[retrotecchie]

I received my notice of new prices on 27 September to come into effect from 1st October


Original Ofgem rules stipulated that all energy suppliers must give 30 working days notice of any price changes which may adversely affect a customer. On August 4th this year, following the decision to review the cap every three months this was amended to 25 working days allowing for 5 days for the Ofgem price caps to be announced.

So, can I infer from this that although my price change letter dated 27 Sept stated that the new prices were w.e.f. 01 October, the actual date that the prices can be implemented is actually 25 working days from the date of the notice, i.e. 01 November?

[theunknowntech]

Ofgem has additional tolerances in unique circumstances. Especially ones where it wasn't able to give suppliers the usual notice period to make changes. So in this particular edge case, the 1st October was the correct date and the notice period was reduced.

[retrotecchie]

@theunknowntech

Now that is odd because I had a discussion on the phone with Ofgem themselves and their chap was very clear on the point that the 25 notice period to implement price changes stands.

Had I had a notice on or around 8 August when the cap for October was announced, or the 5 days later, all would have been fine. The price reduction because of the EPG could happily have been notified at the last minute, as that is not an adverse change.

Whereas I appreciate times are anything but normal, and I would say fair do's if the notice was perhaps just a couple of weeks, three days seems to be cutting it just a little too fine in my opinion.

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie



OFGEM announced the price caps on 26 august. to commence on 1 October. my calculations suggest that is 35 days, but 25 working days, prior to the implementation of the appropriate tariffs. So is the 25 day notification period binding on OFGEM rather than the energy suppliers?

in any event E.On Next was particularly slow in publishing its tariff prices - EDF in particular did a lot better.

The question though is really whether, in the exceptional circumstances, OFGEM will take any action. I think there is a possibility it might, because the response of the various companies was so different. I doubt very much though whether the result will have any benefit to customers, more probably a fine going into Government coffers.

[retrotecchie]

The 25 day period is binding on the supplier. Rule 23 of the licence conditions, I think.