The Government announced in its Autumn Budget that it would cut the cost of living, including by We announced in the Autumn Budget that we would cut the cost of living, including by taking an average of £150 off the costs of energy bills from April. It says this will be done by ending funding for the Energy Company Obligation scheme, as well as removing 75 percent of costs for the Renewables Obligation scheme from people’s energy bills.
Energy regulator Ofgem has now confirmed that the energy price cap for April – which limits the amount customers on standard variable tariffs pay for each unit of gas and electricity – will fall by 7 percent.
The Government says this will mean millions of households will benefit from lower energy bills and that these savings will be automatically applied to bills from 1st April, with the exact amount each household saves depending on the amount of energy used and the type of tariff.
Chris Bernkopf, Founder and CEO of Podero, believes that despite Labour’s plans to support renewable energy production, production alone will not reduce bills to pre-2022 levels. He also argues that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband already understands this, having rightly pointed to the potential of renewable energy – rather than fossil fuels – as the main, clear, solution.
“The UK is already producing significant volumes of low-cost renewable electricity” said Mr Bernkopf. “Increasingly, the constraint is not how much clean energy we can produce, but instead how effectively that energy is integrated, balanced and stored - including doing more to smooth out when we all demand it. Without smarter optimisation helping flexible assets like batteries, EVs and heat pumps draw electricity during lower priced periods - automatically, in real time - the UK will continue to experience negative pricing events, price volatility and system inefficiencies that ultimately add cost back into bills. The next phase of reform must shift from a singular focus on producing more megawatts to making better use of the ones we already generate. Optimisation and intelligent trading of flexibility can significantly contribute to stabilising prices and delivering real reductions for consumers right now, not in 10 years time.”
For additional information:
