MSE News: Energy Price Cap to FALL 12.3% on 1 April AND prepay becomes the cheapest way to pay.

MSE_James

In case you missed Martin's video on Friday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nV5BrqUSR4

Dippysdone

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

MattMattMattUK

Dippysdone said:

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

It is all explained in the Ofgem documentation, but the main elements are to invest in modernising and upgrading the network and to cover the higher default rate on energy bills as suppliers are not allowed to effectively recover debts. 

harz99

MattMattMattUK said:

Dippysdone said:

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

It is all explained in the Ofgem documentation, but the main elements are to invest in modernising and upgrading the network and to cover the higher default rate on energy bills as suppliers are not allowed to effectively recover debts. 

Quite, however as a lowish user myself, I'm also not happy that the SC is applied in such a blunt way...to my mind it should either be on a sliding scale of property size or a simple percentage of our pre vat bill amount for each fuel...the heavier your fuel usage the higher the SC.

bristolleedsfan

MattMattMattUK said:

Dippysdone said:

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

It is all explained in the Ofgem documentation, but the main elements are to invest in modernising and upgrading the network and to cover the higher default rate on energy bills as suppliers are not allowed to effectively recover debts. 

How can those both be the reasons when North West Region E standing charge will be reducing slightly from April 1st ????

MattMattMattUK

harz99 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Dippysdone said:

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

It is all explained in the Ofgem documentation, but the main elements are to invest in modernising and upgrading the network and to cover the higher default rate on energy bills as suppliers are not allowed to effectively recover debts. 

Quite, however as a lowish user myself, I'm also not happy that the SC is applied in such a blunt way...to my mind it should either be on a sliding scale of property size or a simple percentage of our pre vat bill amount for each fuel...the heavier your fuel usage the higher the SC.

How does the size of the property relate to anything? The standing charge is there to pay for a grid connection and the benefits that come from that, as well as the fixed costs, which it what it was for. 

If it were a sliding scale based on usage then it would not be a standing charge but a surcharge. There are elements attached to the unit rate as well, that scale. The current point is that no one group is directly cross subsidised*, high or low users pay for what they use, as well as a fixed amount for the improvements and a variable amount on the unit rate. Moving more of those costs to the standing charge would result in lower users subsidising higher users, moving more of those costs to the unit rate would result in higher users subsidising lower users. Lower users are generally those with solar and batteries, higher users are more often the elderly or disabled. 

*That ignores the things like WHD, but they are separate policy decisions. 

MattMattMattUK

bristolleedsfan said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Dippysdone said:

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

It is all explained in the Ofgem documentation, but the main elements are to invest in modernising and upgrading the network and to cover the higher default rate on energy bills as suppliers are not allowed to effectively recover debts. 

How can those both be the reasons when North West Region E standing charge will be reducing slightly from April 1st ????

There was a maintenance element in the North West region that fell, in a previous year the storms caused a significant number of trees to take down power lines, as that did not happen again those costs have fallen off the standing charge, so despite the rises in the other elements increasing the drop in maintenance costs was larger than the other increases. 

bristolleedsfan

MattMattMattUK said:

Dippysdone said:

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

It is all explained in the Ofgem documentation, but the main elements are to invest in modernising and upgrading the network and to cover the higher default rate on energy bills as suppliers are not allowed to effectively recover debts. 

(2) !through the unit rate only"

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-12/Energy price cap - Additional debt costs review consultation.pdf

MattMattMattUK

bristolleedsfan said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Dippysdone said:

I have just received my notification from OVO  for electricity my kWh charge is down by 12% but daily standing charge up from 49.96 to 63.33p a whopping 26% rise .  I will now be paying more than I was before the so called drop  April . I cannot reduce my variable charge much more than I have  and now more than half my monthly bill will be for a standing charge . I cannot see any justification for this enormous increase  in standing charge.  I know there was a review by Ofgen and  they must find something to deal with this situation for low users. 

It is all explained in the Ofgem documentation, but the main elements are to invest in modernising and upgrading the network and to cover the higher default rate on energy bills as suppliers are not allowed to effectively recover debts. 

(2) !through the unit rate only"

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-12/Energy price cap - Additional debt costs review consultation.pdf

That is the Additional debts element, there is also an operating costs component to the Standing Charge and that has also increased partially due to debt. 

MultiFuelBurner

DUOS charges account for a lot of the regional fluctuations as well some have reduced and some have increased.

Just for my amusement it's not worth moving house each 3 months to chase the cheapest energy.