Are Ofgem Price Cap figures correct? (electricity)

[Deleted User]

Are Ofgem Price Cap figures correct for electricity?

Ofgem announced the new price cap for the period 01-October-2026 to 31 December 2026 earlier this week, on 26 August 2026.

Their 'bible' which energy suppliers appear to use is here:

Benchmark Maximum Charges for the Charge Restriction Period 15b Benchmark Maximum Charges for the Charge Restriction Period 15b

(ignore the link title - that's automatically produced - the file relates to period 17a, which is the period 01-October-2026 to 31 December 2026)

But that proved too difficult for many consumers to understand, so they produced a more user friendly version here:

Energy price cap unit rates and standing charges | Ofgem

Now if we look at electricity for the North Western supply region paid for by direct debit, single rate, we see:

According to the 'bible': (where payment by direct debit is under "other payment method")

Cost of 0kWh (i.e the standing charge) = £166.72

So that should mean the daily standing charge will be £166.72 / 365days = £0.45677

And according to the consumer friendly page it is 45.68 pence per day (so correct)

But, according to the 'bible':

Cost of 2500kWh = £828.95

So that should mean the unit costs are: (£828.95 - £166,72 [the standing charge]) / 2500kWh

i.e. £0.26489 /kWh

But according to the consumer friendly page it is 25.68 pence per kWh

Similar discrepancies can be found for all other supply regions for single rate.

Multi rate electricity appears to be correct, as are gas prices

QrizB

Following your link to the consumer-friendly page and looking at DD prices, I see this:

25.68 is the prepayment meter price:

It's interesting to see that prepayment is still somewhat cheaper than DD!

Ildhund

@[Deleted User] wrote:

… according to the consumer friendly page it is 25.68 pence per kWh

That's the figure for prepayment. For DD, it's 26.49 pence per kWh, which matches your £0.26489 nicely.

It's just too easy to go cross-eyed staring at the 'user-friendly' page. It changes every quarter as they try to make it friendlier, with little success. At least they've made it easier to download the tables as CSV, so that's what I do.

[Deleted User]

Thanks guys.

Yes it seemed like I scrolled down too far for the unit prices on the consumer friendly site, and saw the PPM prices. Got confused because the DSC are the same for DD & PPM.

Panic over.