I have no clue about energy tariffs - Can anyone help

Scot_39

No imminent change.  The price cap used to change every 6 months, now every 3 months.  The last change was applied to use / bills from July 1st, the next change wont be announced for good few weeks - and wont apply to your use until 1st October.

The price cap is though quoted in various forms - when quoted in absolute pounds it is always quoted referenced to a given consumption figure or figures (even if those e.g. underlying tdcv figures arent given in all media articles etc those £ figures are quoted in).

Ofgem choose to present not only the annual ex vat tables - what they used to link as default tariff cap level tables, but figures derived from it.  And they use other payment method in those tables instead of what we consumers think of as direct debit (discounted) rates in those tables.

That is because you need to understand those tables - example as above - and apply a bit of arithmetic to get to rates we might pay as seen on bills

So standing charge [p/day] = 100 x nil kWh [£]/ 365 (? Leap year 366 ?)+ 5% for vat
Unit rate [p/kWh] = 100x (total for xx,xxx [£]- nil kWh [£]) / xx,xxx  +5% for vat
Where xx,xxx = 3100, 12000 and 4200 respectively

But it releases other figures - e.g. in quarterly letter and press releases - including what most of the media present as the energy price cap - e.g. the duel fuel median TDCV price cap - and quite often just the regional average figure - the current e.g. £1568 nominal for direct debit, £1668 for standard credit  etc.

To get to that figure from the Ofgem raw tables - you would have to do the maths above then multiply unit rates by new median tdcv 2700, 11500 etc and sc for both by 365 etc.  Or subtract out nil kWh from total  - scale remainder for tdcv vs table head consumption - then add back in nil kWh then add vat etc.  All well and good if numerate.

Using different consumption levels from the default tariff cap level tables - 2700, 11500, 3900 iirc vs 3100, 12000, 4200kWh.

But for the last couple of revisions it has also produced regional tables of the daily SC in p/day and the unit rates in p/kWh (averaged over total iirc for multirate electric / think e7) so as people dont have to do above arithmetic.

And that is also I suspect in part to clarify that the cap isn't a hard absolute cap - its a daily SC and effectively a p/kWh rate cap - use more pay more, use less pay less.

So folk can look at that regional breakdown and see what the cap means in terms of max rates - with many of the big 6 the actual rates - they should pay on a relevant variable rate tariff. 

But the figures are essentially all linked - if you like derived from the master tables - which usec to be linked as default tariff cap level - now energy price cap level - from Ofgems own summary history of the cap.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/policy-and-regulatory-programmes/energy-price-cap-default-tariff-policy/energy-price-cap-default-tariff-levels

PS prior to what we now think of as the cap from c2019 - there was also another domestic cap - the Safeguard tariff or prepayment tariff cap which came in in 2017 iirc - for certain people - not all - on prepay. Some posters are still on Safeguard tariffs - but not sure about rates.

BarelySentientAI

Eldi_Dos said:

Interesting, so a philadelphia lawyer could argue there is no price cap on consumption over 3100 kWh on a single meter arrangement.

There's another line in the legislation that says something like "total cost for any usage in a period must be below a line drawn between these two points on a graph".

It would have been so much easier if they did actually specify unit rates and standing charge!