MSE News: Government changes how the Energy Price Guarantee should be applied to Economy 7 tariffs

moniaive1

My energy provider UW has cut my economy 7 day rate from 48p to 38p but increased the night rate from 12p to 19p!!.at this time of year I use about 800 units at night and 100 through the day this means a monthly increase of £50+.I hope they have made a mistake because I obviously will not be staying at these sort of rates.Just discovered this yesterday when I noticed the amounts clocking 
up on my smart meter monitor.Had to phone to get rates as no notification about new rates.A 50% increase how do they justify this.

moniaive1

EssexHebridean

moniaive1 said:

My energy provider UW has cut my economy 7 day rate from 48p to 38p but increased the night rate from 12p to 19p!!.at this time of year I use about 800 units at night and 100 through the day this means a monthly increase of £50+.I hope they have made a mistake because I obviously will not be staying at these sort of rates.Just discovered this yesterday when I noticed the amounts clocking 
up on my smart meter monitor.Had to phone to get rates as no notification about new rates.A 50% increase how do they justify this.

moniaive1

The justification is that the supplier simply has to make sure that your average rate assuming 58% day use and 48% night matches the current EPG rate. If it helps I'm currently paying 45p day/16p night with Octopus in the Eastern Region. It may be worth you having a look at other providers to see if there is one with a night rate which better meets your use. EDF work out well for many - I'd usually warn against them from a customer service point of view but if you're coming from UW you will probably be used to woeful customer service. 

Do remember though that you are coming up to a time of year where your day/night use ratio will show a higher percentage biased towards day use - on that basis it might be worth doing some sums and then making a decision as we near next winter around what is best to do. 

awilliamson251

Should someone with storage heRing be on a standard tarrif with Scottish Power?
I cannot get them to change my mother in laws tariff to economy seven and she is 
paying approx £150 a week for her electric. Does that mean that the changes will see her tariff change?

Spoonie_Turtle

awilliamson251 said:

Should someone with storage heRing be on a standard tarrif with Scottish Power?
I cannot get them to change my mother in laws tariff to economy seven and she is 
paying approx £150 a week for her electric. Does that mean that the changes will see her tariff change?

No, it's only relevant to the way the discount is applied to the day/night rates.

Maybe you should start your own thread asking for help with trying to get her onto Economy 7, it'll be easier to keep advice for you all together in one thread.

dunstonh

My energy provider UW has cut my economy 7 day rate from 48p to 38p but increased the night rate from 12p to 19p!!.at this time of year I use about 800 units at night and 100 through the day this means a monthly increase of £50+.I hope they have made a mistake because I obviously will not be staying at these sort of rates.Just discovered this yesterday when I noticed the amounts clocking 

If you don't like the ratio of their pricing, then change to a supplier with a ratio that suits you.   The supplier market for E7 is competitive and you can switch.     Some suppliers are pricing to target lower off peak users and others are targeting higher off peak users.   You need to be on the one that suits you.

A 50% increase how do they justify this.

It isn't a 50% increase as your peak rate has fallen.   Depending on your ratio (which you do not mention) it will be a lot less than that overall.

kernowalan

superkoopauk said:

Suppliers can still set their pre EPG day/night rate how they like as long as they are compliant with the price cap so they can easily get around this if they want

Correct. Utility warehouse have just increased our night rate from 10p kwh to 18p. As we use over 80% off peak in our all electric, no gas available household, we face a massive increase in our bill, made worse by us electric users having to shelter gas users from green levies. Incidentally per kwh electricity is already 4 times more expensive.

mmmmikey

kernowalan said:

superkoopauk said:

Suppliers can still set their pre EPG day/night rate how they like as long as they are compliant with the price cap so they can easily get around this if they want

Correct. Utility warehouse have just increased our night rate from 10p kwh to 18p. As we use over 80% off peak in our all electric, no gas available household, we face a massive increase in our bill, made worse by us electric users having to shelter gas users from green levies. Incidentally per kwh electricity is already 4 times more expensive.

....but in October when single rate users saw a massive increase you would have quite possibly seen a small decrease, which you would have had the benefit of over the high usage winter months. I'm seing a 188% increase in my night rate with EDF and use 95% of my electricty at night but not complaining at all as if you look over the last 12 months I've seen lower prices when most others have had had eye watering increases.

MultiFuelBurner

As far as I am aware a few suppliers offering economy 7 actually helped out their customer over the winter months by reducing the night rate to very low amounts.

The fact they are now bringing those night rates up and day rates down to match a time of year when many households can start to turn heating down or off in a few weeks suggests they are also helping customers out on the whole.

Maybe not the customer used to charging batteries and EV's cheaply but that was probably never in the spirit of the change in charges.

wrangler21

So thanks Martin for always championing the underdog, but since my supplier has applied the cap my economy 7 night rate has increased from 10.9p per kWh to 18. Since 85 % of my electricity is night rate it means my monthly ddi now goes up to £352. I know you had best intentions, but as Homer once said, you tried and you failed, the moral is.... Neeever try, hahaha

dealyboy

@wrangler21 said:

So thanks Martin for always championing the underdog, but since my supplier has applied the cap my economy 7 night rate has increased from 10.9p per kWh to 18. Since 85 % of my electricity is night rate it means my monthly ddi now goes up to £352. I know you had best intentions, but as Homer once said, you tried and you failed, the moral is.... Neeever try, hahaha

... indeed ... some E7 rates (e.g. EchoDeltaFoxtrot) will have gone up significantly due to the removal of supplier E7 day/night rates flexibility and guidance to suppliers to equalise EPG discounts between day and night from April 1st, as lobbied by Martin as being fair. However those suppliers (probably the majority) who were already applying the discount equally (or close to) may have made small reductions to either day or night or both rates in some regions due to some small lowering of OFGEM caps.

This change will probably not have a huge impact for some high night rate users, as it is introduced at the start of spring/early summer and forecasters have suggested the EPG will be largely irrelevant from July 1st due to lower wholesale gas prices feeding through and the market opening up with new tariffs below the EPG SVT or E7 equivalent rates. However all this could change couldn't it? it's not as if the volatility and the causes of it is now just an old bad dream, or is it?