Economy 7 Price Cap

Ishepherd_mse

Just got an email from OVO telling me my Economy & rates are going up on 1st January. I thought the rate cap lasted to the end of March 2023.
How can they put them up - 

From

Day: 38.94p 

Night: 20.94p 

To

Day: 40.62p 

Night: 24.73p 

[Deleted User]

The way it's worked out is complicated, but essentially what has happened is the underlying price of E7 has gone up more than the underlying price of single rate electricity. The Government energy price guarantee discount is the same whether you're on E7 or single rate, though, so although the discount is enough to keep single rate electricity much the same (with slight regional variations) it still means that E7 users will see their prices go up. Just the way it is, I'm afraid....

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] said:

The way it's worked out is complicated, but essentially what has happened is the underlying price of E7 has gone up more than the underlying price of single rate electricity. The Government energy price guarantee discount is the same whether you're on E7 or single rate, though, so although the discount is enough to keep single rate electricity much the same (with slight regional variations) it still means that E7 users will see their prices go up. Just the way it is, I'm afraid....

Sometimes up and sometimes down, depending on the structure.  There are several where day goes up and night goes down.

dunstonh

How can they put them up - 
Night: 24.73p 

From

Day: 38.94p 

Night: 20.94p 

To

Day: 40.62p 

You are with a supplier that doesn't have a strong ratio towards night.   However, if you are a heavier night user, there are better tariffs. EDF for example.

dave_dph

dunstonh said:

You are with a supplier that doesn't have a strong ratio towards night.   However, if you are a heavier night user, there are better tariffs. EDF for example.

I am also with Ovo, my two year fix ends 16th January. Based on accuarte daily readings, I've costed my usage for 16th Jan to 31st March with all the other suppliers. Depending if their current tariff is still the same in January, Scottish Power will save me £235 against the tariff that Ovo will move me to next month.

West Midlands, predicted usage over 75 days:

Day = 297kw

Night = 1941kw

Ovo Simpler Energy Ec7

Day 40.26p

Night 24.48p

S/C 49.23p

Scottish Power Standard Online Ec7

Day 45.073p

Night 11.608p

S/C 49.235p

Fingers crossed Scottish Power are prepared to take on new customers at that point.

WiseDad

We're on Superdeal and OVO say the day rate is increasing from 46.78p to 55.04p!! and minor changes to night rate (25.88p) and stored rate (24.32p). so much for prices not increasing until April!  Feels like those of us with electric heating are being penalised.  I want to move to Economy 10 but no-one now wants to offer this....

[Deleted User]

WiseDad said:

 Feels like those of us with electric heating are being penalised.

You're not.

WiseDad said:

I want to move to Economy 10 but no-one now wants to offer this....

I want to move to 24 hour off-peak, but no-one wants to offer this either.

WiseDad

I'm happy to limit heaviest electricity use to periods when there is less demand (and hence lower cost), eg sometime in afternoon and overnight but now having to pay another very large increase in day rate in January that does not seem to apply to those on single rate tariffs, and then there will be the next increase in April.  Are time of use tariffs going to continue to increase every 3 months despite government support scheme?

[Deleted User]

WiseDad said:

I'm happy to limit heaviest electricity use to periods when there is less demand (and hence lower cost), eg sometime in afternoon and overnight but now having to pay another very large increase in day rate in January that does not seem to apply to those on single rate tariffs, and then there will be the next increase in April.  Are time of use tariffs going to continue to increase every 3 months despite government support scheme?

In general they are not doing that anyway.  And everyone's tariffs are likely to increase in April.

Why would a day rate increase apply to single rate tariffs?  You take an expensive day rate in order to get a cheaper night rate.  You can't have both.

WiseDad

But why are day rates on time of use tariffs continuing to increase (the January increase is another 17.6% increase) when single rate tariffs are not increasing?

Do you know how the price cap is applied to time of use tariffs?  Is it applied to some kind of 'blended rate' and, if so, how is this calculated?

[Deleted User]

WiseDad said:

But why are day rates on time of use tariffs continuing to increase (the January increase is another 17.6% increase) when single rate tariffs are not increasing?

Single rate tariffs are increasing (and decreasing).  E7 rates, both night and day, are increasing (and decreasing) - but by a different amount because the way the maths works is different.

WiseDad said:

Do you know how the price cap is applied to time of use tariffs?  Is it applied to some kind of 'blended rate' and, if so, how is this calculated?

(Day rate x 0.58) + (Night rate x 0.42) for E7 tariffs, don't know exactly how your three-rate tariff works.

And it doesn't follow the same cap, but a similar concept (the OFGEM cap minus a government EPG contribution).

January multi rate caps look like they are about 64p (region and payment type dependant), with 31.8p government discount if I remember my figures correctly?

If there was no government support, the day rate on many tariffs would be over 90p.