Home supply and services

  • Home supply and services

    Domestic Suppliers Smart Meter Targets Updated For 2023 

    As part of its Mid-Year Review, the government is consulting on the Smart Meter Targets Framework for Year 3 (2024) and Year 4 (2025) of the revised smart meter rollout, setting out energy supplier annual smart meter installation targets on a trajectory to 100% coverage by the end of 2025....

  • Business supply and services

    Supplier of Last Resort true-ups confirmed by Ofgem

    Ofgem has published its decision documents confirming the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) true-up claims submitted by energy suppliers and the amounts it has agreed as part of their SoLR levy claim. In this week’s 'Chart of the week', we review the SoLR true-up claims.

  • Business supply and services

    The first month of the EGL against a backdrop of falling wholesale prices

    The end of January means the end of the first month of the Electricity Generator Levy (EGL). First announced as part of the Autumn 2022 budget, the EGL places a 45% tax on generation receipts above £75/MWh for non-Contracts for Difference (CfD) renewable and nuclear generators until March 2028. In...

  • Home supply and services

    With wholesale prices falling, how many domestic customers are looking for better prices?

    In anticipation of supply contracts being offered below the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), what might happen to customer switching rates? In this week’s 'Chart of the week', we look at how many domestic consumers might be ready to switch when suppliers increasingly offer contracts below the price cap supported level,...

  • Home supply and services

    A bumpy ride: Why rising wholesale prices are impacting NTS charges

    Due to the current energy crisis, consumer energy bills have been exposed to substantial increases over the past year. The recent rise in wholesale prices has had knock-on effects in many non-commodity costs within consumer bills, some of which will be baked into charges for several years to come In...

  • Home supply and services

    Market share shifts: Octopus Energy’s acquisition of Bulb accelerates growth

    On Saturday 29 October BEIS confirmed it had approved the transfer of Bulb’s 1.5mn customers, as well as 650 employees, to Octopus Energy. In this week's 'Chart of the Week', we look back over time at the two suppliers and the growth Octopus Energy has seen through organic means and...

  • Home supply and services

    “The more [retailers] we come across, the more problems we see”

    Thirty-one retailers have gone bust since the start of 2021 in the UK. At least one of those entities has a subsidiary in the Australian market (having yet to acquire any customers, according to the most recent AER and ESC data). In this Chart of the week, we take a...

  • Home supply and services

    Switching duck: electricity switches to remain subdued in the near future

    In November 2021, switching levels plummeted in response to rising tariff prices and a lack of market choice. By January 2022, domestic switching reached its lowest level on record, falling 80% on January 2021. This 'Chart of the week' checks in with the options, if any, available to households wanting...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    BSUoS charges: volatility, deferral and reform

    Over the last few years Balancing Services Use of System (BSUoS) charges have experienced significant volatility, with costs reaching record high levels which have added to the rise in consumer electricity bills and ultimately resulted in intervention in order to cap BSUoS rates. In this Chart of the week', we...

  • Home supply and services

    Domestic Third Party Charges: 2022-23 outlook

    The new energy price cap will come into effect from April, hitting a record high level which will see domestic consumers paying over 50% more per year in their energy bills. Although much of this increase is driven by rising wholesale prices, Third Party Charges (TPCs), reflecting non-commodity energy costs,...

  • Home supply and services

    No easy fix: tariff prices remain high

    In response to the unprecedented increases in global gas prices, Ofgem announced last week time limited measures “to help stabilise” the supply market. This includes a requirement for all domestic suppliers to offer existing customers the same tariffs available to new customers from 14 April, echoing changes made by the...

  • Home supply and services

    Last Resort Supplier Payments: the impact on domestic electricity bills

    The presence of a significant increase in commodity costs in 2021, combined with the Default Tariff Cap limiting the revenues that suppliers can recover in the domestic market, has contributed to a number of suppliers falling into insolvency in the last 9 months. The Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process...

  • Home supply and services

    The default tariff cap: More questions than answers?

    Throughout the recent period of wholesale and supply market volatility, the government and Ofgem have remained committed to the default tariff cap and continued to highlight its benefits to customers in protecting them from rising energy prices this winter. However, Cornwall Insight’s forecast of the default tariff cap for Summer...

  • Home supply and services

    Future calling today?

    Focus on the immediate gas price crisis has been on wholesale prices for the short-term and the imminent price caps – but what if highly volatile markets are a feature in the future and not just the present? Cornwall Insight’s Benchmark Power Curve looks at investment and operational decisions over...

  • Home supply and services

    Ticking Clock

    With the political debate regarding energy prices and their impacts on the cost of living – not to mention the economy at large – the default tariff cap announcement for Summer 2022 from Ofgem at the start of next month is the most anticipated since the cap’s inception.

