In ACE’s consultation response, seen by Utility Week, the organisation claimed that the savings per customer from the proposed changes to the Carbon Emissions Reduction Obligation (CERO) element of Eco will amount to £44.90 for the 12 months to March 2015.
That is considerably more than the average reduction to energy bills the major suppliers have passed on to their customers of £32.25 for the same period.
In its response, ACE said the change being consulted on by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) is “bad for consumers, further undermines the government’s credibility, and is even more damaging to the supply chain than anticipated.”
ACE director Andrew Warren told Utility Week: “This is a windfall.
“It is money that goes to the shareholders or anybody else they choose, but it is not going to be spent on customer, it’s not going to be reducing customer’s bills.”
“This is just money in the pocket.”
He added: “We would rather this was restored to actually helping people save energy.
“That was what this was supposed to be about.”
Trade association Energy UK said: “The major companies have all already announced that they will pass on savings of between £30 and £35 to customers following a restructure of Eco.
“The cost of delivering ECO will vary from company to company but the industry welcomes further transparency to make ECO more open and easy to understand.”
A spokesperson from Decc declined to comment because the consultation is ongoing and added they would respond to the consultation as a whole “in due course”.