Energy Update Issue 6 Market update On Thursday 8 September the government confirmed that support will be provided to business and public sector organisations in the form of an energy price guarantee. Specific details on how this will be applied are not yet fully available, but the government has advised that the support will take effect from 1 October 2022 for an initial period of 6 months. The government website linked here provides some additional information. Once we have confirmation on how this will impact your energy bills, we will provide a further update. In the meantime, we will continue to monitor the wholesale energy markets, forward buying the gas and electricity our customers need in accordance with our risk management strategy. This strategy has meant that, users of the ESPO Gas (192) and Electricity (191) frameworks have so far been largely protected from the considerable increases in energy costs. However, with prices elevated for such a long period it is inevitable (even with the expected government support) that there will need to be increases when rates next change.
prices are likely to increase by around 300%. These increases are because existing rates are a long way below the current wholesale market since the energy was forward purchased prior to the energy crisis. Despite the increases these rates are significantly below equivalent fixed rate contracts with the forecasted electricity price for October 2022 to September 2023 expected to be around half of what is currently available on the market. We understand that news of price rises may not be welcome, but these increases are unavoidable and we are keen to ensure our customers are kept informed. Where it is confirmed that government policy can limit any of these increases we will work with our supplier, TotalEnergies, to ensure that these are applied promptly to our customers’ accounts. Should you have any questions about the situation in the energy market and how this may impact future budget planning, please do get in touch and we will be happy to help.
As things stand, in October we expect unit rates for electricity to double and in April 2023 gas
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