  • Commercial and market outlook

    CP19 of the RO sees record shortfall

    The perfect storm of challenging market conditions has persisted across the duration of the 2020-21 compliance period (CP) of the Renewables Obligation (RO), driving a large volume of supplier exits, particularly over recent months. As the dust settles on the compliance process relating to CP19 (2020-21) of the RO, this...

  • Business supply and services

    Balancing costs exceed £200mn for three consecutive months

    High underlying commodity and carbon costs haven’t only impacted costs in the wholesale market. From April 2021 to the end of October 2021, balancing costs on the electricity transmission system have totalled £1.29bn. This represents a £301.88mn (30.6%) increase in costs over the same period in 2020, where total costs...

  • Home supply and services

    Over a third of energy suppliers have left the market

    The domestic supplier market is facing a turbulent time with high wholesale prices causing distress and a series of supplier exits in the energy sector. This week's 'Chart of the week' examines these suppliers exits and their effect on the domestic market.

  • Home supply and services

    Supplier exits predicted to trigger Renewable Obligation mutualisation

    Over the past few weeks, the energy market has been under the microscope as high wholesale prices and a wave of suppliers exiting the market has hit the headlines. Amid challenging wholesale market conditions for suppliers, they are now also facing the compliance deadlines for 2020-21 of the Renewables Obligation...

  • Home supply and services

    Domestic switching falls as the savings gap is squeezed

    With day-ahead gas reaching an all-time high of 187.50p/th as of 15 September, it has been a record-breaking summer for wholesale energy prices. This Chart of the Week explores the impact these high prices are having on domestic tariffs and consumer switching behaviour.

  • Home supply and services

    Green certificate prices continue to rise amid BEIS proposals

    On 16 August, BEIS opened the consultation ‘Designing a framework for transparency of carbon content in energy products’. This call for evidence invites views on whether the use of Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates for annualised renewable energy matching inhibits transparency for consumers, and how the REGO framework could...

  • Home supply and services

    Fail to prepare, prepare to fail – domestic switching rate dips

    The Energy Retail Market Strategy for the 2020s places consumer engagement as a key focus in the short term through to the late 2020s. To increase competition and engagement, current proposals include the introduction of an opt-in switching scheme and trialling opt-out switching to ‘nudge’ consumers and suppliers towards more...

  • Home supply and services

    900,000 domestic customers impacted by SoLR over last two years

    Across 2020 and 2019, 887,000 domestic customers were supplied by a company which exited the market via the Supplier of Last Resort mechanism (SoLR). On average, this is around 1.7% of the market per year. In 2018, 551,000 domestic customers were supplied by a company which entered the Supplier of...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Default tariff cap set to rise by at least £100 for coming winter

    The default tariff price cap for a typical dual fuel direct debit customer looks set to increase by over £100 for the Winter 2021-22 period, according to an initial assessment from Cornwall Insight’s bi-annual tariff cap predictor. The latest forecast for the cap indicates that it will increase to around...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Green hair, green branches, green skin, green tariffs?

    In this 'Chart of the week', we look at how prevalent green supply has become, unpick some of the drivers behind this, and look at the challenges now facing consumers, suppliers and policy makers confronted by a sea of green.  Over recent years, we estimate the percentage of households with...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | SoLR process sees largest supplier exit

    This January saw the largest supplier exit through Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process. Green Network Energy ceased to trade on 27 January, with Ofgem appointing EDF Energy as SoLR for its 360,000 domestic customers shortly after. On the same day, the regulator announced the exit of Simplicity Energy,...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | SoLR process sees largest supplier exit

    This January saw the largest supplier exit through Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process. Green Network Energy ceased to trade on 27 January, with Ofgem appointing EDF Energy as SoLR for its 360,000 domestic customers shortly after. On the same day, the regulator announced the exit of Simplicity Energy,...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Chart of the week | Nearly 6mn customers switched electricity supplier in 2020

    This article was originally published as part of a larger piece in Energy Spectrum, published on 25 January 2021. To find out more about a subscription to Energy Spectrum, contact Nick on n.palmer@cornwall-insight.com. This week's 'Chart of the week' discusses the latest electricity switching figures from Energy UK, published on 21...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Chart of the week | White Paper majors on fairness and affordability

    December saw the release of the long-awaited, several times delayed Energy White Paper (EWP). In this 'Chart of the week', we consider the changes the EWP has in mind for the retail market and its governance. The average household’s dual fuel energy bill in 2019 was similar to 2010. However,...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Is switching recovering after lockdown lows?

    Energy UK’s electricity switching statistics for October show that there were 591,156 supplier switches during the month. This figure is down 6% on October 2019, and is the lowest switching seen in an October since 2016. Yet, switching has reached a high for 2020 despite COVID-19, even though that high...