Commenting after Ofgem announced the price cap for July-September, Ned Hammond, Energy UK’s Deputy Director, Policy (Customers) said:
“Today’s announcement confirms the anticipated rise in customer bills resulting from the conflict in Iran and its effect on wholesale gas prices.
“A rise of this scale will already be a concern for millions of customers but such worries will be magnified if bills remain at this level – or higher – over the winter months. So the Government must now focus on how it can best target support later in the year to those customers most in need – in addition to the help suppliers already offer.
“It’s another unwelcome reminder – coming too soon after the last one – of how our country’s high dependence on gas leaves us exposed to price spikes we can do nothing about resulting from conflicts thousands of miles away.
“It underlines why the only route to stable and predictable bills – and ensuring energy security in an unstable world – is to continue growing our own sources of clean power. In fact, the growing contribution of renewables and other low carbon power over recent weeks means that electricity costs have not risen by as much as gas. So it is essential that we continue to invest in the clean power future that will increasingly protect billpayers – and the wider economy – from a repeat.
“Electrifying more of our homes, transport and businesses, partly through faster deployment of the Warm Homes Plan, would not only leave customers less at the mercy of gas prices but also help spread fixed system costs across greater consumption – and hence reduce electricity prices for individual bill payers. The Government should look at removing more of the policy costs that make electricity artificially expensive to both cut bills now and give customer much stronger incentives to adopt new technologies, creating a virtuous cycle as electricity usage rises.”