11 January 2012

EDF Energy rate cut

One of the UK's largest energy suppliers, EDF Energy, one of the UKs largest energy companies cuts the price of its gas bills by 5% from the 7th February

Following the mild weather this winter there is an over supply of gas in the market, meaning a marked fall in wholesale gas prices.

Only two months ago EDF increased its gas bills by 15.4% and electricity costs by 4.5%. The latter are unaffected by the changes announced today.

Undoubtedly this will put pressure on other suppliers to make similar changes, particularly after the heavy criticism the industry has come under from both politicians and consumer groups.

Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy said today "What customers want more than anything else is fair, clear and transparent prices. We know they want action rather than words. That is why we are the first major supplier to announce a cut and were the last to increase prices.”

They also said that the wholesale price of gas had fallen 9.2% since it announced it was putting up bills on 10 November last year.

Mark Bower, Managing Director of MoneyMaxim, who run the free utilites tariff service ‘EnergyMonitor' commented "We are not surprised by this move, given that smaller suppliers have already made reductions, or cancelled price increases, but it's still welcome. Normally reductions at this time of the year seemed timed to take effect after winter has passed but as we will still be heating our homes in February and March this will make a positive impact on bills for EDF customers.”

"Having just completed our latest regular review of our registered customers energy bills we are still finding that 58% of them could save money by changing either their tariff or energy supplier, and of those 84% would save over £50 by changing (after any exit fees levied by the current supplier). This is despite many moving to the then best tariff within the past 18 months.”

The MoneyMaxim recommended approach is for consumers to firstly check whether their current supplier is the best using the companies independent and impartial Energy Comparison Service.