I must admit I was very surprised at the way it has increased so much in one year, two increases for no apparent reason.

There offer of a fixed rate was a bit of a gamble , I did not take it up and I think things will level out over the period.

I have not looked at alternatives as OVO are very good normally.

Thinking about this winters energy support these additional parts of the standing charge might be part of the reason 

• Funding greener energy development

• Government initiatives to support vulnerable households

Isn’t the standing charge levied by the national grid or whatever they’re called these days? It’s that company therefore putting up the standing charge. 

If that is so, why does every company have a different rate?

Good question 

No, it’s not National Grid. Each supplier sets their own standing charges

Just as I thought but was not going to be pedantic being a newby to the forum.

This  is my current standing charge and i cant find a single person online who is paying this much 65.40p per day. Im on a simpler energy plan if that helps. Cant understand how this can be right.

Is that for one fuel only? Electricity or gas ? Mine is 72.68p for both fuels. It does vary with region, I’m in S E England.

@damnedtemplar 

What do you see on this page for standing charges?

https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

This will be the rates excluding VAT on this page that you are paying. 

You can see the rates for your region for all tariff here to check. Just enter your post code 

https://plans.ovoenergy.com/

Are they the same? 

perfect that link really helped it appears is is correct thanks

Regional rates vary a bit unfortunately on the default variable plans. 

What you will nearly always see in the press are average unit rates and standing charges, so some regions will pay a  bit more and some a bit less.

You will also find slightly different rates across suppliers sometimes as the Ofgem price cap is a cap not a floor, suppliers can choose to offer their default tariff with lower rates.  Here is one example where Octopus lowered the standing charge last year, but they have yet to announce what will happen when the new cap kicks in on 1st July

https://octopus.energy/press/octopus-takes-stand-against-standing-charges-with-40m-package/

Good idea about their standing charge holiday.. I wonder how that went ? 

Yep, it is a very simple idea that could be expanded. 

Mobile and Broadband suppliers have social tariff, so it is not impossible for Energy Companies to introduce something similar, either mandatory or voluntarily 

Why is my more than my electric usage 

Hey @Gmelville,

Unfortunately OVO don’t offer a tariff without standing charges. There may be some other companies out there that do, so if you’re a low user it might be worth looking into switching.

These topics may have some helpful advice:

Prices have increased significantly in recent years but there is lots of support available. Please visit this page for more information. 

Could you share those with the community here. That would be helpful. 

I’m surprised several people here seem so happy to have their money bail out failed energy companies (in some cases where people with no experience of running an energy supplier have been allowed to do so), by paying the maximum standing charge allowed. 
 

What on earth happened to Thatcher’s utopian dream of deregulation (it’s a regulated industry), competition (there is no real competition when people choose to lower their usage but are then penalised by effectively subsidising higher users through the standing charge) and the operation of a free market (there is no free market when the state still has to intervene and regulate). 
 

There’s also the small issue of who owns these companies and therefore where your money and mine ends up. 
 

The utilities industry simply isn’t working in the interests of the general population. .
 

Water, energy, transport etc., along with education and healthcare are essential to the sane operation of a country. 
 

Such essential human needs should not be benefiting a few wealthy senior executives, or be so biased towards keeping shareholders on board, while transparency with customers goes by the wayside. 
 

Energy provision should go back into the hands of the people.

Long story short, re-nationalising absolutely everything probably isn’t the solution either. The public sector is already stretched to the limit and it really doesn’t need even more pressure right now.

At least the current system permits choice!

But what choice? It’s more of a lottery: which energy company will fail next?

The public services pressure you talk about is of our own making. If we stopped setting up public services to fail, they might actually work (or stopped running them down in preparation for a fire sale). 

As for the private energy sector: why do we award contracts to people with no experience running utility companies?

Other countries however seem to make it work — look at those state owned companies and global corporations that are now selling their train services, water and energy to us?

Why aren’t we a major player in the French energy industry (EDF, French government), or running lucrative train services in Germany (Deutsche Bahn, German government), or providing water and sewerage systems in Malaysia (YTL Corporation)?

I thought we were the major global player?!
 

We have already been paying a charge for increased costs of electricity due to Russia/Ukraine conflict (which did not affect renewable production - Yes, I know that electricity unit rates reflect overall costs!) 

IIRC It’s only higher for those who bundle it into the tariff itself. If you choose to have it as a separate Add-On, the Standing Charge is unaffected.

indeed.  This is all historic and you can blame utterly useless (thick) MP’s of all parties for this.  The price of electric is linked to the price of gas so even though sometimes we’re generating around 50% of electric by renewable’s we’re still effectively paying the cost of generation as if it was by gas ;o( And whilst we’re on the subject why do we pay a green levy on Electric when, as above, sometimes 50% is generated by green sources where as we pay NO green levy on Gas when hardly any gas is green!  the whole lot needs to be sorted out!  Unfortunately this shambolic government are just as  useless as the last shower.  

It's easy to blame the government but if you look into this in detail it is insanely complex and changes that would appear on the face of it to be obvious have all sorts of unexpected consequences. The current system is bad and needs changing but it may turn out the be better than all the alternatives.

they manage ok in other countries.  I wouldn’t defend the halfwits.  We pay more for electric than nearly anywhere else in the world.  World beating energy bills!