Price-cap increase 1 October 2026

Everyone on a Standard Variable Tariff, like OVO's Simpler energy, will have been warned to expect an increase on 1 October and again on 1 January 2027. Not everyone will have checked to see just how the increase affects them.

OVO's rates usually stick pretty close to the price cap, so the official tables are a good guide. They're on this gov.uk page - it's large and quite complicated, so it takes a few moments to work out what's what and how to find it: Energy price cap unit rates and standing charges | Ofgem 

Non-gas households only have to bother about the electricity prices. This is what the tables say for me in the East Midlands:

Figures in the tables include VAT.
In July-September 2026, VAT is 5%. In October 2026-March 2027, VAT is zero.

  
Using the Future Annual Consumption estimate from the Plan page, we can work out the annual cost before and after 1 October:

Before: 
1155 kWh x 23.55 p/kWh = £272
  365 days x 53.05 p/day = £194
Total:                                     £466

After:
1155 kWh x 24.05 p/kWh = £278
  365 days x 51.02 p/day = £186
Total:                                     £464

So my estimated annual cost actually goes down by an insignificant £2 including VAT as a result of the price-cap increase and zero-rating VAT.

This may be encouraging for customers in a similar situation. It could well be that it’s a completely different, and less cheerful, story when we repeat the exercise at the end of November, when we know what the price cap will be from 1 January 2027.
     

Moral of the story: Do your own sums!