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June 26, 2023
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Will my fixed tariff be impacted by the Price Cap from 1 July?

  • June 26, 2023
  • 31 replies
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We fixed a Drive tariff in Sept 2022 for 12 months (when Boris was saying we all just had to ”suck up” the energy prices).  Under that tariff we were paying 63.49 pence per kWh for electricity and 18.72 pence per kWh for gas..  A few days and 300 prime ministers later  the EPG was announced and so our tariff for electricity has been capped at 31.44 pence per kWh for electricity and 9.74 pence per kWh for gas since 1 October 2022.  (Our plan name on the system is  “Drive 20220309 EPG“ )  On 1 July 2023 I would like to know from Ovo what our tariff is going to be please?  We’ve had no communication from Ovo regarding this.  Will it revert to the  63.49 pence per kWh for electricity or not?  If not, what will it be and what are our options? Thank you.  Katharine 

Best answer by Emmanuelle_OVO

Updated on 14/12/23 by Tim_OVO: 

 

Ofgem’s energy price cap limits what you pay for gas or electricity on a variable rate plan. You can see the latest information regarding the price cap levels and date changes on the Ofgem site here.

 

The way energy suppliers set prices is impacted by:

 

The price cap – set by Ofgem, the energy regulator. This limits the amount customers on variable rate plans will pay for each unit of gas and electricity and sets a maximum standing charge.

 

The Energy Price Guarantee – provided by the government to help households with energy costs during the energy crisis. It’s a discount on gas and electricity prices and is in addition to the price cap. It applies to both variable and fixed rate plans. If the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) is above the level of the price cap, it won’t impact prices for anyone who pays monthly. 

 

What this means if you pay monthly for your energy

 

If you're on a variable rate plan, your unit rate and standing charge will change on 1st January, April, July and October, in line with the new price cap. We’ll write to you to let you know if this impacts you personally. Your actual bills will still depend on how much energy your home uses.

 

If you're on a fixed rate plan, the price cap doesn't affect prices for fixed-rate plans. We're keeping your prices as they are for the length of your contract to protect you from any price increases.

 

What this means if you Pay As You Go for your energy

 

All Pay As You Go prices are variable – these will change with the new price cap on 1st January, April, July and October.

 

Now's the time to send a meter reading

 

This will make sure your energy account is up to date. You can submit a meter reading now on your online account or through our app. If you’ve got a smart meter, you don’t need to send a reading. The smart meter will send this for you.

 

Priority Services Register

 

Need extra support? We can offer free help if you’re ill, have a disability or have a medical condition via our Priority Services Register.

 

Support available for customers who may be struggling with their bills

 

Here’s how you can apply for our Customer support package

Here’s our guide on debt and energy assistance.

 

Citizens Advice: Visit your local branch, or their websites: for England and Wales and for Scotland. You can speak to an adviser online, in person, or over the phone: 0800 144 8848 (England), 0800 702 2020 (Wales), and 0800 028 1456 (Scotland). 

 

National Debtline: Call 0808 808 4000 or visit their website.

 

Step Change Debt Charity: Call 0800 138 1111 or visit their website.

 

Have any questions about the price cap? See our Price Cap FAQs here.

 

Hey @juliamc@Firedog and @Jeffus,

 

I asked about this internally:

 

We don’t send Price Decrease letters, there’s no regulatory requirement to do so, however some suppliers have chosen to send marketing material to their customers about the price decrease. The communication we normally send is a Price Increase Notification (PIN) that is sent when there’s a contract change that’s detrimental to the customer.

 

As there’s no detriment with a price decrease, there’s no requirement for a PIN letter. Previously we’d give 28 days notice of price increases, this is only relevant with price INCREASES, however, even in that scenario the 28 days timing is old legislation. We are now only required to communicate within 10 -15 calendar days, given changes to faster switching that allows customers to switch suppliers within 5 days. All prices will be updated on Saturday 1st, including the Tariffs and Pricing section of the website that customers can be pointed to if they would like more information.

31 replies

Blastoise186
Super User
Super User
June 28, 2023

Community Management 101: Let the users lead the way by forging their own path, and don’t let moderators dominate everything. The community isn’t your company soapbox and it shouldn’t be treated like one by staff.

Emmanuelle doesn’t have the time to write personalised replies to absolutely everyone. If she tried to do that, she wouldn’t have time to do anything else that’s extremely important, like deal with moderation issues, raise things internally or ask for advice from internal colleagues. All stuff that can only be done by a Moderator. If we had her do personal replies to literally everything, all she’d end up doing all day is writing one or two super long personal replies while the entire Forum gets backlogged with spam and other junk. Personal replies are what the users like myself do because that’s the purpose of the community.

The way that Emmanuelle and the other moderators here respond is pretty standard across just about any Community Forum where the primary purpose is to provide Community based peer-to-peer support. I myself have written probably hundreds or even thousands of answers that don’t require OVO to step in. I’m even in a community chock full of community managers run by the forum provider inSided - and we still help each other out on a peer-to-peer support basis over there with inSided staff floating around to check on things.

If you need or want a personal and/or official reply from OVO, I will re-iterate this Forum is not the place for that. You need https://help.ovoenergy.com for official responses that are personalised based on what OVO can see about your situation. What this Forum is about, is customers helping each other and having discussions out in the open. There’s also a lot more that happens here, like the Ideas section https://forum.ovoenergy.com/ideas which does get official responses from OVO when an Idea is accepted, progressing or rejected. And there’s also the Groups section which has at least six different use cases right now.

We use our experience and judgement to decide how to respond or answer a question. If we can help/answer it here ourselves, we will. When we get unique puzzles (we love a challenge!), we’ll aim to solve them. If we feel that a DNO or Gas Transporter might have something to say, we can reach out to them to get general thoughts and advice to pass on. If we (usually, but not always, the forum volunteers and moderators) think it’s something that could benefit from an official response from OVO, there’s a way we can ask for that to be considered. But if it’s an account-specific matter, we can’t handle those here for legal/GDPR reasons and will signpost the user to OVO Support.

It’s obvious that you haven’t read many questions. Here’s a really good one that I can easily counter your claims with - it really was one that OVO couldn’t touch because Business/Non-Domestic Supplies (which is what giant schools come under) are out of scope for a Domestic-Only Supplier like OVO. Also, this guide is literally one of the most viewed threads on this Forum ever. So much so that OVO actually then re-used it for their official blog and it’s also saved thousands upon thousands of users from ever having to ask any questions. I wrote that entire thing pretty much by myself with very little input from OVO and still managed to nail it pretty much first time.

If you have a problem with the way this forum is moderated or the conduct of staff (or volunteers) here, I encourage you to send an email to forum@ovoenergy.com to discuss it privately with the Forum Administrator. The Administrator will make the final call in such cases. All I ask is that you avoid calling out such matters publicly, as it makes that person feel bad.

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