Prepayment price cap level: 1 October 2018 to 31 March 2019
Decision
- Publication date
- Industry sector
- Supply and Retail Market
The document below sets out the level of the prepayment price cap, which will apply for the period 1 October 2018 to 31 March 2019.
We extended the prepayment price cap to a further one million vulnerable customers in receipt of the government’s Warm Home Discount on 2 February 2018 (under the label of a ‘safeguard tariff’). Customers who get the Warm Home Discount and are on a standard variable or default tariff are price protected at the level of the prepayment price cap for these tariffs until the end of 2018, after which they will transfer to the default tariff price cap.
We have provided two spreadsheets which show, for the restricted charging period, how we have:
- calculated the network charge component of the cap
- used the network charge and other inputs to get the final level of the cap
These spreadsheets are updated versions of the illustrative price cap model and network cost calculations spreadsheet previously published by the CMA.
The levels of the cap are expressed in pounds, excluding VAT. They are described for two levels of consumption for a customer that:
- does not use any energy
- uses an assumed amount of energy ‘m’
We get the level of the cap for all other possible consumption levels using these two values. Note that the levels of consumption ‘m’ are not the same as the current typical domestic consumption values, which are commonly used to calculate a typical annual bill.
Guidance for energy customers
If you are an energy customer trying to find out your capped tariff price, please contact your energy supplier. You can find their contact information on an energy bill, or see Who is my energy supplier? You can also find answers to frequently asked questions on our consumer FAQ page.
Further guidance for suppliers
Prepayment tariffs
Suppliers looking for additional guidance on how to use these values to ensure that their prepayment tariffs comply with the cap should refer to the document on our page Prepayment price cap - reporting template and FAQ.
Warm Home Discount
Suppliers looking for additional guidance on how to use these values to ensure that their tariffs comply with the cap for customers receiving the Warm Home Discount should refer to the document on our page safeguard tariff (Warm Home Discount) - reporting template.