Electricity rate conflusion

msknight

I'm having a bit of an odd time with EDF.

In April, I fixed for two years on the Economy 7 tariff - Fix Total Service Apr24v4 (E7) at the following rates...
Standing - 41.75p - Day - 47.52p/kWh - Night - 20.24p.kWh

The government fixed rate for South East for people on credit (I'm on direct debit, full amount quarterly, which is a nice balance between paying by direct debit, but only paying for what I use) according to EDF's PDF - www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/government_energy_price_guarantee_prices._standard_variable_deemed_and_welcome._credit_meters.pdf - is...
Standing - 42.77p - Day - 49.80p/kWh - Night - 7.85p.kWh

...in theory, I'd save on the night rate by quite a bit, as that's when our heating and hot water happen.

However... there's always a but... EDF say...
The new prices on this tariff from 1st October 2022 are: Standing - 41.75p - Day - 43.63p/kWh - Night - 16.35p.kWh
...which I can't find in the government energy price table.

Is EDF making these figures up and not applying the government cap? Have they unilaterally changed my contracted tariff without my agreement? Are there any clues as to what's going on here please?

[Deleted User]

Yes, we can help.

What you are seeing is the difference between the variable tariff that EdF have chosen to comply with the EPG cap (it's not a "government fixed rate") and the effect of the EPG discount on a fixed tariff.

Each supplier has chosen a new variable rate to match the EPG, with their own balance of day vs night, but they must be under the cap on weighted average for typical user.  That's what the 'deemed' tariff shows.  For fixed tariffs, the EPG works differently, it gives a p per kWh discount to match the same cap, but doesn't need to change the balance between day and night.  That's why your 'new' fix (the bottom numbers) have lower day but higher night than the deemed.

The effective rate of your discounted fix is 32.17p per kWh.
The effective rate of the EPG variable is 32.18p per kWh.

Neither rate is 'wrong', they just have different balances between day and night.

So to answer your questions, they have 'unilaterally' changed your contracted tariff by giving you about 4p discount on both day and night rates - that is how they have applied the government cap to your existing tariff.

You could choose to leave the fix and go to that deemed variable rate, but it is exactly that - a variable rate - initially planned to stay the same for two years, now only planned to stay the same until April 2023, and who knows what they will change next week.  It might be cheaper for you now, but there is more risk than staying on your fix - which will not go above your original prices (the first that you stated) and is guaranteed for longer.

Only you can make that decision (but I'd be staying fixed if I was in your position).

msknight

Cheers for that. Makes sense. As my fixed is "fixed" until April 2024, and with the cap ending April 2023, I think I'll stay on my fixed rate tariff. (coming off it would cost me £100 exit fee)