Price cap from April 2025

t0rt0ise

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/get-energy-price-cap-standing-charges-and-unit-rates-region

wrf12345

Shocked to see it is actually in a format that can be read without a calculator, s/c seems to have gone down quite a lot for electric but up a touch for gas (yet again) when it should have been added to the unit charge for gas as a precursor for electric. 

Shedman

 Blimey you wouldn't want to be on capped Electric rate in North Wales and Mersey....    

Some really 'interesting' changes in SC and Unit rates e.g. Southern SC down by over 19p / day (approx 30%) but unit rate up by 2.26p/ kWh (9%) whereas London SC up by 4.5p (10%) but unit rate only up by 0.42p / kWh (1.6%).   Are Ofgem trialling certain regions for moving cost from SC to unit rate perchance (haven't read the whole document so maybe its mentioned)?

laidbackgjr

Shedman said:

 Blimey you wouldn't want to be on capped Electric rate in North Wales and Mersey....    

Some really 'interesting' changes in SC and Unit rates e.g. Southern SC down by over 19p / day (approx 30%) but unit rate up by 2.26p/ kWh (9%) whereas London SC up by 4.5p (10%) but unit rate only up by 0.42p / kWh (1.6%).   Are Ofgem trialling certain regions for moving cost from SC to unit rate perchance (haven't read the whole document so maybe its mentioned)?

Yes - some big regional variations - not yet found anything that has explained what's changed in the last 3 months to drive such big variations. I hope OFGEM aren't trialling this as it impacts people's pockets.

And whether you are on capped or any other tariff (e.g. Agile / Tracker) - North Wales and Mersey has higher prices than most other regions. It's frustrating when a house 10 minutes walk away from you pays 20p less sc a day for electricity that comes into the village on the same pylons!

superkoopauk

From the Ofgem summary document - not sure what distribution network costs have changed by that much 

 – From 1 April 2025, Britain’s standing charges will reduce for most households. Electricity standing charges on average will fall by 7.17p per day (12% ) and gas standing charges will broadly increase by 1.02p per day (3%) for a typical consumer. However, this will vary considerably by region, and some regions will see an increase driven by changes in certain distribution network costs which fall on the standing charge. 

jrawle

With the large cut in standing charges in Southern region, I had to check that it was worth sticking with the fix I'm on (no exit fee) and it still is! I consider myself to be a fairly low user, but the break even point is slightly less than the minimum I ever use in a month.

The moral is: people should stop banging on about standing charges, and consider the total cost. It doesn't matter whether the standing charge is high or low, as long as the tariff is the best for you.

Farway

jrawle said:

With the large cut in standing charges in Southern region, I had to check that it was worth sticking with the fix I'm on (no exit fee) and it still is! I consider myself to be a fairly low user, but the break even point is slightly less than the minimum I ever use in a month.

The moral is: people should stop banging on about standing charges, and consider the total cost. It doesn't matter whether the standing charge is high or low, as long as the tariff is the best for you.

I had to do the same, and it's still cheaper with my new supplier, Phew. 

Just the total savings are not as large as they were, but still a saving

molerat

7% increase for my region so 0.6% above the average. A 1.1p decrease in E SC with a 1.1p increase in G SC.  Gonna sting when my fix ends.

The only slight ray of hope from the BBC article

although analysts predict prices could fall in July.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl0k772lwpo

Scot_39

So DD regional average up £111  - higher than the CI predictions of £85 but they left wiggle room to at least £105  iirc including other shifts and the risk for c£20 of debt compensation being maintained.

Which far from being a temporary one off we are once again still paying £28 extra,  well those on DD and standard credit for those not paying their bills.  A charge that started at iirc £11 - and again were iirc promised a temporary Covid hardship debt related losses compensation allowance - 4 ? years ago.

Some large regional decreases in SC but bigger increases in unit rates than others will see many very low users benefit and high users punished beyond tge overarching headline 6% df  5% MR electric pc2  cap increases

In my region the break even around 1220 kWh on sr electric - on e7 average more like 1300 kWh just one third of the profile class 2 median tdcv.

So there might be some avoiding an increase at all - or more avoiding the full £111/ £51 none the less in some regions due to the balance shifting.  For others though like Mersey and NWales both SC and unit rate up - no relief.


Sadly their is little detail in the change cap summary letter behind the shift to lowered standing charges - where these have lowered (again not all regions) - just the over arching network / distribution costs for those that have increased.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-02/Summary-of-changes-to-energy-price-cap-1-April-to-30-June-2025_1.pdf

Oh and it's nice to know we are all now subsidising big corporate users due to EII to tune of c£2.78 via  unit costs at tdcv cap levels - from the linked NCC document.

TMSG

We're in the Southern region and I well remember how I howled when they increased the regional electricity SC for Jan 25. We use v little electricity so this meant a bigger increase than the (frankly meaningless) headline rate. So this change comes a surprise... first time for a long time that we'll actually pay less overall for leccy. In total (gas and electricity) our yearly bill will go down by around £45, that's almost 7%.
Having said all that I think something must be wrong with the way Ofgem calculates these charges when they can jo-jo like that with a few months. How on earth are people expected to budget for these things if there are such swings?

northernstar007

folks on the bbc news forum (hys) are having a melt down, well worth a read