British Gas price increase

Dackroyd

Me and the wife have just had a new bill in from British Gas ready for October 1st, with our surprise it has increase by a huge amount again! Our last bill was around £2,800 for the year and now they are suggesting we are required to pay £3,549! What happened to this price cap?! 

We are already being energy aware and cut down massively since the April hike in the fear we would not be able to afford it come October, so when the Gov stated there would be a price cap at £2.5k we was relived but only to find they ramped the price up again! 

Is there anything we can do or are we missing something? 

[Deleted User]

You are missing something.

Prices are going up.  The price in October is higher than the price is now.  The cap just sets a limit on how far the unit price can go up.

If you are using more than the 'typical' - which you are - then your total cost will be higher than the £2500.

Energy is not an all-you-can-eat buffet.

double_dutchy

Your price will only be capped at around £2,500 if you are a "typical" user, i.e. using 2,900 Kwh of electric and 12,000 Kwh of gas. If you use more, then your bill will be proportionately higher, there is no absolute cap.

Do you know what your annual usage is?

The_Fat_Controller

Yes, there is NO CAP ON TOTAL PRICE, only on unit rates and standing charges.

The mythical £2500 is for the average user with a consumption of 2900 kWh of electricity and 12000 kWh of gas.

If you use more, you pay more.

What is your annual consumption in kWh ?

Dackroyd

We expected it to drop based on the actions we have taken over this year and we are using less than last year as the images show, I am just baffled how it’s still going up and up when we are using less and less we was expecting it to stay around the same if anything,

double_dutchy

The usage shown is a little above average for electricity and significantly under for gas. Assuming you are on a variable tariff (and therefore protected by the EPG) you should pay about £1,500 for electricity and £715 for gas based on that usage, depending on your specific region.

....but you say you paid £2,800 last year, so your usage then must have been significantly higher? Perhaps BG are basing their prediction on your previous usage?

Dackroyd

And I am unsure why there is that massive spike in January 

TheGardener

@Dackroyd You are definitely not alone - almost all the people I meet at work are struggling to understand why their monthly DD x 12 = more than £2,500 or, as their bills have never been over £2,500, don't think they will benefit from the cap. Both ideas are completely misunderstanding what the cap is. 

I don't believe the mainstream press or government has made any attempt to clarify what the 'cap' actually is. 
At the risk of sounding a bit basic - energy is sold in kWh units - like petrol is sold in litres. The cap is on the unit price, not the total bill. I was paying 2.8p per kWh last winter. In April '22 it went up to 7p and on the 1st Oct it will go up to 10p (give or take a fraction)  Without the government's cap, we were looking at gas being over 50p per unit and electricity was due to hit over £1 per unit. 
People understand units of measurement for most other things in life - kilos, litres, ounces - a kWh is just another unit of measurement but up to now most of us haven't taken much notice of them. Perhaps we are all going to have to get as familiar with the cost of a kWh of gas or electricity as we are with the cost of a litre of petrol. 

double_dutchy

TheGardener said:

 I was paying 2.8p per kWh last winter. In April '22 it went up to 7p and on the 1st Oct it will go up to 33p

I think you've got your fuels mixed up there. Gas is currently approx 7p. Under the government's EPG it will go up to approx 10.4p in October (depending on payment method and region), electricity will be approx 34p

[Deleted User]

TheGardener said:

energy is sold in kWh units - like petrol is sold in litres. 

Did you not notice the kicking I got on here a couple of weeks ago trying to use exactly that comparison?

Dackroyd

double_dutchy said:

....but you say you paid £2,800 last year, so your usage then must have been significantly higher? Perhaps BG are basing their prediction on your previous usage?

That was the estimate they gave us in April of this year, and the slightly higher electricity for this year I can only think it was because we had a hybrid from Jan to April so we was charging that and we had a lot of renovations done this year so that would contribute too