm still waiting to find out if Ecotricity customers will be getting the £400 paid and how. The green energy providers are not even listed on the MSE page about it.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/08/how-energy-suppliers-will-pay-the-p400-cost-of-living-support-pa/

riotgoddess

Cottage_Economy 

Ecotricity customers will get the  £400 paid directly into our Ecotricity account. That I've found out from Customer Services. 

It's the cap that's really worrying me. We already pay double the cap, and I'm really hoping that Ecotricity has to abide to the 2 year fix. I've still got another year before I can leave.

barrowc

I've had an email from Ecotricity today which lists their new rates from 1st October 2022 (I'm in the Southern Scotland region and I'm on their Green Electricity + EV and Green Gas tariffs and not on any kind of fix):

Electricity: 50.91p standing charge per day + 34.02p per kWh
(compared to price cap: 50.66p standing charge per day + 33.81p per kWh)

Gas: 28.48p standing charge per day + 11.5815p per kWh
(compared to price cap: 28.49p per day + 10.29p per kWh)

Part of the email said this:

As October approached you may be aware that Ofgem announced an intended 80% rise in their price cap. We made our own calculations and prepared to announce a 60% rise.

But last week the government intervened - which is something we had been calling for, for many months - with a price cap of their own (called the Energy Price Guarantee). From October, the government are limiting energy bills to £2,500 per year (for an average user) and will pay the difference between that and Ofgem's price cap. Perhaps more significantly the government has said that they will do this for the next two years - which should mean this is the last price rise for two years.

I think we'll all be glad to have a break from this seemingly endless cycle.

The government intervention is worth about £1,000 a year to an average home - and it applies to Ecotricity customers.

As a result our October price rise will be 17.4% rather than 60% while OFGEM's price cap will rise 27% not 80% - that's how big this intervention is.

Our new annual price is £2,814 per year (this is an increase of 5.5% for electricity and 30.4% for gas) up from £2,397 now.

Last year we were typically about £400 per year more expensive than Ofgem’s price cap, from October it will be about £300 - as we continue to make efficiencies while still investing in new generation. That’s good news but still means we cost about £6 more per week - due to our nature as a genuinely green energy company and the investment we make in building green generation.

And though I appreciate the incredible loyalty our customers have shown us over the years and through this crisis - I would much prefer that anyone who may struggle to pay this extra amount leave us and move to a price capped tariff with another supplier. This crisis will end, perhaps in a year or two - and anyone that does need to leave now will be more than welcome to rejoin when bills are more affordable all round.

By the way, everyone is still also going to get an additional £400 discount spread out over the winter months, under the EBSS scheme.