Scottish Power has announced a 5.5 per cent increase to its standard variable domestic gas and electricity prices.
The energy supplier blamed the hike on rising wholesale energy costs and compulsory non-energy costs, such as delivering low-carbon electricity and upgrading meters.
It claimed these are “similar” to the cost pressures that led to Ofgem announcing a 5.5 per cent increase to the prepayment safeguard tariff cap in February.
The rise will come into effect from 1 June 2018. The majority of customers affected will be hit with an average increase of £63 on a typical annual dual fuel bill.
Scottish Power’s retail chief executive Neil Clitheroe, said: “Unfortunately our standard variable prices are having to go up. This reflects rising wholesale energy costs and compulsory non-energy costs. Two-thirds of our customers are unaffected.”
EDF Energy and British Gas have also recently raised their prices. British Gas said it will raise its SVT by an average of 5.5 per cent from 29 May, and EDF announced its SVT will rise by 1.4 per cent for dual fuel customers from 7 June.
Citizens Advice director of energy Victoria MacGregor, said: “It’s disappointing to see Scottish Power raising the price of its standard variable tariff (SVT).
“Following British Gas and EDF last week, Scottish Power also uses Ofgem’s reasoning for raising the prepayment meter cap – wholesale and policy cost increases – to justify this rise. But as SVT customers are cheaper to serve, it’s unclear why it’s necessary for their tariff to rise by this amount.”
For the average domestic customer with Ofgem’s typical annual consumption of 3,100kWh electricity and 12,000kWh gas, the changes to Scottish Power’s prices will be:
AVERAGE ANNUAL DUAL FUEL BILL (INC. VAT) |
CURRENT |
1 JUNE 2018 |
AVERAGE ANNUAL INCREASE |
% CHANGE |
| Direct Debit | £1,147 | £1,211 | £63 | 5.5% |
| Quarterly Credit | £1,226 | £1,311 | £85 | 6.9% |
Source: Scottish Power
Percentage of non-prepayment domestic Scottish Power customers on standard variable tariffs in comparison to other major suppliers:
SUPPLIER |
PROPORTION OF NON-PREPAYMENT DOMESTIC CUSTOMER BASE ON STANDARD VARIABLE TARIFFS (%) |
| SSE | 70% |
| BG | 68% |
| Eon | 61% |
| EDF | 52% |
| Npower | 47% |
| Scottish Power | 40% |
Source: Ofwat, Jan 2018