ofgem

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Beautiful butterfly? Ofgem plans out Retail Energy Code

    More clarity has been provided on how the Retail Energy Code (REC) is set to evolve over time to support the move to faster and more reliable switching. In this Chart of the Week, we look at Ofgem’s recent consultation on its plans for this new code

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | How low can you go? The price cap to fall by £77/year

    Just over two months after the default tariff cap was increased for summer 2019, our thoughts have turned to Ofgem’s 1 October winter 2019-20 adjustment to the cap. The start of May marked the start of the second half of the data window for wholesale costs in the cap formulas....

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Come what May – sector activity ramps up before summer

    May has seen a number of notable developments within the industry. By coincidence – or perhaps due to various parties not wanting their deadlines of “spring” to slip into “summer” – a number of workstreams hit significant milestones this month. In this week's Chart of the Week, we explore some of these major...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Keeping busy: Industry workstreams mount up

    Change has always been a constant of the energy industry but the number of major workstreams underway in recent months is extremely high. This week’s Chart of the Week analyses in more detail some of those facing market participants at the moment, including licensing reform,  BEIS and Ofgem's joint review of code governance, the...

  • E-mobility and low carbon

    Pixie Chart of the week | UKPNs’ Optimise Prime to deliver range of benefits

    UK Power Networks’ (UKPNs’) Optimise Prime project was awarded £16.4mn from Ofgem’s Network Innovation Competition in November 2018. The project aims to understand the charging patterns of commercial (fleet) electric vehicles (EVs) and their impact on networks. In this Chart of the week, we look at the project in more...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Per capita: DCC forecast costs continue to grow

    The Data Communications Company (DCC) continues to see its costs grow despite pressure from the regulator. Ofgem issued its decision on the DCC’s 2017-18 price control on 27 February, revealing an upward trend in both DCC’s costs incurred and its forecast future allowed revenue.

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Faster switching or more reliable switching?

    For years Ofgem has sought to make switching faster and more reliable on the basis that doing so should encourage customers to change supplier. Its programme of reforms in this area are in an advanced state, working towards reliable next day switching by summer 2021 for domestic customers. The “faster”...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Mind the gap between default and fixed tariffs

    The first three months of Ofgem’s default tariff cap are nearly at an end. Introduced by the regulator with a claimed typical saving of £76/ year from 1 January 2019, the cap is to increase effective 1 April 2019 by £117/ year for its six-month summer period. The final weeks...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Run like the wind: the benefits of faster settlement

    The Design Working Group (DWG) has delivered its preferred Target Operating Model (TOM) for Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) to Ofgem, outlining how settlement arrangements could be reformed to bring benefits to industry and consumers. Settlement timescales will be reduced significantly, and here we look at the benefits that this could...

  • Low carbon generation

    Chart of the week | 999 – What’s your residual?

    In this week’s Chart of the Week we look at how Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review (TCR) proposes to charge network residual costs – those relating to the sunk costs of the network – through fixed or capacity charges. The rationale is that these costs should not be driving behaviour, as they are not...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | I’m Still Standing: Medium suppliers lead acquisitions

    Ovo Energy’s acquisition on 11 January of Economy Energy customers via Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) mechanism mean that over 1.2mn energy accounts have now moved via the process over the last 12 months. This was Ovo’s second SoLR acquisition after taking on Spark’s customers in November 2018. Ovo...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Switching standards suggest significant supplier spend

    Having consulted on proposals to introduce new Guaranteed Standards (GS) to improve the switching process. Ofgem has decided to implement four of seven GS from Spring 2019: GS B requires suppliers to agree whether a switch is valid or erroneous within 20 working days of identification of a possible erroneous switchGS D requires whichever...

  • Regulation and policy

    Pixie Chart of the week | Pinpointing potential generation-dominated areas

    In a recent consultation on options for forward-looking charges, Ofgem proposed to introduce the concept of Generation and Demand Dominated Areas (GDAs and DDAs) in the Common Distribution Charging Methodology (CDCM). The CDCM governs the distribution charges that low- and higher-voltage (up to 22kV) connected users see and currently applies...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Ofgem broadens its approach to compliance

    The processes whereby Ofgem ensures licence compliance has evolved in recent years. The regulator has made efforts to increase the transparency around its enforcement action, shorten investigation times, and direct financial penalties for non-compliance to affected consumers. It is also apparent that Ofgem is flexing its regulatory muscles more than...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | SMETS1 end date slipping through BEIS’s fingers

    This week's Chart of the week looks at the delays to the end of SMETS1 installations in favour of the new SMETS2 smart meters. To ensure the greater benefits SMETS2 offers BEIS proposed an end date on SMETS1 installations. After which the installation of SMETS1 meters would no longer count...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Objection your honour – judicial review decision confirms Triad benefit cut

    Distributed generators will have greeted today’s dismissal by the High Court of a judicial review into Ofgem’s decision to change electricity transmission charging arrangements with dismay. Changes to transmission charging rules, introduced on 1 April 2018 following the implementation of the CUSC modification proposals (CMP) 264 and 265, has drastically...