EDF puts up electricity prices for 1 million customers

Published 01st Sep 2010

Electricity prices will go up for the first time in two years, after EDF said more than 1 million customers would see their bills increase.


An estimated 1.2 million customers will be hit by the price rise, which takes effect from the start of October. Bills will increase by 2.6 per cent, or £10 a year, from £399 on average to £409.

This is the first time that any of the major six suppliers have increased their main tariffs since the summer of 2008, and some experts warned it was an worrying sign that bills were on their way back up.

Mark Todd, director of energyhelpline.com, the price comparison site, said: "This is a very worrying announcement for energy customers and an ominous sign that we could be in for a winter of price rises. As we are just emerging from a long hard recession, renewed energy price rises are the last thing UK households needed.”

In recent weeks some small suppliers have increased their prices, while the best internet deals have been pulled from the market.

However, others pointed out that the increase implemented by EDF was directly correlated to an investigation by Ofgem, the industry regulator, into different prices charged in different areas of the country.

Suppliers have historically charged customers more for their electricity if they lived where the company originally had a monopoly – before the industry was privatised. So the Scottish-based suppliers tended to offer cheaper deals to customers in England, while London Electricity offered cheaper deals to customers living outside of the South East.

Ofgem has said companies can only charge "cost reflective" prices in different regions and the Sunday Telegraph reported in July that it was Scottish Power and EDF, which took over London Electricity, who were the two companies being investigated over their regional prices.

Experts expressed disappointment, however, that EDF had levelled out their prices by raising the bills of the 1.2 million customers living outside London and the South East, rather than cutting prices of the roughly 4 million living in London and the South East.

Anne Robinson, the director of consumer policy at uSwitch, the price comparison site, said: "As a consumer I'd be very disappointed. Yes, wholesale energy prices have crept up in the last month or so, but they are still half the level they were back in 2008 when bills went up by 42 per cent across the board.

"I thought there was potential for a price cut, rather than price rise."

A spokesman for EDF would not confirm that it was one of the companies investigated by Ofgem for its regional pricing structure but said: "These costs are charged on a regional basis and so differ from region to region. The company has taken this opportunity to better align its regional electricity tariffs, for both standard and economy 7 meter types, while ensuring its regional prices are cost-reflective in line with our licence conditions."

He added that the company lost money last year supplying energy to residential customers

Source: ' 'Telegraph' '

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