Ofgem says recent actions will save consumers £17bn 

Ofgem expects consumers to save more than £17 billion due to actions taken by the regulator during the 2017/18 financial year.

The headline figure, revealed in an annual report, consists of £7.8 billion of direct benefits, £8.8 billion of indirect benefits and a £542 million reduction in funding for networks companies.

A majority of the claimed savings – £9.3 billion in total – relate to the operation of networks.

Network charges will fall by £345 million after Ofgem removed the associated spending allowance for a cancelled scheme to increase the import capacity of the Fleetwood entry point to the gas transmission network.

They will also be £197 million lower as a result of other adjustments to the price controls for transmission and gas distribution as part of a mid-period review.

Most notably, Ofgem said between 2022 and 2046 consumers will receive £8,776 million of benefits from its decision in principle to allow three new electricity interconnectors to operate under the cap and floor regime.

The regulator said these will take the form of lower power prices, increased decarbonisation and security of supply, and payments as part of the cap and floor arrangements.

In the retail sphere, Ofgem said its actions would shave another £186 million off bills.

This includes: £40 million between 2018 and 2035 as a result of new switching arrangements; £128 million during the current year due to an introduction of a safeguard tariff for the one million customers who receive the Warm Home Discount; and £18 million between 2018 and 2020 following the introduction of new supply licence conditions for the installation of prepayment meters.

On top of this, Ofgem said its cuts to triad avoidance payments will benefit consumers to the tune of £7,582 million between 2021 and 2034.

Last of all, the regulator highlighted its enforcement and compliance actions which it said will return £19 million to consumers through compensation, fines, redress payments to charities and avoided costs.

In a separate report, Ofgem said suppliers will pay out £15 million as a result of the three investigations and four compliance cases it closed during 2017/18.

More than two-thirds of the total will come from British Gas – £9.5 million for breaching licences conditions relating the handling of complaints and switching, and £1.1 million for failing to provide compensation after missing appointments.

Meanwhile, Utilita refunded £3.61 million to customers for failing to correctly implementing price cuts for some smart meter customers in accordance with the new safeguard tariff for prepayment meters.

SSE was required to make £670,000 of compensation and redress payments for failing to move customers onto a fixed price or evergreen tariff within 49 days of the ending the tariff they were previously on, as required by the supply licence.

E (Gas & Electricity) was obliged to make payments of £260,000 for conducting insufficient background on its sales agents, who did not meet requirements for properly identifying themselves to customers.

And Eon paid out £21,000 for wrongly telling customers they would be charged exit fees if they switched supplier during the “switching window” spanning the last 49 days of their contract.

The only case not to conclude with a formal enforcement action was another investigation into SSE which found the supplier had not breached its licence conditions as a result of problems with its procedures for switching customers onto prepayment meters.